Hi all. Quick background about me: I was in a terrible car accident in February 2010 and suffered head/neck injuries and concussion. Fast forward to August 2010 and I had my first migraine. I received botox for migraines and it worked. After the second round three months later, I had my first TN attack. It took doctors about a year to diagnose me with TN after my initial attack. After 4 years of managing my TN with meds, it was out of control and I had to get an MVD. It didn't work and I got another MVD about 4 months later this past November that kind of worked. I am not having the electric shock pain anymore but am still getting a throbbing pain behind my left eye/temple area and under my eye. The pain fluctuates on a daily basis. I have been to two doctors and they believe I have chronic migraines but because I also have TN it is hard to separate out what pain is which. I am so confused at this point and just don't know what to do or who to believe. I know TN and migraines can be caused by trauma but I don't think I have chronic migraines. Do any of you have TN and migraines? And if you do, how did you figure it out? How are you treating your migraines? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Hi. I have migraines which have progressively gotten worse since my 20's. I'm now 50. I began treating my migraines with Imitrex. Worked like a dream. HOWEVER, I was needing it almost daily, and insurance only paid for 9 doses/month (my neurologist doubled the strength of the pills and I break them in half to get 18 doses/month). Because of the frequency of my headaches, we began botox treatments. They work for me, and I get the injections every three months in my forehead, down my neck, and across my shoulders. I had my first TN attack in July 2014, thinking I had a toothache. A year later, my neurologist reluctantly diagnosed TN and prescribed oxcarbapezine. I had a bad reaction to it (and had reacted badly to other anti-convulsants (Topamax, Lamictal) in a search for the right migraine med several years prior). I then gave up on my neurologist for treating my TN and went to a neurosurgeon who specialized in treating TN. I had gamma knife surgery on March 3, 2016. Over the last month, I have had one or two particularly bad TN pain days. On bad days, I almost always get migraine with it and the Imitrex continues to help. Since the gamma knife surgery, my eye no longer feels like it is in a clamp. The migraine portion is usually around my eye while the TN portion is now concentrated only in my tooth and up the side of my nose. My neurosurgeon said the gamma knife surgery will help my headaches. Sometimes I can feel the pain TRYING so hard to get through. It's a weird sensation!
I think there is a correlation between TN and migraine in me. My sister also gets really bad headaches but doesn't want to pursue a TN diagnosis because she doesn't have insurance. I wonder if what we have is hereditary, for others in the previous generation also suffered from bad headaches. Back then, our grandmother treated it with capudine (and probably a nip of whiskey, too). Our uncle went to Johns Hopkins in search of treatment as well. I don't think they knew then what they know today (it was in the 60's & 70's). And unfortunately, our relatives are now deceased, so we can't ask them!