What was/is the cause of your nerve pain? That’s if you know the cause... Whether it be Occipital Neuralgia, or any other neuralgia, I was wondering what happened in the first place, that gave you that horrible nerve pain?
In my case, I have O.N., which my NS says was probably caused by the surgery I had to fenestrate an Arachnoid Cyst. They had to go in through the back of my neck, past the spine. (and, in doing so, damaged the left Occ. Nerves!).
Anyway, the nerve pain came and went over the last 11 years, (I had a few good years with very little pain) but it returned with a vengeance 2 years ago. It seemed strange that it would get worse after all this time, but I discovered I had developed osteo-arthritis in my neck (and in every other part of the body as well!) in recent years, and now that seems to be contributing to the nerve pain. So, I guess you could say that I have 2 probable causes of my O.N.!

~Jaime~