This past week I started to feel a sore throat and post-nasal drip for a few days but was so busy I disregarded it as low on my list of symptom annoyances. Once Friday came around, I could barely lift my head. The pain was a solid 7 for me; it felt like my head would explode. It was so pressuring I couldn't focus, think or function. My teeth were so painful it felt like they would pop out of my mouth like popcorn. Along my jaw the sensitivity was so bad I couldn't touch it, and I usually get relief from massaging my jaw and teeth through my cheek. Saturday I slept until 5pm, horrified that I had woken up and was worse off than the day before. My ear was pressurized and throbbing, I couldn't hear through it. I put drops in it and immediately knew what a mistake that was from the intense pain and stabbing feeling it caused. Not until it moved into my ear did I realize I had a sinus/ear infection and recognize the slight difference in the type of pain compared to my regular TN symptoms.
I started taking penicillin I had hoarded and by Sunday night, the pain was more tolerable and I even went to work today. Although I shouldn't have. It was a horrible, pain-filled, miserable day. What the sinus/ear infection did to my regular TN symptoms made me feel like a trapped, rabid animal gone mad. The shocks were relentless. My face became swollen and uneven. The pressure in my sinuses conducted a whole symphony of horrors including jolts, throbbing teeth, nerve wiggling feeling and terror that this was a whole new level of TN I was drifting into that I would not be able to cope with.
Do you experience a lot of sinus and/or ear infections? How do you handle the unbelievable pain and pressure and what it does to the nerves? I never let myself cry because it sets off horrible symptoms, but not as bad as this. I go from chilling AC at work (which kills my face), then outside to 100 degree heat. The barometric pressure has been heavy because of impending storms, and I feel it when it changes.
The penicillin then screws up my stomach in ways I don't even want to describe. Is there a way to avoid the infections? I started off on new meds...could that have contributed? I steamed my sinuses and this gave relief but the hot cloth was too much for the jaw tenderness that couldn't even be touched.
What I also want to ask is if this sounds to anyone like more than a sinus or ear infection? If you suffer from this, please tell me what you do to get through it. I drank gallons of water and still wanted more. I was completely out of it, seeing stars and feeling like I was going to pass out from the pain. Anyone have similar experiences with infections? Thank you.
For the stomach problems from the antibiotics, I recommend taking Align. It's somewhat expensive, but I have found that it is the most helpful thing available. Hope you feel better soon.
Thanks very much for the advice! Had to get steroid and antibiotic shots at walk-in clinic today, and prescription of augmentin. I will definitely try Align. The peroxide rinse sounds like a good idea too. In addition to the TN, I can't believe all the extra peripheral junk we have to deal with. I've really had enough, you know? TN Overload.
Thank you for the nice message. I used Imitrex for a quite a while, before I was hit with TN. I had the type of migraine that would shut down my vision, this happened twice. It wouldn't come back until I slept and when I woke up it was back to normal. Migraines feel a lot like TN to me, only in the jaw/cheek/tooth area. I also use a product called HeadOn Migraine, it's topical and it helps sometimes. Mentholatum is something I use too! D o you take a lot of meds and are you able to work? I do, but I'm out every other week for a day or half day due to pain I can't control. Rest of the time I try to deal with it best I can, but I'll never be an attendance All-Star.
Yep I as well Colleen,
I have never had any sinus infections ever, and I am an old guy:) My GP put me on some meds for this that did not work at all and I just finished a ZPack. It seems to provide some relief at this early stage. My health has been great my entire life and still doing well, but I am more aware of just always washing my hands after meeting and greeting folks. Don’t want to gross you out but there is a lot of flem that the drip produces and hopefully it will subside soon.
I need to have a shoulder operation after being in a car accident 11 months ago and this is holding things up big time.
As far as my TN (again for the moment at least) it is a non issue. I am taking Trilpetal and it is working like magic.I had tried 4 other meds and failed miserably. I am so fortunate that this (again for the moment) to have my type 2 being a non issue. Positive thinking is always the key and to as mobile as you are able to with horrible disease, I feel.
My motto in life is …action cures anxiety…and always think of all the people who have it so much worse, even in our most desperate times with TN.
Yes! I'm still using the patches but not during the sinus/ear thing. The only thing I could put on my face was an ice gel pack which would normally kill me, but helped so much with the pain from the infection and the swelling. The patches are a nice security extra for out of control days though.
Kc Dancer Kc said:
the lidocaine patches only helping somewhat still - a little for now?
