The Medical Zebra

Today is International Occipital Neuralgia Awareness Day!  What is Occipital Neuralgia (ON)?  “Occipital neuralgia (ON) is a condition in which the occipital nerves, the nerves that run through the scalp, are injured or inflamed. This causes headaches that feel like severe piercing, throbbing or shock-like pain in the upper neck, back of the head or behind the ears.” - The Facial Pain Association.  ON is rare, some numbers suggest 3 people per 100,000 develop it.  There is no cure.  A bit of my story with ON: I was diagnosed last year with Occipital Neuralgia (ON), though my symptoms first showed up in 2020. ON is very painful. My symptoms are electric like shocks and stabs to the back of my neck, head and behind my ears and tip of my ears. I also at times have a continuous burning ache on the back of my head and ears. My neck and back of my head feel like it is in a vice grip. I also have a crawling sensation. The pain level from ON can be very chronic at times...

  Today is International Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day! I have had TN since I was seventeen (2010) but did not receive my official diagnosis until I was almost twenty-six (2019). Because I understand such a chronic pain condition known amongst medical professionals as “the worst pain known to mankind”, and a condition without a cure, I know how important it is that we spread awareness for TN. I also understand how the lack of having a diagnosis for so long impacts someone, especially as a young patient. That is why I bring awareness, volunteer and continue to share my story. Today may be TN awareness day, but for those of us with TN, every day we are aware of it. Today is for the warriors who are fighting TN, the Survivors who have experienced TN and the Angels who have passed due to Trigeminal Neuralgia being known as the suicide disease. That’s why a cure is needed. So what exactly is Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN)? Here is what TN is in a nutshell from an article I wrote a few y...

October is Facial Pain Awareness Month! 💙 I have had facial pain for thirteen years now. Developing it at age seventeen (though I often wonder if I have been experiencing symptoms as young as thirteen), was a huge impact on me. It has not only caused chronic, at times unbearable pain, it has also affected me emotionally and mentally. Facial pain may be in the face and head but the whole body is effected. Facial pain awareness is needed not only for cures, but for others to understand the struggle that I and so many other rare facial pain patients go through on a daily basis. Having facial pain requires a strength that many of us do not realize we have until we start fighting this ongoing battle. It's a fight that we are not alone in.  I'm thankful for the facial pain community, you all have been a light to me on days when the pain felt like it would drown me. Finding everyone a few years ago was the game changer I needed. I love and appreciate each of you.  We are warriors....