My Migraine Surgeon Gave Me My Life Back

My migraine surgeon gave me my life back. He is the answer to prayer and I am grateful for every day that I am without migraine.

Migraine every day

I had been struggling with daily migraines at my left temple that were 8-10 on the pain scale for the last nine years. My migraines had gotten progressively worse and more frequent after my hysterectomy in 2008. I had seen several neurologists and tried many therapies and nothing helped. I spent most of every day in bed, unable to spend time with my family or hike and camp with my husband. It was becoming almost impossible to travel or have guests to our home. I was taking so many migraine medicines it was destroying my health. My quality of life had become very poor. It was extremely depressing.

Considering surgery

One day in the summer of 2019 I was searching the net, desperate for any migraine treatments I hadn’t tried. I came upon a migraine surgeon. After viewing positive reviews I decided to schedule a Skype call with him. I live in Seattle and he’s in San Francisco, so surgery would involve travel. After speaking with Dr. Peled, my husband and I decided to proceed with migraine surgery. We arranged to travel to San Francisco for a week in August 2019 and had a consultation with Dr. Peled. He recommended decompression/neuroplasty of the greater occipital, lesser occipital, and third occipital nerves. We proceeded with the surgery and had a post-surgery follow-up. The process and surgery went very smoothly. We returned home. My recovery was fairly easy, but unfortunately, as the months passed the migraines returned.

Neuroplasty and decompression surgery

We decided to try another surgery. We repeated the process of traveling down and pre-surgery consult in January 2020. Dr. Peled recommended neuroplasty/decompression surgery on the left auriculotemporal, zygomaticotemporal, and the supraorbital and supratrochlear nerves. The surgery went fine and we returned home. The recovery was a little more difficult because it involved the eye area, but things healed well. We waited hopefully, but gradually and puzzlingly the migraines returned. At Dr. Peled’s suggestion, I tried some steroid and nerve block treatments with a local doctor to see if that would help in case inflammation was the problem. Unfortunately, the injections seemed to irritate the nerve and make the migraines worse.

One final surgery for migraine relief

After much thought, prayer and a consultation with Dr. Peled and my local neurologist, my husband and I decided to have one more surgery to see if Dr. Peled could find the problematic nerve and fix it. We drove to San Francisco again in November 2020. At the pre-surgery appointment, Dr. Peled said he suspected an aberrant nerve branch of the zygomaticotemporal nerve may be the culprit and he would do his best to find it and fix it. Thankfully, he was successful! I went back home after surgery and after just a few days I was feeling good again! I am now six months post-surgery. I have an occasional “regular” headache that I treat with ibuprofen. I have resumed my normal activities! I can jump and run and hike and care for my family. I’m grateful for every day. I thank God that I found Dr. Peled. My only regret is that I waited nine years to have this surgery.