Hi guys,
Since of you may be so sick of seeing me post but I am fairly new to this site and just love how supportive everyone has been.
Now my first bout with this pain was about two years ago. The pain from what I cloud remember was pretty rough but I it eventually l let up. That’s how it always was when the pain would come. This past October it crept back up on me and had been here daily every since. I haven’t had a day of relief. There are periods of the day that I don’t have pain but for the most part it’s there. I keep reading posts where some of you say atypical trigeminal neuralgia, how do you distinguish the difference
Hello and welcome aboard :) I have atypical and from what I understand atypical is a pain that stays constant for a period of time where as traditional tn has sharp shots of pain. My pain will come on making every tooth on one side feel rotten. My ear will hurt. Jaw bone will hurt. My scalp will hurt and some times my eye will hurt/feel numb and during one really bad 4 month episode my eye would twitch. I am only able to describe mine. I am sure if some others post you will get a better understanding.
I hope you find relief soon, lisa
Thanks for replying so quickly: Oh okay, we actually experience some of the same symptoms. But I’m being told that I have regular trigeminal neuralgia. But yes my ear itches and my eyes twitch/burn and even water a little.
You said after four months, did you go into remission???
And I am currently 22weeks pregnant
I have actually been dealing with this for about 10 years. my longest stretch of horrible pain lasted 4 months. It always seems to vary in length and intensity. You may have both types of tn
Shadirah said:
Thanks for replying so quickly: Oh okay, we actually experience some of the same symptoms. But I'm being told that I have regular trigeminal neuralgia. But yes my ear itches and my eyes twitch/burn and even water a little.
You said after four months, did you go into remission????
And I am currently 22weeks pregnant
My official diagnosis is bi-lateral ATN. I have the constant burning, boring pain and the electric shocks, on both sides. From what I understand TN1 is the shocking pains, and TN2, or ATN, is the chronic burning boring pain.
Good luck to you!
Now, when you say burning boring pain, where is that pain. I am getting the shock like pain, but what’s freaking me out is that in the past something would have to trigger it, but now it just goes off by itself.
Lately swallowing has been a trigger for me, and that’s new. I am taking 200mg tegretol nightly but that hasn’t done nothing. It’s been three weeks of taking the meds. Should I stop or just continue?
Hi Shadirah
I'm atypical TN and for me the difference would be that atypical is always there 24/7. I have burning, aching, crushing and throbbing pain in my mouth, up the right side of my nose and it spreads across the right side of my face and into my forehead on bad days. I just recently started getting the same ice pick stabbing pain on my left side near my ear and now I'm worried that this might be spreading to a different area altogether. Is this the type of pain you have? Right now I don't take anything because a lot of medications make me very sick and have intolerable side effects for me. Once in a while I have an episode which usually lasts about 10 minutes (but feels like forever) of intense volleys of pain that feel like lightening bolts of nerve pain - my neuro told me that is TN. If I had to live with that on a daily basis I'd have to take pain medication of some kind - it's horrific.
My heart goes out to you - I can't imagine being pregnant and having to deal with this. I hope you find some relief very soon.
Obsidian, no I don’t have the constant pain all day like that, but I do experience a lot of attacks. Some days are better than others. Now my biggest trigger is my tongue, if it moves the wrong way, then it’ll ignite a severe pain on the entire right side of my face, also if I clench my teeth that will start it as well. The pain lasts about five to ten minutes, but it just keep happening. I never had an episode this painful in the past, I wonder if the pregnancy plays a part.
My neuor says that I have atypical because I do not have a trigger point on my face, but I get the burning shocks for a few seconds each time. I am averaging about 10 a day. Before tegretol I was about 30 a day and this has been going on for 8 months with no remission. Good luck to you.
Oh I have a trigger point on my face, right under the bottom right lip. And on the side of my face. But then too I could be either laying still or sitting up and the pain will just come. Is that typical or atypical
Mine can come on at anytime as well. Are try constant or sharp jolt type pains?
I’m no doctor but to me it sounds like classic tn or tn1. Since you have trigger point and the sharp jolt pains. Have you read “striking back” ? If not, get it ASAP. It’s the bible for tn.
My burning boring pain is in my scalp, fore head, behind my eye, upper teeth, and sometimes my nose. When inexperienced the shocks, they would be triggered bu anything, even a breeze, touching my face, but I also got them out of no where. I did have MVD on my right side which stopped the shocks, but not the boring pain. Eight months later, I had a PNS implant, which is controlling the pain exceptionally well. In October, I had MVD on the left, and so far, I am virtually pain free, and off medication.
Christine
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atypical face pain
print off which looks like yours!
Hey KC, I’m unable to click the hyperlink