Trigeminus neuralgie

The illness began quite inconspicuously, in spring I started to have weird “toothache” which were, however, neither all-day nor regular. In the beginning I did not attache a great importance to them, but soon they began to worsen rapidly. I had never experienced such pain, I could not exactly determine from where they actually come, they were very “deep”. I suspected that it was probably not typical toothache, yet I could not assign it to anything else. Moreover, I had indeed problems with teeth by that time (root canal treatment), one tooth was even extracted. However, the pain lasted for months, they appeared all along the jaws and above all they became more and more intense.The dentists assured me that the teeth were already fully all right, I even consulted the issue with several specialists. Not until one dentist alerted me that it could be trigeminal neuralgia, I arranged an appointment by a neurologist who confirmed the diagnosis. Also, I had undergone several medical examination (MRI, CT) that excluded multiple sclerosis and tumor.

The pains were distinguished by strong intensity, the intervals between them were getting shorter, the pains were deteriorating and in the end they were in fact not disappearing at all. I could not sleep, I lost 15 kilos. The doctor prescribed increasingly stronger medicaments of all sorts so that I could manage the pain at all, he even suggested gamma knife radiation. The pains absolutely hindered me from any activity, I was basically only lying, it was the worst imaginable physical pain, on the scale 0-10 the pain was of value 10. The worst thing was, however, that the pain graduated and nobody knew what to do about it. The big dose of strong medicaments resulted, of course, to substantial side effects with which it was likewise impossible to live normally.

As late as after 3/4 year, my state of health was getting better, after I had started to attend acupuncture, on the recommendation of another patient with trigemininal neuralgia. Nowadays I can say that the acupuncture literally saved me. Of course, the relief did not come immediately, I felt first improvement approximately after 6 weeks. After regular attendance twice per week, my health state considerably improved. It is important to highlight the necessity to search for true experts, in specialized centers or hospitals where they can really do the acupuncture well. Likewise, you have to be patient and completely change a lifestyle. Nowadays, after two years of treatment I can say that my state is about 90% better, I could substantially reduce the doses of medicaments, return to a normal life - of course with certain limitations. Now, the pains appear particularly in cold weather, air conditioning, wind, draught - it is therefore very important to wear a headgear - a cap or a headband - (also in the night when needed) that protects the temples where there is a main knot of trigeminus. It is often stated that the trigeminal neuralgia can be caused by the previous exposure to cold. With hindsight, I realize that before the trigeminus problem occurred, I had been working in an open office with an extreme strong air-conditioning. It is necessary to avoid all sorts of cold, including food and drinks which immediately trigger strong pain. Contrary, warm, staying on the sun, only warm food and drinks and using of infrared light is very desirable. Similarly, the trigeminus is enormously sensitive to the touch, the pain is triggered by brushing teeth or chewing, therefore the best is to avoid hard food. A big problem represent stress, fatigue and various sorts of noise, primarily high tones - to be in a noisy restaurant, cinema, theatre or at a concert is almost impossible.

Last but not least, I would like to mention my experience with doctors - unfortunately there are only a very few experts that truly know trigeminal neuralgia and can listen to the patients, really help them. Too often I met with an approach that the doctor did not know what do, or worse they did not listen to me, only prescribed some medicaments that had no effect at all, in the worst case contested the diagnosis (and this at the time when I was experiencing the worst pain) or even asserted that everyone had a different pain threshold and that in fact, the trigeminal neuralgia was not so bad or that doing sports would help. It is clear that such a doctor does not know at all what the trigeminal neuralgia is about. So, the treatment was psychically difficult, unfortunately due to the approach of certain “doctors” too. Nevertheless I was so lucky to finally manage to reduce the pains, thanks to the acupuncture, high-quality doctors and suitable medicaments.

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