?? Anything specifically happen that brought on your pain? What are your symptoms? What helps you? Thanx
Not sure what, if anything, brought on my pain in July 2014. Symptoms began as a single toothache, but nothing wrong with the tooth. Within a few days, I was in the ER where they doped me up with enough stuff that took 2 days to sleep off. Over time, pain progressed to the side of nose. ENT checked sinuses, and no deep infection. Imitrex (Sumatriptan) helped for awhile. Pain then progressed to eyeball. Feels like it is in a clamp. Imitrex doesn't help anymore, but I still take it during an attack because it feels like the worst migraine ever around my eye. I lay in bed with my face on a baggie of ice and heat on my neck and try to sleep through it. My attacks usually last a full 12 hours. I reacted badly to all anti-convulsants that I have tried over the last 10 years for both migraine and TN. I take Elavil (amitriptaline) daily to ward off the daily pain. It helps keep it managed. I had an attack on Dec. 21 and another one today (so almost 3 weeks in between). I couldn't go to my neurosurgeon appt today for a follow-up because I couldn't drive. The pain affects my vision. It takes 4-5 weeks to get another appt.
Are you sure you aren’t typical since you have " attacks"? Atn from everything I read and heard from drs is usually constant.
It was constant before I got the Elavil (Amitriptaline). My neurosurgeon has not yet differentiated between typical or atypical. He just said, "This is TN. Let's proceed with surgical treatment." I had an MRI on Dec. 23 and was supposed to receive results today so that we could schedule gamma knife surgery. Now I have to wait just a little while longer ...
I first got it 20 odd years ago although it was misdiagnosed at the time. I had numbness and some pain but it would last several months and then stop. This pattern repeated itself over the next decade or so and at the time a Neuro diagnosed it as a form of migraine.
Fast forward nearly 4 years ago and I had a broken tooth fixed on what used to be my troublesome side. Two days later I bit into a lime tart and......zap!!!!! I thought my mouth had exploded.
That's how it started back for me, as classic TN. After about a year on Tegretol it's settled into ATN. A lot of numbness in my tounge, lips and gums mostly. Burning and aching in my cheek. Teeth that feel like they want to snap in half or just all ache together on one side.
I still take Tegretol because I worry about theTN side of it and I take Nortriptyline. I don't know how much that helps though.
too exucathed to write- but i t know how the pain BEGAN (dental fillings )but i think it developed to overall imbalnce in all jaw system.