Has anyone else found the vein in their temple to be more pronounced on the side of the head TN pain is located? Right now pain runs primarly from my nose/sinus area on the right side of my head and goes straight to my right temple, but it is always in the temple. The vein is visually and by touch raised. Many things can set it off - swallowing, talking, breathing in too deeply, etc. I did have a full appointment with an opthamologist to verify it was not related to my eyes in any way. I'm a little concerned with why this vein is raised.
Cheers,
Carol
I think you are probably dealing with a medical coincidence in this instance, Carol. Some cases of TN certainly trace to vascular compressions in the deep region close to the brain stem. But as far as I know, surface vessels are neither affected by TN nor a factor in its causes. It's certainly possible that you have a pain trigger in that region of your face. But enlargement of a vessel isn't necessary for that trigger to operate.
It probably is just one of those things - I'll take that! I did have a full opthamolic exam two weeks ago which was reassuring. Can you explain to me what causes a blood vessel to start pressing on nerve? I understand the "chain of events" after it starts pressing or rubbing on the nerve, but haven't really read anything that explains why this starts in the first place. Thank you for all the time and knowledge you share on this site.
Actually, it might be more accurate to say that blood vessels "lie against" the nerve, though in a few cases the blood vessel may even grow THROUGH the nerve. The region surrounding the brain stem has a lot of these vessels, and when one or more of them sag or "drape" against the nerve and constantly stimulate it with the pulse, a case of TN can result. It is theorized that the myelin layer around the nerve is worn away or otherwise compromised by this pulsing, allowing internal nerve fibers to communicate between themselves in a manner that they normally wouldn't. This cross-talk allows nerve impulses occurring in one type of strand to be sensed by other types as peripheral stimulus, even though the stimulus really isn't happening at the end of the nerve. Over stimulation wears down the overall control mechanisms which keep track of what kinds of stimulus are actually occurring.
A confounding factor in this process, however, is that many people will have such a compression and never show evidence of the disorder in face pain (this has been demonstrated in post-mortem studies ). Likewise the mechanisms underlying Atypical (Type II) TN have not yet been characterized , though they appear to have more of a systemic or distributed nature, rather than discrete point-of-impact damage-creating mechanism.
Diagnosticians have a tough time with TN and ATN for multiple reasons. Not least of these is that the disorder seems to have more of the character of a neuropathy (damage to the nerve from discrete causes) than neuralgia (inflammation). In many cases where MVD is used, the patient will wake up completely pain free (other than the incision) -- which strictly speaking shouldn't happen in an inflammatory process.
My two Red cents, for whatever they're worth.
Regards, Red
I'm wondering what might cause a blood vessel that didn't lie,sag or drape against the nerve before to start doing that. What causes the vessel to change? Is it age - I know I'm sagging in places I didn't before, but never thought about my blood vessels making that change too!!!
I appreciate your thoughtful and through responses.
Though it's a surmise, yes "age" is a plausible answer... One more evidence that Mother Nature can sometimes be a mean b*tch.
{:-)
Regards, Red
Thank you. I appreciate the humor!