I too just have the stabbing pains...in my forehead. They are horrible and I may have up to 500 on a bad day, but they last only 1/2 to 1 second each. I could not imagine what it would be like to have it last for 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 5 minutes or whatever. I am so sorry that some people experience that duration of this agonizing and horrible pain.
Hippie1 said:
You've all heard the description of Blinding Pain. The phrase must have been coined by someone with TN. There are moments that the pain is so intense, my brain literally is too incapacitated to interpret sight. A car could be racing straight at me and I wouldn't know it. I can't hear anything or smell anything. If you were stabbing me, my brain is sooo overloaded with the facial pain, I would not know. It's completely disorienting. It's as though I'm abandoned in the universe with no senses left but this Pain in my face.
I have only but experienced the jolts of sudden pain that TN mercilessly doles out. For those of you who experience the more constant pain. I sincerely don't know how you take it.
I am so thankful that my meds keep this at bay. I actually live in fear of poverty or war or any reason I would not be able to fill my prescription. This is not an addition, I would go through no withdrawals, its just shear fear of the pain.
To those who do not experience this, it sounds like a drama competition. But the truth of the matter is .... words do no justice.
It is so hard to describe this sometimes. Most often, it feels like someone is trying to tear my eyeball out of head. I get electrical like shooting pain on all three branches. Then there are the dead areas that feel like they have been numbed by novocaine and constantly make me feel like my nose is running or just plain gone. My cheek bone feels like it is being hit by a sledgehammer non-stop. My jaw and teeth feel like someone is pulling them out with no novocaine. I have constant nausea from the pain that goes along with a TN induced headache on my left side. (It is not a migraine.) I eat Phernergan like it is candy. I have two types of sleeping pills that I take each night to try and get 7 hours of sleep without waking up screaming in pain or throwing up as I roll out of bed. I try to live on Midrin as a pain killer so I can avoid taking my narcotics. Life just sucks in general.
I'm praying for each of you as I pray for myself. This pain cannot be understood unless it is experienced. The stabbing jolts are not as frequent as they were when I had my first episode last week, but now when they come, they are lasting longer than that brief 1 second and then the residual pain stays and stays. I told my husband, it's as though I get hit with a bolt of lighting and then I must have swallowed a hornets nest.....the burning, stinging pain can last for hours. I've lost 6 lbs this past week due to not wanting to incite the pain with chewing. Even sipping water can bring on the shocks. I still have 19 days until I have insurance with Medicare. Until them, I cope the best I can by watching how I smile, how I talk, how I must stifle a yawn or a sneeze....anyone have an episode triggered with a yawn or sneeze??
OMG...yes especially yawning. I try to yawn holding it in and breathing through my nose.
I remember when I could put my make up on in 10 minutes now it takes me at least a minimum of 30 minutes or more because I have to be very delicate as where I am touching my face. Also, PMS time is the worst for me too.
Instead of a normal headaches my signals are telling the TN to squeeze the hell out of my face!
Nannie said:
I'm praying for each of you as I pray for myself. This pain cannot be understood unless it is experienced. The stabbing jolts are not as frequent as they were when I had my first episode last week, but now when they come, they are lasting longer than that brief 1 second and then the residual pain stays and stays. I told my husband, it's as though I get hit with a bolt of lighting and then I must have swallowed a hornets nest.....the burning, stinging pain can last for hours. I've lost 6 lbs this past week due to not wanting to incite the pain with chewing. Even sipping water can bring on the shocks. I still have 19 days until I have insurance with Medicare. Until them, I cope the best I can by watching how I smile, how I talk, how I must stifle a yawn or a sneeze....anyone have an episode triggered with a yawn or sneeze??
Today the breakthrough pain is horrible. It feels like someone has hit me in the eye with a baseball bat and from there an icepick shooting through the bone where the eyebrow is, through the cheekbone, then through the right nostril and digging in. It’s unbearable. Please pray that I can get an appointment, I’m on a waiting list. Ugh!!!
Your journey sounds so much like mine. There are times when my tongue, just touching a tooth can set off a horrible episode of shocks and then there is my dentist who poked and proded and had me bite down on a tool and nothing!! It takes me an hour to eat a simple sandwich. I can't open my mouth too far or the jolts start again and yes, I totally get the longer time to put on makeup you mentioned. I used to 'get ready for the day' including dressing and makeup even if I was just staying home to clean the house. Now, unless it's a pretty special event, I'm not caring what I wear and I'm definitely not worrying about makeup. It's sad that I'm avoiding life to avoid the pain. And now the doctor I was hoping to see on August 1st when my Medicare started has decided to leave her practice because the new health care law provides for lower reimbursement and she is moving on. =(
I definitely can relate to the avoiding life to avoid the pain. I just wish my family didn't have to suffer as much as I do..................
Nannie said:
Your journey sounds so much like mine. There are times when my tongue, just touching a tooth can set off a horrible episode of shocks and then there is my dentist who poked and proded and had me bite down on a tool and nothing!! It takes me an hour to eat a simple sandwich. I can't open my mouth too far or the jolts start again and yes, I totally get the longer time to put on makeup you mentioned. I used to 'get ready for the day' including dressing and makeup even if I was just staying home to clean the house. Now, unless it's a pretty special event, I'm not caring what I wear and I'm definitely not worrying about makeup. It's sad that I'm avoiding life to avoid the pain. And now the doctor I was hoping to see on August 1st when my Medicare started has decided to leave her practice because the new health care law provides for lower reimbursement and she is moving on. =(
My pain sits in two of my teeth and half of the jaw. It's there all the time even on a good day. On a bad day it feels like abcessed teeth; in the past I sometimes wished somebody punched me in the face so that I would get rid of those rotten teeth! I get relief at night - in the past I would have sleeping problems and would be up at 5 or 6 a.m., now I don't because I'm exhausted all the time and getting up means pain!
Its definatly an electrified Ice pick driven into my temple, with all my left side, top teeth all having a toothache at the same time, and finally that awful earache. Its pretty brutal.
That is exactly how mine started. I've had it since I was 7 or 10 yrs old. I am 35 now. I would tell my parents and they would say "wheres it hurt?" I'd tell them its gone now (cuz it only lasts a couple of sec.) and they would tell me that I am fine then. I read online about "ice pick" headaches, but now that is my cue to an onset of ATN. I now get the pain in my top teeth and an earache. But yes, I know what your saying.
Brad said:
I tell people that my TN is like getting randomly stabbed in my forehead by an electrified ice pick. I've read other similar descriptions by people. Since my episodes only occur in the peripheral branches in my head, I can't say what it feels like in the face and jaw. I would like to know if others have the type that I have that are short (1/2 second) but excruciating and sometimes happen up to 500 times per day. I new to this site so I'm still trying to figure out where to post things.
Since my pain is mainly limited to my jaw and teeth, I describe it by asking people if they have ever had something very hot or very cold hit a sensitive tooth. When they can identify with that terrible sensation, I tell them to imagine having that sensation in every tooth, top and bottom, on one side of their face. Then imagine that pain continuing for 20 minutes of more, twenty times each day....
Of course once I share that most people tell me, "It can't be that bad!" I have also used the ice pick analogy, but that is usually the pain in my jaw and the side of my face when the wind blows on it, or the AC hits......