Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone else has shared some of my experiences with TN. I was only diagnosed in January 2012 by my GP, but first had this intense pain on the left side of my face in November 2005 (I was 33 then). Over the last 7 years, it mainly tends to occur after periods of having little sleep or being stressed, although it doesn't happen every time I'm sleep-deprived.
Been lucky so far, and only have pain 2 or 3 times a year on average, previously without any treatment except for some rest until it went away. But my episode in January was too severe to simply let it go away; missed 2 days of work and was seriously going loopy! The weird thing about this episode was that it occurred the night before the 10 year anniversary of my father's death (I knew this anniversary wasn't far away, but forgotten the specific day). Does TN and the brain in general work in mysterious ways, or is this merely a coincidence?
This year, I’ve only had 2 episodes – in January as mentioned, and last week. Tegretol has worked within about 5-6 hours on the 2 occasions I’ve had to use it, which is 100mg per day of Carbamazepine taken as half a tablet twice a day. Reading others' experiences here I realise my case is relatively mild, so can't really complain.
I've been seeing a neurologist for another condition since September 2005, which is electrical shocks going through the spine and into the arms and legs, similar to restless leg syndrome. Or at least that's what my neuro has always thought. Since September 2005 I've been taking dopamine to help me sleep, as the electric shocks made it difficult to sleep. Silly me, I didn't really think of linking the neuralgia with this condition, despite both coming into my life within a short time frame. However, the neuro doesn't necessarily think they're related. Until January, I just assumed the pain was a headache or sinus-related pressure because it always went away after no more than 2 days.
But since my GP diagnosed TN I've had MRI and EEG tests which ruled out epilepsy, MS or tumours (my neuro's main concern was MS, since my brother has it). I'm starting to question everything that my neurologist tells me now, and just wondering if any other TN sufferers have had electric shock like impulses through the body. Sorry for the tl;dr post, but I guess it's important to provide as much detail as possible for accuracy.
Cheers.