Myton Mayor Kathleen Cooper underwent a surgical procedure six months ago in an effort to relieve her chronic migraine headaches. It turned out to be a decision that is giving Cooper a new lease on life.

After years of suffering from chronic pain caused by migraines Cooper sought the help of Houston, Texas neurologist Dr. Pamela Blake. Blake felt what Cooper thought may be migraine pain might actually be a decompression on her occipital nerve and referred Cooper to another Houston-based specialist, plastic surgeon Dr. Carlton Perry.

Perry performed a surgical procedure to remove pressure on the nerves that are strongly suspected of being a significant cause of headaches. Perry has extensive experience in treating nerve compression syndromes of all parts of the body, and special training in the nerves associated

with headache.

He made an incision an inch and a half above Cooper's neckline, then laid the skin open and released the musculature that might be compressing the occipital nerve.

For three months following the surgery, Cooper was still having migraines, but that was to be expected, she said. Still, after her three-month check-up, she was discouraged and depressed. Her doctor told her to persevere and warned that it could take up to a year before Cooper saw results.

Soon she began to notice a change — her debilitating migraines were beginning to ease.

“About three weeks ago I kept noticing that I'm able to sit at my computer longer,” Cooper said. “Prior to the surgery if I sat at my computer, within about a half hour it would start hurting and shortly after I would spike a migraine.”

The theory is that Cooper's occipital nerve had likely grown into her trapezoid muscle or into her neck muscles. When irritated, that would cause a migraine.

“I'm coming to believe that's true because I can sit at my computer for two or three hours or longer. It doesn't matter how long I sit, I don't stand up and realize, 'Oh my gosh, I've got a migraine.' ”

Her chronic pain made it impossible for Cooper to pursue her passion of history and research. The successful surgery has given that enjoyment back to her, she said.

“Even if it doesn't do any other thing, it's stopped that particular migraine trigger which is ... a huge deal. I don't want to like be so happy and then find out I was wrong, but I'm confident in telling you that I believe that's what has happened. It has alleviated that particular migraine trigger.”

There are controllable and uncontrollable triggers that can bring on a migraine. Cooper has never had a problem with controllable triggers such as certain foods like chocolate. However, when the weather changed or when she sat at her computer, she would get a migraine.

“If they've removed that trigger, then I'm happy,” Cooper said.

The procedure was not expected to help with non-nerve headaches. However, the successful treatment of a nerve compression headache problem will frequently make the non-nerve headaches less severe and more amenable to treatments.

Occasionally, it is not clear until after the nerve surgery that another headache type is present. For this reason, Cooper will continue to have her progress monitored with regular follow-up visits to make sure they've achieved the optimal outcome for her headaches.

“The other thing I'm noticing is that they're not as severe when I get them,” Cooper said. “I'm a pretty happy person in general; when I'm not in pain I feel pretty good. I hope that in the next four or five months I'll be able to start going places again, that's my great hope. When I'm not hurting, I'm fine and that's good. I feel like a normal human being now.”