Ok, I have a question for everyone. I have ATN primarily on the right side of my face, and have been in the middle of a flare up for about a week now. During this time, my jaw and cheek started swelling up real bad, and I developed a pretty bad ringing in my ears. My mouth was throbbing so bad I couldn't sleep for two days. Finally was able to get to the doctor only to find out I have an Acute Ear Infection in the ear on the right side. According to the doctor it was so bad, it caused the Trigeminal to flare up even worse. Ok, so she put me on pretty strong antibiotics (Cefprozil 500 mg twice a day) and some Meloxicam 15 mg to help with the swelling. After 4 days now, my jaw and cheek are still swollen but some of the pain has subsided enough to sleep. At least the electric shocks have stopped for the moment. Even the Tegretol I"m on didn't help the pain. Nothing was cutting through the pain. So I guess I'm just wondering if anybody else has encountered this before, and if so, what did they do to help with the pain. I've tried everything I could think of, but yet my jaw won't stop hurting. I thought the Trigeminal pain was bad before, but holy cow, throw in an ear infection in the middle ear, and it's tripled. Has anyone even heard of an ear infection doing this to the Trigeminal nerve? Just curious at this point. And thanks for any advice.
I can't imagine how painful that must be. Here's my 2 cents worth - I had a few ear infections 20+ years ago in my right ear (which also happens to be my ATN side) and it's been sensitive to the cold and gusts of wind for years, long before the ATN began. Once in a while I'll accidentally get water in that ear when showering, and that will definitely, in my case, set off pain in the facial nerves, sometimes for days. I also get migraines and when one of those starts, it will trigger the nerve pain into a huge flare up. So it doesn't surprise me that your ear infection aggravated the TN. Something really simple that helps me sometimes - a heating pad. Hope you feel better soon.