I had joined this forum a while back for my dad when he had started developing symptoms of TN. However, later on, it was found to be Trigeminal Neuroma and not neuralgia.
However, I am now joining this forum back since just now, I came to know about my friend who has been diagnosed with this disease. I came to know about it just 10 minutes back. Today morning, her MRI scan reports arrived and she was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia. The symptoms were severe pain in the left side of the face for almost about 30 minutes. She consulted an ENT specialist who adviced her to go for an MRI scan. She hasn't consulted a neurophysician yet.
Could you please suggest the next steps? I have already asked her to consult a neurophysician.
I would request you all to include her in your prayers so that she gets well soon.
Just to add the content from the MRI scan report. It says "Vascular crossing over the left trigeminal nerve at the nerve root exit zone with mild indentation of the nerve and minimal deviation. Correlation for features of trigeminal neuralgia suggested."
Please help me understand the serverity of the disease.
Simi, you may want to read the cluster of articles under our Face Pain Info tab, and/or the featured article on the home page "TN Fact Sheet". As to severity... the bad news is there are two types of TN pain, and either of the two is widely considered to be the most severe form of neurological pain known to medical practice. This type of pain can have multiple causes or no apparent cause at all. It can come and go without rhyme or reason. And it can be so severe that conventional opioid pain relievers don't touch the problem at any dose which leaves the patient awake. There are fortunately other medication options, about which you'll read. The article on "Coping With Crisis" may also be good training for you.