Occipital Neuralgia: What treatments work for you?

Thank you so much for posting your experience. I'd love to know more. Was it done in an office or outpatient? How long did it take? Were you anesthetized for the procedure? Were there any after effects? I'm so excited to hear about something that was actually effective!

I had occipital headaches from a couple of head and neck injuries. I see a pain management doctor who has successfully done two radio frequency ablations for me. The first was good for two years. I'm in my second year now for the latest one.

Hello Amanda and @carenr. So sorry I took so long to see this! Please forgive. I write today to let you know that I am sick, some virus probably, and won't be able to give you the help you deserve, until I get better. Many blessings to both of you. Welcome @carenr!! I know you will find the support, encouragement, inspiration, empathy, caring, education and so much more here on Connect that I have. Warmest wishes, Sunnyflower. 😊🙏🌹🤕

If your next visit is not soon, you might want to do a little research and reach out to your doc via their patient portal or a pone message in the interim, and not wait. My daughter is a telemed nurse, and routinely advises patients to do this if their next visit is more than 2 weeks away. If you get started now, you may be able to report positive results to the doctor on your next visit, or ask for more suggestions.
Sue

I’m not familiar with these items but will definitely ask about them at my
next appointment. Thank you so much for the suggestion.

@authorchris it may be worth asking your doctor if using a suboccipital release device would be approved as an alternative to a session that is financially out of your budget, as well as safe for you. Amazon carries a variety of devices that are in the neighborhood of $20-40.

- Amazon: Suboccipital Release Devices
https://www.amazon.com/suboccipital-release-device/s
Have you ever seen these?

Thank you for your suggestion. I did check on Occipital Release Therapy - specifically, the John Barnes method. There is one practitioner near me. Unfortunately, she charges $160/session and does not take insurance nor is the registered with Medicare. Although the treatment sounded promising, this is not within my budget. The first round of Botox was not helpful at all. In fact, I'm just recovering from a month-long bout of O.N. The constant pain nearly killed me. The second round is scheduled for end of May. I'll do it, but I'm not very hopeful. My neurologist had never heard of occipital release therapy although it is offered by 2 hospitals here in the Los Angeles area.

I see a neurologist. She has prescribed medications that I cannot tolerate. Each one makes me nauseous. She has also given me various injections (several trigger points, 6 occipital nerve blocks) and prescribed physical therapy which I had already been doing for years. I'm now awaiting my 2nd round of Botox injections. However, a few weeks after the first set, I developed another ON headache that lasted nearly a month. You can see why I don't have much hope for the remainder of the Botox. For this reason, I was asking about occipital release surgery - wondering whether others might have undergone this procedure and whether it was successful long-term.

Hello @carenr and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I can see you are interested in learning more from @sunnyflower as you have a very similar experience.

Have you been to see a neurologist yet?

I have exactly as you describe, but have not been diagnosed as no doc can find out what it is. Did you go to a physio or a neurologist?