@stonewheel

Vascular medicine and neurology go together. In other words, blood vessels and nerves tend to be in close proximity to each one. When arteries get swollen and inflamed they tend to compress nearby nerves. I assume this can happen with occipital neuralgia.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/occipital-neuralgia-symptoms-and-treatments.
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The brain stem is where many nerves and blood vessels converge in a very small space. My brain stem was where my surgery for trigeminal neuralgia was. It is called Microvasular Decompression (MVD) surgery for a reason. The surgery can only be done under a special high powered microscope with specialized micro-instruments.

The unfortunate thing that was discovered during my MVD surgery was my trigeminal nerve and nearby blood vessels were not merely running together. A blood vessel was running through my trigeminal nerve in places and couldn't be separated.

My neurosurgeon conceded that prednisone was helping the inflammation and swelling in the area. Because the blood vessel was piercing and woven through my trigeminal nerve, safely separating them during a Microvascular Decompression (MVD) surgery without causing major nerve damage was impossible.