Hello,
My name is Paul, im 18 and live in the bay area of California.

3 years ago I was brutally attacked, dozens of stomps to the head etc, and 2 years later I began getting terrible sharp head pains.

4 monthes ago a few doctors agreed that my condition could probably be Occipital Neuralgia, they believe I have severely damaged nerves in the back of my head causing me tremendous pain that my medication is having a hard time supress.

Im currently taking high doses of Neurontin to try to supress the nerve pain, it works usually but lately has been not so effective. I have done research and sought the possibility of severing the damaged nerves to eliminate this nightmare that iv been dealing with for the past 3 years.

Has anyone gone this route or know any information on my condition that could be helpful in my decision? Honestly the pain is unbearable for me, its causing me serious depression issues and im just tired of hurting, the thought of this all ending is like a dream to me.

Hi PP, and welcome to NeuroTalk! This is a great place to hang out, with lots and lots of friendly, caring and helpful people!

We're glad you found us!

I am posting links to the Occipital Neuralgia and Chronic Pain forums to get you started here. There will be people there who know what you are going through.

I wish you all the best.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum105.html

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum10.html

Hi Hon.

I would like to introduce myself and give you a big friendly hug. I think you really need one.

I really feel for you, and I hope that you can find the right combo of meds so you can be relatively pain free. One can only hope.

My husband has a condition known as Neuropathy and in the past, his pain was so severe that he went on the Fentanyl Pain patch.

What are you taking (besides Neurontin) for the pain.

Has anyone told you about the Fentanyl pain patch? It's made by Duragesic. It really worked for my husband but he got used to it and (well, this was 7 or so years ago), and he was up to 125 of the patch, and because he went to a chiropractic neurologist, he was able to be weaned off the patch.

I don't know where he would be today if he still had to be on the patch because you an only go so high on it.

I hope you find your answers. You sound like a lovely person. And I am so sorry that this happened to you.

Just wanted to give you a hug. (I'm a mom also).

take care...

Melody

Hi Paul

I just wanted to let you know that my daughter has been suffering with Occipital Neuralgia for nearly 9 years. Last year she had a radio frequency abrasion which didn't work then she had nerve decompression done on both greater Occipital Nerves. This worked for about 4 months then she began having trouble again. We thought it was migraines but the Occipital Neuralgia came back. We are scheduling her for severing of both nerves now. We hope to have the surgery in the next couple of weeks. She is in constant pain which keeps her bed ridden most of the time. We are hopeful that this will take care of her trouble; if not there isn't anything left for her to try. I hope you can find relief for your problem soon, I know how devastating this can be. Good luck and keep putting pressure on your doctors, most of them just don't sense the urgency of your plight. Keep us posted on your progress.

Paul D.

Hi,

So sorry you were attacked like that. That's so terrifying. I hope the attackers suffered some consequences for their actions. So often I feel there's no enough justice for what they've done in their short act of violence to cause damage to another person.

You and the other girl's condition sound pretty bad. I pray you two find good medical care and get pain relief.

For me, pain patterns did change. it took many, many years to get to tolerable. Now it's a very low aggravation. I went through a lot of different things, trying many things that I thought would help.

For now, you have to do what you have to do. Yes, there's a likely potential for drug addiction on pain meds for chronic pain suffers. so if there's a procedure that works, I say go for it. If it's an ify thing, be very cautious. I've found anxiety causes me a lot of distress. It's better you do some research and see what your options are, which NT is a great place to start your research.

Sometimes we just don't have good choices. You're young. just be aware that it can happen to the best of us. I personally don't have a very strong willpower so I had to be very cautious. I also suffered a lot by not taking more and stronger pills or patches. Nine years later, it worked out semi-okay. There's also your body's response to pain and no sleep because of pain and depression because of what pain does to your life. That's not good for your health either.

Keep us posted.

(Broken Wings)

I just attended a chronic pain conference which discussed this new approach... occipital nerve stimulation.

http://www.healthcentral.com/migrain...-255814-5.html

You might want to Google this topic too for more info.
I am not sure it is commonly available yet, however.

welcome to neurotalk ... there are lots of friendly and supportive people here so jump right in and start posting ... should you need help, don't hesitate to ask someone ... we are here to help ... hope to see you in some of the forums ...