OK folks, we're changing seasons again. In the North - heading into winter and the colder months, and down South - heat's happening and air conditioners are already blasting holes in the ozone..
Couple of questions..
1. Does the season have an impact on your condition and triggers?
2. If it does, how do you minimise the impact on you?
I know, for me, with spring comes hay fever and usually a cold or something which sends everything haywire. Still haven't worked out how to manage it apart from living in a bubble.. Any tips?
Yes! My GPN is seasonal and flares usually sometime between September and December and lasts between 2 weeks and 2 months. The rest of the year I'm fine. I went for 4 years undiagnosed and found relief in a prednisone taper (this tells me some sort of inflammation is going on). Last year that worked until the 3 tablet day taper. I saw an ENT guy who sent me for an MRI on my head and set up an appointment with a neurologist. When I saw the neurologist he suggested I try the carbamazepine, he also gave me info on a local surgeon who does the decompression surgery. (Another person on this list had excellent results from this surgeon). He told me to drop him an email when it started for the season. I started feeling little twinges on last Saturday. Usually I have a week to ten days of little twinges, pain between 2 and 5 before it ramps up to full blown stabbing pain through my ear to eleven. I sent him an email on Saturday, he was out of the office until yesterday, but his NP got the email and got a prescription sent to my local pharmacy. The pharmacy was out of the drug until Tuesday afternoon. As a gymnastics coach I'm busy in the afternoons so I couldn't pick it up until Wednesday after lunch. Started it immediately and two days later I'm getting significant relief. Haven't experienced much in the way of side effects, fingers crossed that it stays that way.
The thing I'm trying now, since I do know that there is inflammation involved I'm trying an anti-inflammatory diet. It is really hard though when you are really busy and have teenagers around the house. Basically it is a healthy diet of real food, lots of fruits and vegetables, no red meat and lots of fish, eliminate as many processed foods as possible which we were doing anyway. Also limit foods in the nightshade family, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, and go for the dark leafies and the cruciferous veg. Eliminate diary but does allow for greek yogurt. I take it day by day and if I mess up, well tomorrow is another day. Try to follow the diet a little better each day. This is my first year trying this diet and I just have to see how it goes. I imagine that having pain relief brings about the desire to follow the diet even more.
If you find anything that works for you please share. Good luck and pain free days,
Hi Lisa, Thankyou for your response. I like the sound of the anti inflam diet. Currently on steroids again because of spring and another bug I've caught.. I'll give it a go :)
I'm coming to the realization that my GPN is seasonal. Comes in June and leaves at the end of August almost like a light switch. I'm pain free for 2 months now and paranoid for next June. I 'm going to call my neurologist surgeon and see if he has any insight into this seasonal GPN. I don't have any allergies that I know of but then who knows ! I get more info from this site than I do from the ENT's (2) and Neurologists (3) that I've seen. I read the reply from Aikipen who mentions that the culprit could be inflamation of some sort. I'll call my stable of Dr.s and see what they don't say ??
Hi, I read your message and I'm interested in the steroid you mentioned, (Prednisone Taper) Do you take this Prednisone along with the Carbamezapine and did your Dr. say that Prednisone can be effective with GPN. I'm trying to get answers with my Dr.s but so far no luck, The Neuro Surgeon operates and dosen't prescribe drugs and my other Neurologist hasn't returned my calls yet. I'd like your feedback on the steroid you take, this inflamation thing is definitely on the right track especially with seasonal GPN. There hasn't been too much feed back on this Seasonal GPN since it has been posted, I'm wondering how many of us are seasonal !!
Thanks for your input and many pain free days to you.
Rick
AikiPen said:
Smiley -
Yes! My GPN is seasonal and flares usually sometime between September and December and lasts between 2 weeks and 2 months. The rest of the year I'm fine. I went for 4 years undiagnosed and found relief in a prednisone taper (this tells me some sort of inflammation is going on). Last year that worked until the 3 tablet day taper. I saw an ENT guy who sent me for an MRI on my head and set up an appointment with a neurologist. When I saw the neurologist he suggested I try the carbamazepine, he also gave me info on a local surgeon who does the decompression surgery. (Another person on this list had excellent results from this surgeon). He told me to drop him an email when it started for the season. I started feeling little twinges on last Saturday. Usually I have a week to ten days of little twinges, pain between 2 and 5 before it ramps up to full blown stabbing pain through my ear to eleven. I sent him an email on Saturday, he was out of the office until yesterday, but his NP got the email and got a prescription sent to my local pharmacy. The pharmacy was out of the drug until Tuesday afternoon. As a gymnastics coach I'm busy in the afternoons so I couldn't pick it up until Wednesday after lunch. Started it immediately and two days later I'm getting significant relief. Haven't experienced much in the way of side effects, fingers crossed that it stays that way.
The thing I'm trying now, since I do know that there is inflammation involved I'm trying an anti-inflammatory diet. It is really hard though when you are really busy and have teenagers around the house. Basically it is a healthy diet of real food, lots of fruits and vegetables, no red meat and lots of fish, eliminate as many processed foods as possible which we were doing anyway. Also limit foods in the nightshade family, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, and go for the dark leafies and the cruciferous veg. Eliminate diary but does allow for greek yogurt. I take it day by day and if I mess up, well tomorrow is another day. Try to follow the diet a little better each day. This is my first year trying this diet and I just have to see how it goes. I imagine that having pain relief brings about the desire to follow the diet even more.
If you find anything that works for you please share. Good luck and pain free days,
i find the cold weather much more likely to cause attacks
keeping my throat warm, with a scarf when outside and wearing a mask, like the type you can get in a hardware store that painters use, helps by warming up the air before it hits my throat