A firefighter from the Vero Beach area needed a medical miracle and found one, thanks to a neurosurgeon at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.
"The anxiety of it the stress of it, it changes your mood and it changes your attitude," said Dan Brooks, who's been living with pain in his face for six years.
"Get a big long needle, and lift your lip up and just jab it in your jaw, and then grind it, and then electrocute you and have that last," is how Brooks describes the pain.
"That type of pain is almost always caused by this phenomenon where there is a blood vessel looping up and pressing against that nerve," said UHealth neurosurgeon, Dr. Eric Peterson.
It's called Trigeminal Neuralgia, When an artery brushes up against a nerve.
That's exactly what was happening behind Brooks' ear, with the pain radiating into his face. He coped with it for six long years. He saw neurosurgeons, tried acupuncture, a chiropractor.
And doctors repeatedly told him, "'We can't find a cause for it so we don't know what it is or why it's doing this. Just take these pills,'" Brooks recounted. "Like I said, I am not a pill taker. Solve the problem, fix it."
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Late last year, Dr. Peterson got involved. He called for a specific MRI, which immediately revealed the problem.
"In Daniel's case, the nerve was deformed, unhealthy and you can see the pulsations," Dr. Peterson said. "As soon as you see that, you get an extra sigh of relief because you know that he's going to have a great result from this."
A procedure that created space between the artery and the nerve freed Brooks from his six years of pain.
"It is a world of change for me, the anxiety, I'm just happy, completely relaxed not a lot of cares about anything really," he said.
Dr. Peterson said the condition is not that rare. He's done some 40 to 50 procedures himself.
As for Brooks, he is now back at work and pain free.
