Posted by Lisa (208.253.154.137) on July 20, 1999 at 20:46:36:
In Reply to: Gamma Knife Surgery posted by Cindy Cormier on July 20, 1999 at 13:19:38:
Cindy,
My husband had two Gamma Knife procedures done at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The first was done in 1997 with apparently some relief. The second was done in July of 1998 with no relief. His headaches were off-and-on for four years, gradually becoming chronic -- three weeks with clusters twice a day for six hours at a time, then one week remission, then closer and closer together until last October the pain was every day. He also had a treatment where they inject glycerin into the cheek and up behind the eye socket on the side with the pain. That procedure numbed the side of his face somewhat, but did not take the pain away. All he could do for the pain was live on Demerol or Dilaudid injections -- either in the ER, hospitalized, or at home. We had an appointment at the Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 22. They send people there that nobody else can help for hospitalization for 10 to 14 days to try to treat the pain and get you off the narcotics. Unfortunately, my husband will never know if they could have helped him, because he passed away June 27, of this year. His doctor had forced him (coerced) to go into a rehabilitation facility (nursing home) to try to be as healthy as he could be to go to Michigan, but he had cardiac arrest for some reason. His mother and I am trying our best to find out exactly what happened there.
Thank you for reading this. I don't know the pain you people have, just the emotional pain of being a spouse of a sufferer. He was treated like a drug addict, etc., treated like less of a human being because he needed narcotics, just basically treated like the scum of the earth sometimes.
If you have any questions that I may be able to answer about Gamma Knife, glycerin surgery, or other procedures, please e-mail me. I live close to Erie, PA. If you can't get any satisfaction from any procedures, try the Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute. I have their phone number and address.
Lisa