Life is not the way it’s supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference. ~ Virginia Satir ~

It’s been almost 11 months since I went under the knife and the Noggin’ was invaded by a scalpel to either “cure” or lessen the effects of Migraine and Occipital Neuralgia. I probably should have checked in before now, but alas. I wanted a better benchmark as to how surgery has actually gone before posting an update.

After a few months of recovery and taking things slow, I began to creep back into life rather than existing in a plane of pain and suffering.

Am I migraine free? No.

Am I better off than I was at this time last year? YES!

I am down from an average of 25 migraine / occipital neuralgia days a month to around 5 days a month. This month, for a few reasons from weather to overwhelming stress from other issues I am dealing with, I have had a bad migraine spell. It’s on the mend now, but Sunday during the snowstorm, it came barreling in. By Monday it was a full-blown nightmare lasting through Tuesday. It started feeling better yesterday, Wednesday, but I had to leave work a bit early to take some more medicine and get some rest.

Despite that recent migraine spell, I have been doing tons better. I have been able to get back to the gym and have been working out 4-5 days a week. I have been more present at home and have been able to get some things done that I couldn’t have dreamed of having the fortitude to do a year ago. I’m not missing nearly as much work (aside from this week) and have been more productive than in a long time.

The best thing of all is the gift of hope I have received through this. For quite a long time, my world felt dark and this surgery was my last chance as all of the other treatment options had failed. I believed if I could get a 50% reduction in the number of migraines and occipital neuralgia flares, it would be worth the time and cost of surgery. As of today, I have an 80% reduction in attacks and symptoms. 80% is amazing.

I encourage every migraineur to never “settle” for what doctors say can be done. I literally went through the entire migraine pharmaceutical protocol list, OTC’s, Botox, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Acupressure, and so much more. I have walked that walk and today, I’m a much happier person for walking this “new” path.

From the bottom of my heart, a sincere thanks to my family, friends, the staff at UTSW and Dr. Amirlak.