Thank you. And you are DEFINITELY not alone.
Vicki Dvorak said:
I admire your honesty, Lisa. I go through a whole bucket load of emotions, too....from peace and acceptance to anger and despair. Nice to know I'm not alone.
Lisa (iamrite) said:LyndaS, I don't think it sounds goofy at all. I hope I can come to that place someday. Right now I am rotating between denial and extreme anger that God would allow me to be afflicted with this.
Thanks, Lisa. Hope you're feeling a lot better by now.
~ Vicki
Phoebe, are you a candidate? For some reason I thought you were Type II.
I have not suffered for years, so I am probably in a very bad position to answer this now, but food for thought. First, I am 99.9% sure that I have ATN, which means I am likely not a candidate for surgery. There was no facial or dental trauma. No known cause. I have not had an MRI done yet to see if there is something on my nerve, that will be in due course shortly, I hope. However, even if there is... I am choosing to give meds a good shot first. And I am young with potentially many years of pain ahead as I am only 36. My reasoning to NOT want the surgery even if I was a candidate stems from a healthy fear of not wanting to break the blood barrier. The more I read, the less I like about that. Second, the success rate to me seems lower than I would like to take that kind of risk. If something goes terribly wrong, I have too many years to live my life without the horrid complications that come from a botched surgery of this magnitude. IMO, I need to exhaust every avenue out there, even if unconventional, before I would opt to have anyone cut into my head. As someone whose profession it is to not play at risking all, for me, I am not where I can say that it is a chance worth risking. That's my unasked for 2 cents.
Phoebe said:
I am confused, again.
To all the suffering people of years or more: Are you all individuals who have had surgeries to fix the pain and the procedures did not work? Are you individuals who opted not to take advantage of the procedures or had financial issues that did not allow you to take advantage? I am just wondering because I want to know if I am hopping on the surgical intervention train too quickly?
I started The Tour of medical professionals in August 2010, starting with dentists, ENT people, finally MRI with a neurologist and good response with tegretol and a diagnosis of TN. Then tried acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, chiropractic, neurology-board certified chiropractic with herbal treatments most of last year. Here it is over a year later and it just dawned on me, reading people's stories here and watching You Tube videos, that hey, it may be here to stay, go away awhile, then come back--sometimes as the spear through my jaw, or searing side of tongue agony, sometimes as the root canal ache. Just this month I'm thinking it's something I will learn to manage and to live with, as I have with Hashimoto's hypothyroidism for over 12 years. Today I learned not to pop a piece of chocolate into my mouth without remembering I might trigger intense pain. I stopped turning on the electric toothbrush automatically because it always kicks it off. I've figured out how to get food into the far side of my mouth that less often triggers pain, and I head to a new neurologist tomorrow morning to see about more trileptal or something different. Facing it square on finally.
Phoebe, it’s funny you should say that. About 7 or 8 years ago they found a benign tumour in my brain while doing an MRI for suspected epilepsy in relation to my miagraines. I went into complete denial about that and I haven’t bothered to have it checked out.
It’s only now that I’m experiencing this horrible pain and agony that I think I should probably get that checked out.
I think it’s a normal human emotion to these things.
Well, here I am going on approximately 3 weeks with no major TN attacks. Denial however is muddied by my gum situation. When I went to the dentist he confirmed what I suspected is that my gingivitis was flaring up again. Is it possible that gingivitis at its worst can cause TN pain? The interesting thing is sensitivity is only felt with cold things not by sweet or hot things. What’s the scoop? Also I have little cracks in a tooth far from the main area. Although it has been 3 weeks since MAJOR TN pain I have had some instances of “uh oh” discomfort.
Also the gums in the area where I normally feel my TN pain feel swollen. IThis is possible for TN and gingivitis correct?
Is TN and dodgy teeth or gums related? I have read a lot of people on this site who have crowns say this is their trigger tooth. Mine is the tooth with a reseeding gum. What is the connection between an unhealthy tooth/gums and TN?
Elstep... my guess is that this is a nerve root. So once you get that nerve disturbed, which is connected to your trigeminal nerve, then all fires are on. That's just a guess. I KNOW that when I eat sweets it disturbs things. Dentist says I have a cavity that needs attending to... So, it makes sense that anything that gets feeling from that nerve would kick up a flare or some pain.