Patient Stories
Sutter Neurosurgery
Ophelia – Back to Life Without Pain
At age 67, Ophelia Harvey, Ph.D., had a very active mind and life. “Then wham,” said Ophelia, “everything changed.”
Ophelia was suddenly hit with excruciating pain that would spontaneously flare up in different parts of her face. And because the pain would come unannounced, Ophelia was nervous to drive or go out alone.
“One Sunday I drove myself to church,” Ophelia recalled, “but the pain became so excruciating that I had to ask someone to drive me home.”
Thinking it was just a sinus attack, Ophelia made an appointment with an allergist. After a consultation and review of her MRI, the physician suggested it wasn’t a sinus infection, but that it was trigeminal neuralgia.
“I was put on a medication, but it really slowed me down and interfered with my memory,” Ophelia said. “I didn’t want to feel that way anymore.”
Ophelia was referred to Cully Cobb, III, M.D., a Sutter Neuroscience Institute neurosurgeon and medical director of Sutter Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Center. Dr. Cobb introduced the idea of Gamma Knife Radiosurgery to treat the trigeminal neuralgia. The non-invasive surgery involves pinpointing a high dose of radiation to the root of the trigeminal nerve.
Dr. Cobb explained that Gamma Knife Radiosurgery was a very good option for treatment of trigeminal neuralgia, but that it doesn’t work in every case. Ophelia decided to move forward with surgery in December 2006. Six months later, the pain returned.
“I was pretty discouraged,” Ophelia says. “ But Dr. Cobb said that it sometimes takes a second treatment to be effective.”
In August 2007, Ophelia had her second Gamma Knife treatment. This time the pain didn’t come back.
“At the beginning I thought this pain would take me to the grave,” Ophelia said. “I am so happy with Dr. Cobb’s treatment. I can do everything I used to do, but more comfortably and without worry.”
Learn more about Sutter Neuroscience Institute’s Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Center.