It was moving day...
Like many Neuralgia patients, I can remember the first moment I felt the excruciating pain that would alter my life forever. For me, it came on moving day.
The wind had been blowing a little while we worked, and I thought I had another ear infection. As a competitive swimmer for many years, ear infections were old hat. This one felt worse and it went down my throat. I was in tears. After a sleepless night, I called an ENT for an appointment a week or so later.
By the time I made it in to see the ENT the shooting pain was gone. He looked in my ear, declared that I had no sign of an ear infection and ordered an MRI. I knew my ears were scarred from chronic infections I'd had in years past, so I was really confused. I told him I didn't want an MRI, so with no warning, he grabbed a long thin piece of metal and pushed it up my nose and scraped behind my eyes. I grabbed the arms of the chair I sat in and uttered words that would make a sailor blush. The doctor offered no apologies and promptly disappeared. When he returned, he told me the scraping was clear and I must have TMJ dysfunction. He grabbed my jaw, wrenching it from one side to the other telling me, "Do this twice every day for a month and come back to see me." After wearing braces from the 4th grade until 4 months before my wedding day, I knew I didn't have TMJ, and I left - dazed - never to return.
At first the shooting, tingling pain came infrequently - a couple times a year perhaps. Gradually I began to have trouble more frequently.
I went to another ENT because Migraine issues had taken hold of my life and we were grasping for straws to find something to help me. I had acquired severe facial pain, a changed voice, crud in my throat, and difficulty swallowing. It was the difficulty swallowing and getting kicked in the face by a horse that finally led me to try an ENT again. Well, 2 ENT's actually.
Both doctors were much more interested in my broken facial bones and the crushed nerve in my cheek, than the rest of my symptoms. Eventually, the face healed and I tried one of the ENT's again, this time asking about the headaches