I had been suffering TN for a year, my doctor tried three different medicine and al of the had terrible side effects. I finally went to the doctors and to talk about other methods we could use to control the pain, he mentioned two procedures one was the Gamma knife and the other was Microvascular decompression. The Gamma Knife did not interest me because they said it could come back and I could have numbing, that did not sound like fun but the surgery scared me to death. I talked with my doctor about it for at least one hour before I made the decision to have it. I can tell you my fear never really went away but I had the surgery on 10/24/2013, when I woke up from the surgery I had no pain from the TN. I cried tears of joy my life was mine again, I was dizzy from the surgery but it only lasted about 10 days and was back to work in two weeks, I know what your thinking but I work from home so it was easy to go back to work. I am so happy I had the surgery, I had no bad things happen after I just feel like the old me. I am 48 years old and that might have alot to do with it but if you are thinking about it do it and if you need someone to talk to about it I am here to talk. SO HAPPY I DID IT.
Thats awesome news we need more people to post what positive results MVD can bring. I like you had MVD when I was 33. That was 30 years ago and it also gave me my life back. Been 30 years pain free and I cherish every one of those days. It is such a blessing to be rid of that TN pain. Heres to a live without TN GIGI..Good luck and stay pain free.
I am so happy to hear you have been pain free for 30 years, that is so encouraging to me. Thanks alot.
Congrats on the success. My MVD only helped for 8 weeks. But the surgery was a breeze for me, no complications, back to work in 10 days. Hospital bill was $74k to my insurance, my max out of pocket was capped at $2k. I'm 29. Also my pain was mostly atypical, so low odds to begin with, but I had to try it.
So happy for you, Gigi! I too highly recommend having MVD done for TN. I had surgery almost 6 weeks ago (Oct. 30) by the awesome Dr. Casey. Not a single complication and recovery so far has been very easy. I'm headed back to work this week (I work as a spin instructor) but could have done it earlier, I think. My TN pain is not yet gone as my nerve is healing but I can tell that it is on it's way out. It's a little 2 steps forward and 1 step back but the forward times are getting more and more. I expect to be weaning off my meds sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. I was just diagnosed with TN this year, in January, and it took me about a month to decide that I was going the MVD route. It's the only thing that fixes the problem. I was scared as the date approached but the day of surgery I was super calm and even happy. I will let you all know the day my pain is zero and my meds are all done :)!