His job is helping kids embrace nature. A medical crisis led him to embrace social media.

July 11, 2025
A man and a woman in a car. Both are wearing sunglasses. The words above them photo say On the road to Charleston. Surgery check-in is 6 a.m. tomorrow at MUSC. It's been a long road with trigeminal neuralgia - but grateful to finally be a this point. Huge thanks to my wife who has been driving on more ways than one.
Cory Harrison and his wife Stacie in one of many posts documenting their experience with his health condition and with MUSC Health. His condition affects the right side of his face. Instagram

Cory Harrison is just what some people might envision when they think of a summer camp leader. He’s thoughtful, cheerful and loves the great outdoors.

But Harrison, the vice president of overnight camping for the Greenville YMCA, spent part of this summer not in the mountains of Upstate South Carolina with his campers but in a hospital for brain surgery. And Harrison, who loves the low-tech world of his camp, agreed to use technology to document his medical journey on MUSC Health social media accounts.

Man leans on a counter in a room with the words MUSC Health University Hospital on the wall. There are more words superimposed on the photo, saying We arrived at 6am! Getting checked in! He's quiet, which means he's nervous. But we're here! And ready! 
Harrison's wife documents his check-in at the hospital. Instagram

“A few months ago, everything changed for me. I lost feeling from the top of my head to the bottom of my chin on the right side of my face. And then came the pain: sharp electric shocks multiple times a day that would come out of nowhere, triggered by air conditioning or heat or brushing my teeth and even eating. I had lost taste in the right side of my mouth, feeling in my mouth, hearing in my right ear,” he said in his first video post on Instagram.

Harrison learned that his symptoms were caused by a condition called trigeminal neuralgia. As he told followers on social media, he got a recommendation that brought him to the clinic of MUSC Health neurosurgeon William Vandergrift, M.D., in Charleston.

Four pictures of a patient with care team members on Instagram. 
Harrision showcased some of the care team members he met during his hospital stay. Instagram

Vandergrift, a professor of neurosurgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, explained in an interview what Harrison’s condition involved. “There are nerves that come off the brain stem. Theone that gives you feeling in the face is called the trigeminal nerve. It is possible to have irritation of that nerve right as it leaves the brainstem before it goes through the little crevices in the skull to go to your face, coming into contact with either an artery or a vein.”

As Harrison said during his “patient takeover” of MUSC Health’s Instagram account, the impact of that contact between nerve and artery or vein can be life-altering. “It's an incredibly painful condition, often referred to as the suicide disease because of how severe the pain can be.”

Treatments include anti-seizure medications, muscle relaxants and Botox, along with surgery. Harrison tried medications but finally opted for a procedure called microvascular decompression. Vandergrift said he was a good candidate.

“The operation is to separate those blood vessels from the nerve so that they're not irritating it. The patient's under anesthesia, and we make an incision behind the ear – two finger breadths or so – and make a hole through the skull about the size of your thumbnail, and just work through that little hole with a microscope and small, little tools to separate the two.”

Vandergrift, who is not a social media user – “I don’t even have Facebook,” he said – learned about Harrison’s posts on Instagram from nurses who told the brain surgeon he was Instagram-famous. He’s glad Harrison felt comfortable going public with his experience. “I think anytime a patient shares a story, there's gonna be somebody out there that maybe has a similar story that just hasn't come to the appropriate medical attention.”

That’s exactly what MUSC social media coordinator Kelly Rae Edgar was hoping for when she asked Harrison to participate. “When we can put a patient's face right in front of you, telling their personal story, including the painful parts — that is how we help people in similar situations feel less alone,” she said.

A bearded man in a doctor's coat stands at the bedside of a reclining man who has curly hair. A note on the photo says Dr. Vandergrift visited this morning to check in! From the first visit to the surgery yesterday until now, he's been incredible. 
Harrision with his neurosurgeon, Dr. William Vandergrift. Instagram

It also raises awareness about medical conditions people otherwise might not know about. “Because Cory took his story to our social media channels, he cast a wide net and reached people all over South Carolina and beyond. Viewers in the same boat were highly engaged and incredibly comforted by his story — that's what builds community, and building community is the power of social media,” Edgar said.

Following surgery, Harrison said the pain is gone. He still suffers from some numbness that he hopes will ease over time. 

Photo of a man in a car. There are words on the photo, starting with Takeover. Surgery=success! Zero shooting pains in my face since surgery. We're on the way home. Thank you MUSC! And a the bottom of the photo, the words Thanks for trusting us with your care, Cory! Hope you're back at camp soon. 
The farewell post in Harrison's "patient takeover" in the MUSC Health Instagram account.

His social media posts about suffering from and being treated for trigeminal neuralgia may have had more than 37,000 views,  Edgar said. They included documentation of his arrival at the hospital, the care team he bonded with and comments from his wife, Stacie. And, finally, his conclusion.

“I'm excited to be heading home. But thanks for the opportunity to share what's going on. Thanks for listening. And as always, if you want to drop a message or comment, and this is also something that you're struggling with, maybe you've been diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia and are wondering about the microvascular decompression surgery from somebody who's had it, then feel free to reach out to the social media channels here. I'm sure they'll pass my information on. But overall, 10 out of 10 experience, so thank you, MUSC.”

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