Artist gets her life back after surgery to relieve debilitating headaches.

Reno, NV–Imagine having such intense head pain that you stop exercising. You choose a less physically demanding career. You get out of the car every time there’s a speed bump. Imagine enduring this chronic, debilitating pain for seven years.

Jane Kenoyer did. After an on-the-job injury in 2002, Jane was diagnosed with occipital neuralgia, a type of headache characterized by piercing, throbbing, or electric-shock-like chronic pain in the upper neck, back of the head, and behind the ears, usually on one side of the head. For Jane it was the left side.

"Every movement I made was guarded. I would avoid crowds for fear of getting bumped," Jane explains. "If I was riding in a car and there were speed bumps, I would have the driver pullover, let me out and pick me up on the other side. Jarring from a speed bump would trigger excruciating pain that could last weeks."

Typically, the pain of occipital neuralgia begins in the neck and then spreads upwards. The location of pain is related to the areas supplied by the greater and lesser occipital nerves, which run from the area where the spinal column meets the neck, up to the scalp at the back of the head. The pain is caused by irritation or injury to the nerves, which can be the result of trauma to the back of the head, pinching of the nerves by overly tight neck muscles, compression of the nerve as it leaves the spine due to osteoarthritis, or tumors or other types of lesions in the neck.

Considering herself "tough", Jane dealt with her condition stoically–she adjusted her lifestyle, took nerve pain medication and got regular nerve block injections. But over time, the medications and treatments became less effective and she found she had reached the edge of her tolerance.

"Honestly, I was afraid of having someone cut into my skull," says Jane. "But by this spring I had reached the end of what I considered tolerable and was willing to take the next step in order to get my life back."

Jane got a referral to Dr. Jay Morgan, a Board Certified Neurosurgeon with Sierra Neurosurgery Group. Dr. Morgan reviewed her MRIs and told her he needed to look at her occipital nerves to fully diagnose her condition. In other words, she would need to have surgery to figure out the next step.

"When I was able to look at Jane’s occipital nerves it was clear why she was in so much pain," explains Dr. Morgan. "The nerves on the left-hand side were extremely frayed. By removing a significant section of the damaged nerve, we were able to alleviate that pain instantly."

Jane woke up from surgery with the pain she had described for seven years as "oppressive" gone. She also immediately experienced improved range of motion. While she did have the superficial pain of the surgical incision to deal with, Jane knew she was finally on the mend.

Two months post-surgery, Jane still has no nerve-related pain whatsoever and no headaches. She is building her neck strength and is back to exercising. While there is some residual numbness in a small section on the left-hand side of the back of her head, she is regaining feeling there incrementally. She says she feels ten years younger and is full of energy.

I didn't stop painting while I was sick, but it definitely affected how I worked. Now I can carry a heavy supply of paints up the stairs to my art studio and paint all day pain free," explains Jane. "I'm a new woman."