A quick update: They’re going to shave my head? OMG!

Long story short, I am going into hospital on Monday to have surgery done on my neck to release my occipital nerves. I suffer from extreme, debilitating occipital neuralgia. It originates where your skull meets your neck. It gets so incredibly tight and causes all the muscles to spasm. Hell, even your scalp hurts. Literally. Also your face and especially your eyes! He examined my neck and was, like all medical professionals, horrified by the amount of pain I must be walking in. He decided to give me a morphine cocktail in his room. It helped for a day but it didn’t break the pain. Let me give you a visual idea of what’s going to be happening.

Here is a great video because it explains Occipital Neuralgia and the nerves in your occipital region but also shows where I experience muscle and connective tissue pain. Watch the video here if you are interested. Perhaps you suffer from what you think are migraines but maybe they’re not.

In doing my research… I realised they are going to shave the back of my head! I guess it’s a small price to pay for the relief I hope to get. It is going to be worth it in the end. I know the surgery itself is 2 – 3 hours because it’s quite intricate and let’s face it… we’re dealing with nerves. In your neck. There are major risks attached but I am desperate.

He will also be killing off my C6/C7 nerves in my neck and possiby 1 or 2 nerves in my thoracic area. These discs have given me problems for 14 years. They have literally taken away my ability to use a computer/laptop. The pain that is caused when those nerves are activated is crazy. My shoulders go into complete spasm that horrifies medical professionals. So something has to give. We have to try permanently killing these nerves to see if it will give me relief. Hey, I will even settle for 50% release!

I went for physio two days ago. Get some electro shockwave going. She had to crank that machine that pummels you and shoots sparks up to its highest. It was vibrating so much the pipe kept coming out! It did help some of the tense muscles but here I am. Still, in such an extreme pain flare I can hardly function. I have a sweet spot in the day when all the meds kick in at once and I try and do as much as I can. Even if I have to pay for it later!

So, Monday … Please think of me. Send me your prayers, good vibrations, manifestations… all of that. Everything. This is a particularly scary one. With my last op, one of the first things I did was check that I had feeling and could move my limbs. With these ops, there is always the risk of cutting the wrong nerve and leaving someone lame. Oh, Joy.

There are so many things I want to do to prep for the op. You know fresh bedding, stock up on easy food (no more ready-made Woolies meals for us now that we are doing FODMAP) do some washing… You know, make it easier on hubby. Nope, can’t happen. I’m in too much of a pain flare. I must however find a way to wash my hair because Lord knows, I’m going to be using dry shampoo again!

I literally cannot wait for him to cut this muscle and connective tissue!!!! I mean a morphine cocktail and serious physio electro shockwave session have not helped to break the pain. The skin on my neck is burned already from my heated bag. It’s literally one of the first things I do when I wake up. Starting warming that bag, and it continues for the rest of the day. Hell, it’s on right now!

All I know is that after 14 years I think I deserve some reprieve. People say I’m brave. I’m not sure this time….. but it will all be worth it in the end! Right?

I know I’ve been a bit M.I.A but even though I push through it is really hard for me right now. I am going to have an amazing comeback! I promise.

Don’t forget that if you want to listen to the audio or share with others, I will make the audio of this blog available on Spotify so you can listen to it in the car or while you’re cooking, etc. I would really appreciate your support for my Spotify account.

I have exciting things coming on my Podacast. I just have to get my pain under control first. It’s taken me a week to type this. Using a computer/laptop is one of the main culprits. Ergonomics or not. It causes me such pain. But let me go order some bulk dry shampoo in prep for next week. I just finally fixed my eyebrows and now I’m going to be going back to looking like a little Gremlin.

Sending you light and love.

Stay safe everyone!💜😷