August 17th 2021 archive

Nerve blocks and me: a thing that is not working.

I got my first nerve block on the left side of my head at the occipital nerve for migraines.

One day I will be able to spell that. Getting back to what I wanted to write about, though…

It seems that these hit and they miss. For some people they work amazingly well and they only need them every four to six months or so. Other people need them like… every two weeks if their insurance approves it, but they help. And for other people, they do not work for a myriad of reasons. Sometimes the nerve gets nicked and that causes problems. Other times, the nerve block intermittently does not work. And then sometimes the nerve block just plain does not work at all. On the worst side of my head, I feel like I am between it intermittently not working and it completely not working. I put myself back on prednisone since that has a history of helping with migraines, particularly migraine clusters, even though that was the last thing I wanted to do… and it made things bearable. I seem to be someone for whom these do not work, although I am going to give them the requisite week to see if things turn around and my migraines become more bearable. If that does not work on either side, I will discuss giving them more often with my pain management clinic to see if that makes them “stick”, and if that does not work, I will ask about excising the nerves. X-rays that I have had done have confirmed that they are the problem, especially the right one.

There are still some things that can be done to help ease my migraines. I am willing to explore all of them.