I forgot to get an update!
probably didn't want anything else extra on your face with sinus infection!!!
Thank you Sherry, I cannot imagine what it's been like for you. You're very tough. My neuro is so afraid of giving pain-related meds for fear I will become dependent. I tried to explain to him that TN has already destroyed my quality of life, and I would rather have it be shortened with pain under control than try to suffer through a minute of pain that could otherwise be controlled. I will have this for the rest of my life, as it stands now, unless someone invents a fix. I have tried almost everything available to me, diligently researching and trying options, procedures and treatments. Adults should have the right to decide how much pain they can handle and what they wish to take for it. I've had MRIs that show nothing, thankfully I guess. Even though TN is just a damaged nerve sending a signal to my brain that I'm in severe pain doesn't lessen the pain, you know? I have an appt with a pain management doc on Mon. I'm already nervous and stressed and worn out from the explaining, the lack of information I experience with most docs who've never treated or studied TN. The sense that they control how my day to day pain management will go. It makes me crazy. I have the dry mouth too, it's awful. TN demands complete attention and every extra dollar I earn. It's relentless and with me every moment, every day/night. And I am so sorry to hear what you deal with and everything you have to take. I'm glad you wrote though, thank you so much.
sherrycees61 said:
Hi Colleen.
Isn't it great that mentholatum works on a variety of things, unfortunately I did not benefit from it TN wise. Colleen, I am on a lot of medication. I also suffer from severe fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome and myasthenia gravis. The meds I take are gabapentin, klonopin(been on it for 22 years) for fibromyalgia. I will never be able to get off klonopin and I wish I never had started that but at that time it was the treatment of choice for fibromyalgia. I also take baclofen and imipramine. These meds give me horrible dry mouth. I am on permanent disability because of fibro and myasthenia gravis. TN feels like it has stolen my life. It is hard to make plans when you don't know how TN pain will affect you day to day. My migraines started from a 7 foot fall onto marble tile face first in 2007 and were very frequent. I think my TN is related to that fall. Sometimes it feels like sinus problems and I wait and see if sudafed or something close to it works or not. If not, I know for sure it is TN+migraine. It's hard sometimes just to function day to day and then I have days it lets up a bit. The only predictable thing about it is that it is unpredictable. My PCP handles my meds rather than my neurologist, who would rather stand back-kind of crazy there. You are right about TN overload and the other junk we have to deal with. What gets me is trying to get my family to understand and I think now they do. I had an MRI/MRA done to rule out brain tumor or aneurysms. Glad I had this done. Talk with you PCP and if you feel you need a second opinion, then ask for one. We have to be our own advocates when it comes to healthcare. I am an RN but just can't work anymore due to these things. I just want to be normal!! Oh well, don't we all.
Take care Colleen. Please stay in touch. Feel free to vent anytime. I am a good listener.
I do find that when I get a head cold of any kind it triggers an attack from TN. I only get light shocks all day, but major attacks 3x a year. I have a head cold now and my TN is setting in on me. My teeth are all hurting and my jaw too. I do wanna say they can go hand in hand. This will be the 2nd time for me to have my Tn tripped by a head cold.
I was just diagnosed with TN but also suffer from chronic sinus infections and as soon as I even suspect that I am getting a sinus infection I run to my dr..to get antibiotics and clear it up asap if not my pain level goes from what is normally about a 5-6 to a 10 plus and all I want to do is rip my upper right teeth out and then grab my cheek and rip it off!! I really hope that you are feeling better
I will be running for treatment next time. I ended up in the ER (where you can really get killed). After 2 weeks of augmentin & clindomycin, it took prednisone to get me back to mostly human.
I was home sick with the ear & sinus infection plus the joy of TN, and the power went out here for 24 hrs. It was over 100 degrees in the apt. I got dehydrated and pretty sure I got brain damage too :) Ah well, nobody noticed so I'm good. TN is worse than Hostel, Saw, even Jaws.
I love your comparing TN to Hostel and Saw. That is about right. That really is crappy not having power on top of your pain. I feel for ya. I hope you are in a better place today and if not really soon.
I had the same thing happen yesterday, the sinus pain was so bad, and they were so stuffed up, I actually threw up! My headache was one of the worst I ever had and until I got sick it didnt let up, it also caused all my TN pain to flare like crazy. I am going to the doctor this week to discuss, but I think it was a combo of sinus drip and my stomach has had enough of the narcotics I am on. I tend to get more post nasal drips with the narcotics and I believe that is what made this so bad. It was a lousy day yesterday to say the least