I am so sorry there have not been more replies to this thread. I have been out of pocket. I had Tn and had several MVD to fix this nerve, but unfortunately my occipital nerve was shredded during first surgery and created ON. it did fix my TN.
I had a stim unit placed on Sept 15 for my ON. I was very lucky, my insurance approved it. keep appealing and working towards a stim. I too had the same 2 choices of having a stim placed or having the occipital nerve cut at it's origin. I met a spoke with a woman who had this nerve cut and had a horrible outcome and is much much worse and very much regrets this surgery. I know ther have also been good outcomes with this surgery,but I was too scared of having my nerve cut. I also probably know I would have consented to itif my insurance had denied the stim surgery and I had exhausted all my appeals. My surgeon told me the statistics for cutting the nerve are not very good. you have about a 20% chance of your pain not being helped or being left with much worse pain. not good odds when you are talking about your quality of life.
My stim is wonderful. it is taking away about 70% of pain. the pain is still there and I have good days and bad days where pain comes thru the stim. I am still learning how to best adjust the stim and use it most effectively. I would recommend the stim to anyone. it has given me back my life. I am driving again, haven't done that for almost 2 years and I am starting to enjoy normal everyday things. last week I actually went sailing with my hub two times for a short afternoon sail. I had almost forgotten how to sail and never thought I would be able to do this again.
the surgery is very easy compared to a lot of surgeries. I had had 3 surgeries this past year before having the stim placed, 2 of these were craniotomies of MVD. the stim surgery was nothing compared to the other surgeries, but they are still surgeries and you do have surgical pain and have to recover.
I cannot recommend the stim enough for someone with facial nerve pain or ON. I will be glad to answer any questions or help anyone, but it may take me a few weeks to answer because I am going on a vacation at end of week with hub for 2 weeks.
lisa