On December 28th basketball superstar Dwayne Wade had to come out of the Chicago Bulls basketball game because of a migraine headache. This video is really worth watching, as Wade’s description of what it’s like to have “different levels of migraines” is a fantastic insight into the day to day life of someone who suffers from this painful condition. Wade talks about having a headache before the game that got exacerbated when he fell…. He says, “I had a headache before the game. I took a fall in the second half. I didn’t hit my head, but I guess the way my body jerked and reacted, it kind of triggered my headache back. I lost a little vision in [my] eye. So I came out on the court, couldn’t see the rim. My wife was talking, I couldn’t see her.”
Additionally interesting is his comment that “I decided to come out and come in the back and put ice on my neck and take some medicine, get my neck massaged because it’s muscular when it happens like that.” Many people who have “migraines” actually have the compression of their neck muscles trigger neuralgia of the occipital nerves that cascades into the migraine syndrome, including in many cases the temporary loss of vision, dizziness, and other symptoms. While I have never seen Mr. Wade as a patient nor am I aware of the details of his diagnosis, his story is typical of patients who would benefit from decompression of the occipital nerves. I hope as these surgical techniques gain more popularity and acceptance that everyone, from superstars to “regular folks”, will be aware that surgical options exist for treatment and improvement of migraine headache pain.
And how does a sufferer of migraine headaches explain it to an ESPN reporter who has never experienced a migraine? Dwayne Wade says, “I could explain it all day, but just know it’s not a good thing. It affects more than just your head. It affects your body, it affects your energy, it affects your eyes. It affects your attitude, of course. So there’s a lot of different levels of migraines. It’s unfortunate.”
