Well, today I went back into work after a week of much needed rest, and as soon as I was in for an hour or so; I knew I was back too soon (and given the fact I had barely slept a wink last night). Struggled to talk and the pain behind my eye and in my cheek was searing. I did as much as I could (I’m a terrible workaholic…), and went off to the Dr. in terrible wind and rain - not good weather with TN even with an umbrella and thick scarf!
Really lovely lady who was very understanding and who had worked with TN patients before (how lucky!). She prescribed Tramadol to assist with the pain and hopefully, that will help me sleep through as well. It’s been odd how the worst pain has been kicking off around 11/12 at night. Keeps breaking my sleep and stops me from falling back to sleep. Keep waking up sucking on my cheek to try and stop it.
She is also referring me to the Pain Clinic which helps people in chronic pain deal with how it affects every day life and assists with helping recognise how to cohabit with it and how to work with it and around it and accept it.
Will see how it goes.
Hi Smurfette,
I’m sorry that you’re having such a rough patch at the moment. I’m also a self-confessed workaholic and totally understand how difficult it is working when you’ve had hardly any sleep and just feel awful. I had to walk the dog earlier and yes the wind is blowing some here today.
I hope you don’t have too long a wait for an appointment for the pain clinic. Keep us informed on that.
Sorry you’re having such a rough time of it, Smurfette. I’m a bit of a workaholic too and going on little to no sleep is just awful. Glad to hear you had some luck with the doctor, though! Hopefully you will get into the pain clinic soon. Once I started seeing a neurologist specializing in pain management, it made a huge difference. Hopefully it will do so for you as well!
Thanks ladies
I’m currently awake with it, went to bed at 11, was all nice and cosy and quite sleepy from the new meds. Drifted off at 11ish and wide awake with an attack at 12:30. It’s 3:30 now and it isn’t subsiding much, even though I have taken my full normal morning dose of meds (Tegretol and Gabapentin) plus the new one
What I am wondering is why it is rather manageable in comparison during the day? I thought it might be change in pressure when lying down, but surely I would feel it immediately and it would right itself once I sat up? I read this article but it doesn’t seem to fit for me:
"Pain Pract. 2008 Jul-Aug;8(4):263-8. Epub 2008 May 23.
Trigeminal neuralgia during sleep.
Devor M, Wood I, Sharav Y, Zakrzewska JM.
Department of Cell and Animal Biology, Institute of Life Sciences and Center for Research on Pain, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Pain paroxysms in trigeminal neuralgia (TN) are sudden and extremely intense. Nonetheless, many clinicians who treat TN report that patients are rarely if ever awakened at night by pain attacks. If true, this observation is important as it implies the presence of a powerful sleep protective mechanism. We queried TN patients and their habitual sleep partners about painful awakenings and discovered that such awakenings are in fact quite common. As during the day, pain paroxysms during sleep are typically induced by natural stimuli at TN trigger points. Brief attacks sometimes occur without frankly awakening the patient, but they appear nonetheless to be painful.
