Occipital Nerve Injections

I've had these done many times. For me, they ultimately weren't effective, but I've talked with many others who found great relief from them. I've had them done by two different doctors. One had me lie face down on a table, the other just had me lean my head forward. They poke around with their fingers to find the occipital bump on the back bottom of your skull, then ask if that's the tender spot. I never felt any discomfort from the shots themselves while they were being given. Afterward, some soreness in the neck for 24 hours, and then unfortunately for me, 3-4 days of migraines. But again, I think people either really respond to these or don't. Other people report having migraine results like that to botox, and all that happens to me is my skull mercifully goes to sleep. So, I would say try it and see how you respond. I'm not sorry I did as I can check it off my list for certain. And again the shot itself was fine.

I get trigger point injections and nerve blocks 2-3 per week and it's the only thing that has helped even a bit. Covers my scalp, jaw, shoulders and neck using about 10 pokes and 2mL with lidocaine,

Every couple of weeks we do nerve blocks as well - I've done the occitipial nerve I think it two different spots - back of the head or more commonly scalp top left side. They numb the pain for 6-8 hours for me but it allows my muscles to relax sinc they get really tense during the pain phase.

For some rest the lidocaine works well for me but Botox did absolutely nothing (and yes I did 3 sessions 3 months apart)'.... stupid body

I keep telling my doc he isn't allowed to retire ever. 😀

I have had both trigger point injections with local anaesthetic, and with botox. The trigger point injections may have helped slightly with the frequency of the migraines, but unfortunately I wasn't keeping track of them as well as I do now.

I later had botox injections in pretty much the same sites. The first time - I got 43 days free of migraines!! I was stoked and eagerly signed up for the second set of injections after 3 months - no noticeable decrease in migraines at all. Now this just happened to coincide with my husband having a significant health event, so the paychecks have stopped and the stress levels went up.

Back to the neuro after another three month period, he offered a third set of botox injections saying that often people find the third set most effective of all. With the circumstance change - the cost was too high, so I am now trying epilim twice daily instead (not effective so far)

Hope that helps?

I have had at least a half a dozen occipital nerve blocks over the years...the most recent being this past Thursday. It usually hit or miss whether they interrupt the migraine pattern or not. This time it didn’t but I’ve had success in the past. I’ve had such success that I usually ask for one if normal rescue shots haven’t helped after 2-3 days.