Posted by Martin (196.34.250.8) on April 25, 2001 at 09:44:30:
Hi Everybody out there,
Your response has been overwhelming. I really hope the information I will give you will be of some help as it has been for me. Some of you may be aware of this treatment,but we have found no direct reference to it with regards to Clusterheadaches this is why we wish to merely make more people aware of it, so that they may explore the possibilities for themselves.
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The procedure is known as a RADIOFREQUENCY & SPHENO-PALATINE & GANGLIOTOMY. This is done while under anaesthetic and involves no cutting or scars........to explain in simple layman's terms :a puncture is made with a needle near the cheek bone through which a tiny tube is inserted. Once the tube is inserted the Neurosurgeon can see it's position on a monitor,he/she will direct it towards the Ganglion , this is where you come into play. You are awakened (wondered why on earth you couldn't carry on sleeping!). The reason you are disturbed from your wonderful sleep is to assist the Neurosurgeon (wow, you actually get to assist a NEUROSURGEON!) in guiding the probe to the exact location, which is experienced in a tingling sensation on your pallet (pins & needles). Once this has been done the good Doc sends you to Bye-Bye land, and proceeds to zap the Ganglion (the tube is actually a laser).
The procedure takes approximately 45 minutes.
I usually wake up with a horrific headache a couple of hours later. They give me an Immigran (Sumatrapin) injection and it subsides. Usually one spends the night so that they're able to monitor you (make more money from you). I always get a pharmacy full of Immigran injections to take home as the headaches DO NOT subside immediately. The nerve ends are now raw and therefore do continue to inflict the demon!!! It takes about a week or so for normality to return.
I have had this treatment done 3 times so far. The last one being November 1999. Different people experience different remission periods after this treatment, it goes from two to ten years, depending on how fast your nerve ends grow back. Dr Miller has explained that the ganglion of nerves behind the eye are not the cause of the headache, but that somehow, for some of us, it does affect the headache. Bottom line ... they don't know what causes it!!! My Suicide Headaches started 12 years ago. Before this, I took mountains of drugs which had absolutely no effect whatsoever. The headaches used to go for six weeks or more. I have found that over they years, they did increase and intensify.
This procedure is done at the Linksfield Park Clinic in Johannesburg (South Africa) My Neurosurgeon is Dr Percy Miller (the only ANGEL out of probably a dozen @x%&**(!~%#'s who couldn't cure a thing)
Prior to this the only treatment that had an immediate effect was Immigran (not the tablets) but the injection ,results occurred in approximately 2 minutes.
I really hope that this will be of some use......obviously not everyone will be a suitable candidate, but hell it sure beats taking all those drugs which are merely prescribed because various doctors are still only practicing medicine and not doing the healing bit.
As a matter of interest is there anyone out there that is aware of anybody who has never had a relapse after any kind of treatment ?????????
Martin & Dolores Hopps