Maxine Humphrey

Trigeminal Neuralgia Survivor

"I wake up each day and thank God that the pain is gone," says Maxine Humphrey, who suffered from the most painful of all afflictions, a disorder of the fifth cranial nerve called trigeminal neuralgia or tic douloureux.

Crippling facial pain, invisible to others, ruled Maxine's life until she found the answer to her prayers at the Methodist Gamma Knife Center, headed by neurosurgeon Douglas Long, MD.

A team of highly skilled specialists, including radiation oncologists and medical physicists, use the Gamma Knife to treat target areas within the head without a surgical incision. Instead, an ultra-precise dose of radiation is delivered at the point where 201 beams of radiation intersect.

Maxine has a simpler explanation of this high-tech treatment, saying, "It's just a miracle. That's all there is to it!"