Health Beat - Spring 2020 - 8

Finding
Relief

Chronic migraine
sufferers can benefit
from Botox treatment
By John Berggren

Dee Ann Easley receives Botox
treatment for migraines from
Salina Regional Neurosciences
neurologist Doug Davis, M.D.

As a chronic sufferer, Dee Ann
Easley tried just about everything over
the years to treat and prevent her
migraines. And when her primary care
doctor recommended that she visit
a new neurologist in Salina to see if
there was anything new she could try,
she was open to the idea.

A New Approach
to an Old Problem

Dee Ann Easley of
McPherson has dealt with
migraines since age 10.
Her mother and father
both had them, so she accepted the
condition to be hereditary.
Her occasional "sick headaches,"
as doctors called them when she
was young, became more frequent in
adulthood, reaching a point where
almost daily headaches could progress
into full-blown migraines if she didn't
treat them immediately with medicine
and rest.

8

Now age 71 and retired from her job
as a human resources manager for a
local pharmaceutical company, Easley
recalls many occasions when she just
pressed through and coped. She took
medications that seemed to help for
a while, and when she felt a migraine
coming on, she'd take additional medications and sleep them off. For the
worst headaches, she sought treatment
at a hospital emergency department.
"The McPherson Hospital emergency
department knew her well," says her
husband, Tom Easley.

Doug Davis, M.D., a neurologist who
joined Salina Regional Neurosciences
in 2018, talked to Easley about using
Botox injections to bring relief.
"I thought Botox was for wrinkles,"
Easley recalls. "But as Dr. Davis
explained the treatment, I became
interested in giving it a try."
In Davis' time in Salina, more than
100 patients have seen him to receive
Botox treatment for migraines. Botox is
administered using a series of 31 injections with a very small needle at specific
sites around the head, neck and shoulders. The treatment works by disrupting
nerve endings around the injection sites
and blocking the release of chemicals
involved in transmitting pain back to
the brain.

srhc.com

FdHDSP20135_Salina.indd 8

1/23/20 4:53 PM
http://www.srhc.com
Health Beat - Spring 2020

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