trigeminal neuralgia

 thank you smiling now. 9 attacks in one day for the last month, yes but i use FROZEN spinach as my reserve facepack, also edible .

Hi yvonne, sad to hear you`ve joined the club, FROZEN peas were told to me 20 yrs ago by the paramedics in Worthing. no good news though it is recurrent and the pain intencifies as you get older. a tablet of co-codamol under the tongue can ease the early onset, i`m on tramadol unofficially that is only in extreme  see doc  i feel your pain.

Tramadol just make me feel terrible and doesn't do anything.

I am about to have MVD on 25th May. Have you had it done?

No mate but I've heard its a 90% success rate and potentially may return after some years but I think it's worth it.

My Doctors are reluctant to pass me to the specialist so far and I am not having the shocks like a volley which would qualify an op.

Please update me and all the best for your op which in my opinion going to be a great success :-)

apparently i  will be in intensive care for 2 days then in hospital for a week. 4-6 weks for recovery which is mainly while they get you off the drugs and also because you have to be very careful how you move your shoulders and neck because they have put a plate in the head. Incision is expected to be approx 5cm and i will have metal staples for  few weeks. So it could be end first week of June before you hear any results from me.

Where are you having the op? In UK or? How did you and your Doctors reach this conclusion? My Doctor said I am too young to have it. I am 47. Are they talking rubbish?

I am in Australia. I started on Tegretol only in July last year when the small intermittent stabs turned into a sustained episode which left me unable to work or even get out of bed (the pain was less if i laid on my right side) I rapidly moved from 200mg Tegretol a day to needing 800mg a day. When this also was not controlling the daily pain the neuralogist added Lyrica. Now this is no longer effective either so i am having the op. My GP had immediately referred me to a neurologist for investigation within a week of my starting Tegretol so i could get an immediate professional diagnosis and i was referred on to a surgeon within a couple of week of that. Doctor then asked the neurologist if there were any other drugs he felt might be of use or whether surgery was the best option. The surgeon then asked me if the pain was interfering with my quality of life as i saw it. When i said yes, he offered me the surgery. I dont know about the rules in your country that GP's are under from your country's health service. Have you not seen a neurologist also?

Thanks for that.

I've had this for one year so I am still undergoing cocktails of drugs which as you know makes you feel drowsy etc. Yesterday I lost my job as I work in Sales but as I felt unwell 3 week out of every month my targets are down. So yeah it effects you quality of life. If I don't get another job I'll be homeless too... TN has and is ruining my life bit by bit. Yes thank goodness for NHS if you can push them to get treatments. I have had MRI but it doesn't show anything. TN that's only seen under exploratory surgery right?

Are you of working age Val? Working and TN is a nightmare, is anyone else going through this too? Can exercise ie gym help with TN. I know we are not suppose to operate machinery or drive but I'll be lost without my car.

Sometimes it shows on an MRI apparently and sometimes not. The specialist who did my MRI said several small veins were in evidence near the nerve but that there is also a lesion (which i was told is a small, slow growing, benign lump) nearby also which needs to be removed as it either is, or soon may be pressing on the nerve also.My work agreed to me having one day a week off (today) so i can sleep because i am tired all the time but i am a trainer (for frontline cashiers) so i have to be alert which is difficult. op will cost me $500 in a private hospital for 5 or 6 days plus anethetist fees of about $250 or so. Would have been free as a public patient but i want it done now.

I am 62 but wanted to work another couple of years really. This now depends on the outcome of the op since if i had just kept taking the medication, i would have had to give up work immediately. Up to now, i have only been able to drive short distances before i get too tired and lose concentration. Fortunately, my son works in town like me so we have been car pooling. I still fall asleep in the car coming home with him driving though.

God bless you Val and this op will have you back to normal in two shakes of a lambs tail :-)

The treatments here are so slow it took 6 months to get an appointment with pain clinic and to be fair it was a waste of time. They want to refer me to an ear nose threat specialist as I have ear ache with it. I think this is common for TN sufffers? So I'll go through the motions of that and see what they say.