Hi there,

I went to a pain management dr for my neck. Also had pain behind rt eye. The dr burned (ablated) the greater occipital nerves. I was living with headaches/migraines daily. Actually I had no life. I mostly lived in bed.

He started on the left. He injected a numbing med on the left. I had to pay attention for four hours after and let him know what percentage if any it improved the pain.

Let him know at follow up visit. A week later they repeated the injection to see if I got the same result. Two weeks later I went in for the follow up to let home know. Two weeks later I had the ablation.

Then the whole process on the right side began.

On each side I had injections down C3-C7 I believe. And the burning followed this also.

Numbing shots uncomfortable and painful but doable. I took xanax before each except the first one. I opted not to be sedated for the ablations. I took .5 xanax before both. I was afraid to have my brain exposed to something stronger. If the is a next time...I will go for sedation. 😳

Each procedure was about 10-15 minutes. Numbing shots take a few days to heal from as they go deep into the tissue. The ablation on the left took 5 weeks and the right took 8. It's an intense sore feeling the first two weeks like someone hit me with a sledgehammer on the back of the head and upper back. There are sharp pains and burning.

I still get burning, sharp pain every now and then and stayed numb to some degree for 3 months with itching that can't be scratched.

Would I do it again. YEP! But sedated for the ablations. I'm out of bed and am 50-60% better on left and 75-80% better on right. Eye pain is gone too.

Good luck to you and I hope your pain is gone very soooooon!

Jenna