I am a police officer and came into contact with a transient that was visibly ill. A few days later, I came down with a virus. As the virus was winding its way through me, I had typical fever, rash, and then I developed a terrible headache that ran from my ear and into my jaw and behind my eye.
I was lucky enough to have a doctor identify right away that I had TN. This was as the virus was almost gone. Fast forward a while and I had MVD. The neurosurgeon found that two arteries were wrapped up in my trigeminal nerve. The MVD worked for the most part. I still have attacks every once in a while, but no where near the severity of what it was. This is manageable.
I feel that the virus was the cause of the TN. But, I can’t find any medical studies that show that. Could that virus have caused the TN? Any studies out there that you can point me in the right direction?
Hi Keith, go back to what most TN is physically; being a blood vessel rubbing on the Trigeminal nerve. The virus caused fever so your blood vessels could have? Swelled to rub on the nerve. Thereby causing the pain. Suggest you take a course of B12 to build up your nerve sheaths. This has helped me enormously. My GP gives me a blood test annually to check level of B12. It’s water soluble so your body will wash out what it does not want. I took 1000mcg day for a couple of years before I could say it really made a difference. Hope this helps. GP
Hey Keith, Not sure if this helps or not but I’ve had 5 episodes of bells palsy (in middle of #5 right now!). This is thought to be caused by a virus that infects the 7th cranial nerve which controls muscle movement of face. I was also diagnosed with TN about 4 years ago. It has been my thought all along that in my case TN was somehow related to the bells palsy. It seems that if a virus can infect one nerve and cause facial paralysis it could also infect another nerve that causes facial pain. I’ve never found any scientific proof of this either but it seems logical to me. Wishing you a good and pain free day!!! Also, thank you for your protection and service to your community! Prayers for your safety!
TN can first present as post-herpetic neuralgia pain associated with Herpes Zoster relapse in Shingles. I’ve also talked with prominent neurosurgeons and neurologists about an association between TN and Herpes Simplex Type 1 viruses (the kind that cause cold sores). There is a little speculation in the literature, and perhaps more speculation among patients. Like others, I’ve never found an authoritative article establishing a reliable cause and effect relationship.
