Lightning at the Base of My Skull: Occipital Neuralgia Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe occipital neuralgia, the sharp, burning or shooting pain at the base of the skull. Many writers were first told it was migraine, stress, tension, a tooth problem or shingles, and one taxi driver took the wrong tablets for eleven months; another saw six doctors. Pain arrived after a rear-end collision, a fall on Minnesota ice, a bike crash, a climbing fall, rugby, neck fusion surgery and the twin babies of a breastfeeding mother, or built over years of looking up at ceilings and engines. The writers include a shipyard welder in Gdansk, a braider standing nine hours over clients in Lagos, a violinist in Milan, a fast bowler, a police officer, a pastor who could not bow his head, a medical student, a seventeen-year-old told he was too young, and a widower who ignored his own body, from Tulsa to Athens and Karachi to Wellington. Treatments include nerve blocks, physiotherapy, desk and tool changes, nerve medicines, Botox, an implanted stimulator under the skin and surgery. Family oils, scarves against cold air vents and prayer appear too. Results were uneven. Some found relief in one injection, a bus driver became drowsy at the wheel on a new medicine, one operation only half worked, and a few are still searching.

Who it's for

For anyone with stabbing or burning pain at the back of the head who has been told it is just a headache, and for the partners and colleagues learning to dim the lights.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 231 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.