I have been suffering with tn for the last three years. It has been a very hard journey. It took approx a year and a half to diagnois the problem after spending thousands of dollars on tests and visiting numerous doctors, dentist and specialists they said it was TN. About a year ago a neurologist put me on tegretol. I started with 200mg a day and was up to 900 mg a day. I couldn't hardly work between the pain, fatique and the mental fog I was just waiting for every day to pass so I could go to sleep. I really didn't want to live because I felt I had no quality of life. I was turning into a hermit and did not want to be around anyone. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it because they had no idea of how bad it was and why it didn't go away. When the pain started I couldn't function. I couldn't even talk. When an attack it lasted anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes and the pain was unbearable then when it went away I felt fine. I am sure anyone that was around me was wondering how 1 minute you can be in so much pain and the next be fine.
A month ago I started going to an upper cervical care chriopractic center. I am hoping this will help. They only deal with the bones in the neck unlike a regular chriopractor. There are only 2 centers in my state(Ohio) but everytime I am in there people have come from hours away to be treated. I haven't stopped the meds but I reduced the dosage. I have actually had 5 whole days without pain. It did come back last weekend but Tuesday I had an adjustment and it feels better today. I am trying to positive this is going to help. I have tried just about everything else(even accupunture) and I refuse to have surgery due to the fact of the the side effects. I will keep you posted on how it is working and if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me
Lee