In February of 2019, I had just moved out of my ex’s house. A friend had told me about a man named Dr. Crutchfield, who specialized in brain and neck injuries. My friend said that since my first couple head hits were concussions, I could qualify to see him. I reached out and set up an appointment.
For the first appointment, my father went with me. When the doctor walked into the room, you could immediately tell how confident he was. He introduced himself, briefly went over his credentials, and told me with confidence that he knew what was wrong with me, but would go through his tests just to prove that he was right.
He did a variety of tests including me walking in a straight line with my eyes open & then closed. He checked all of my reflexes, examined my eyes and head, and told me he had one last one and that would be the teller. He told my dad to watch me carefully as he had me walk to the corner of the room and turned around. My father and I were confused as to how this could be the teller, but went with it.
When I walked to the corner of the room and turned around, Dr. C immediately said “Yes, and I am right.” My father and I were both very confused, but waited for the explanation.
Before the explanation, he said “If I’m right about what’s wrong with you, when I touch the back of your head in these two spots, it is going to be the worst pain you have ever felt in your life and you’re not going to like me very much. If I’m wrong, you’ll be fine. Won’t feel a thing.”
I swear to you, the second he touched the back of my head in those two spots, I felt the worst pain I have ever felt in my life, making me feel like I had literally just seen my life flash before my eyes. My father always tells people that he has never seen a look like that on my face ever before and that it pained him to watch.
Dr. C was happy with his diagnosis and I was miserable in pain. He handed me an ice pack for the back of my head while he explained that due to my history with concussions, I actually now have something called Occipital Neuralgia. Occipital Neuralgia is where nerves that run through the scalp are injured or inflamed, causing severe headaches that feel like severe piercing, throbbing, or shock-like pain in the upper neck, back of the head, and behind the ears. https://www.aans.org/en/Patients/Neurosurgical-Conditions-and-Treatments/Occipital-Neuralgia
We went over the plan of action moving forward. He would have to press on the back of my head each visit in order to feel the occipital nerves and the build-up of scar tissue around them. I would start with oral steroids to see if those would assist with loosening the nerves and providing relief. These didn’t provide any relief.
We moved forward with trigger-point steroid injections after about a month of oral steroids. When I came in to the first injection appointment, he warned me that I was going to be in a crap ton of pain and that it would last for a little bit. He would be injecting 3 needles on each side of the back of my head for a total of 6 needles, down just above the neck, but above my hairline. I would need to lay down with an ice pack on the back of my head for a bit. I’ve never felt pain like that before. And for my first injection appointment, I was alone. I vowed to never go alone again as I had an immense migraine and pain in the head after. I also went back to work as a teacher after my first set of injections….never did that again.
We proceeded with the other 2 rounds of trigger-point steroid injections. I started making small improvements and pain lessened a little bit. Dr. C said we were making good progress, but that I would need surgery in the future to continue as I had done the maximum amount of injections for this time period – 3 sessions with 3 needles on each side of my head, for a total of 18 injections. I would have to wait and try more after a rest period or opt for surgery. I opted for surgery.
Next – Surgery. If you want a little background, look up “Occipital Neuralgia Nerve Decompression.” Thank you for listening.
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