I am often left to wonder why it is neurosurgeons will tell TN patients, that they will wake up pain free, when one has MVD surgery. How can it be expected, that a nerve, damaged over time, will heal overnight? Both neurosurgeons I have had told me, not to expect to wake up pain free, but to expect it to take up to a year to get good pain relief. In the case of my first MVD it took 8 months. The pain shifted, and I have had other surgeries I never woke up pain free from any of them, but I do not consider them a failure. Everyone reduced the pain along the nerve branch, it was done to treat. The V1 branch has been difficult, as it can not be totally numbed without putting the sight in my eye at risk, so I am stuck with the pain, there. Still, the surgery I had for the V1 branch, has lessened the number of attacks, and I am grateful.. I wonder if, when a person wakes up pain free, if in fact the nerve is not just numb due to being manipulated during surgery. I am also left to wonder, when a neurosurgeon tells a patient they can expect to wake up pain free, if they are just saying what they think the patient wants to hear, so they can get them into surgery, and then collect the insurance payment.
P.S. The only reason I have had two neurosurgeons, is my first surgeon moved out of state for another neurosurgical fellowship. Since then, I have learned he is back in Oregon. At Peacehealth, in Springfield. I would highly recommend Dr Jorge Eller to you, as I would Dr Ahmed Raslan at OHSU in Portland.
I agree!
I was never told to expect to be TN pain free upon waking of surgery by any of the neurosurgeons I consulted with.
I in fact did wake up TN pain free but as I reduced my meds from 3-1 and got the 1 to a certain level the pain increased.
At this point I knew the surgery hadn’t miraculously taken my TN away BUT it did reduce my pain significantly for awhile.i was TN pain free on 1 med for 4 months and then by 5 months post op my pain increased.
MVD took my pain from an excruciating med resistant level to a tolerable level for quite some time. As I approach my one year MVD mark, I’m currently unfortunately at a med resistant level again.
Do I regret MVD? Not a chance!
It’s imperative that we ALL do our homework and know before MVD the realistic prognosis.
I researched and knew what my prognosis could be after MVD. The good and the bad… It’s so important to be informed and have realistic expectations.
Of course we all want to be pain free, we must think positively and always always hope for the best possible outcomes.
I woke up in EXCRUCIATING nerve pain after my MVD. My surgeon predicted that that would happen and told me I would feel like I was hit by a train when I woke up. My nerve was so compressed that once it was freed it was mis-firing all over the place. I couldn’t have even fathomed the pain before hand. The pain tapered and 48 hrs after surgery I was 100% pain free. That was in Nov 2013. I’m still going down on my meds (When my break though pain started a few months earlier I was only on 900mg of triliptal. I was up to 2700mg of triliptal and 40mg of baclofen-and it didn’t even so much as touch the pain) and just have a few more weeks and will be med free for the first time in 3 yrs. and am still 100% pain free.
I totally agree with your statement and it is irresponsible of a surgeon to tell a patient something that they themselves in no way can guarantee.