I scanned the posts and saw where someone said something like “I just need to say it.” That’s where I am tonight. I had some botched dental work,with severe structural complications that lasted months, the first of June, by the end of June I started experiencing the symptoms of TN and was basically shamed by my oral surgeon for the pain, told there was no reason it should hurt that bad, and accused of just wanting pain medicine. Despite several questions of whether I could be experiencing a neurological problem I was told adamantly there there was absolutely no way it could be. I trusted him. I didn’t know about TN. Although my family could see my pain level rising all they had to go on we’re the words of my doctors “there’s nothing in there that should hurt that bad. She must have a low pain tolerance.” Their patience levels started wearing thin too and when the dentists decided to stop the hydrocodone 10/325 cold turkey the first of October my family had no problem saying “you’ll just have to take some ibuprofen and tough it out till the middle of December (when I had an appt with a facial pain specialist.” Only those of you on this website understand how that felt to me. What I knew I was looking at and how I knew that was a physical impossibility ! I was scared! About 5 days into my “withdrawal” my pain level spiked to a point it had never been and I had to get to the ER. THE ER doctor turned me away. She said “they don’t treat people who have had pain longer than a few days, even if it’s spiked. She told me it was against hospital pain policy to give someone a pain shot just to interrupt the pain and let them leave and when I asked about an MRI to see if they could find a diagnosis ( since I didn’t have one) I was told they save their MRI machine for people with more emergent issues than mine. My discharge papers show she gave me a script for Ultram that she didn’t give me.” I know half of that is a lie, but I had no choice but to leave and go to another ER where I was immediately diagnosed w TN, driven a shot of Dilauded, and a referral and instructions to see a Neurologist immediately!
Im’m sorry. I have to stop my venting there for now. I’ve been put on Tegretol and it makes my vision so bad at at times I can’t even see the tv much less my iPad screen. I’m almost there so I have to stop.and my other Han is starting to tremble while holding it. Which is part of what is really need support for - side effects of medicine that’s not working… Later