Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Ever heard of that? I hadn't until Sunday. For a couple of weeks I have had the sensation on pin pricks on the left side of my face. Nothing too painful just annoying. Then Wednesday, I thought I had a toothache and went to the dentist who did x-rays and found nothing wrong. Still I was having some pain on my left side of my mouth.
Sunday during breakfast I had a sharp stabbing pain on the left side of my mouth that would only feel better if I applied ice inside my mouth. All day Sunday I kept ice in my mouth until about 2:00 when I looked through some old medication and found some Darvecett my husband had used. (I know! You shouldn't take someones else's prescription) I was desperate and took some. That relieved the pain for about two hours, then the pain returned. Took some more but this time it did not work at all. At 9:30 that night decided I had to get some relief so my husband took me to the E.R.

E.R. Dr did some poking around in my mouth and said he did not think this was a tooth problem, but his main concern was to stop the pain. He gave me morphine. This did not ease the pain at all. He gave he more morphine. Still I had pain, he had been researching my symtoms all the while and thought maybe I had Trigeminal Neuralgia. This is treated with an anti-seizure drug. He gave he some of that. Still in pain, so he administered the 3rd dose of morphine. This time I passed out. Not sure if it was from the pain or the amount of pain medication.

I really don't remember anything much until Monday night when I woke up in a hospital room totally confused about why I was there. I remembered being very sick and throwing up. My husband said they gave me phenagren for nausea and apparently I am allergic to it as I broke out in a rash and started itching all over. Then they gave me benadryl to counter act it. I sort of remember my Dad bending over me telling me he was leaving and that he loved me, and I remember my sweet mother in law rubbing lotion on my arms and legs trying to keep me from scratching so much.

Tuesday morning my Dr. came in and explained that I had been over medicated because they could not find anything that could relieve my pain. They put me on an anti-seizure drug that dulls the trigeminal nerves in the face. After sending me to the dental lab to rule out anything dental, they did a MRI and a MRA checking for tumors or anuresyms that could be causing the nerves to act up. Thank God, both of these reports came back negative.

I finally got to go home last night at 9:30. I tried to go in to work today but only lasted a couple of hours until I became very weak and dizzy. I guess all the pain medication has not been purged from my body yet. The good news is that while there is no cure for this, it is treatable with antiseizure medications that I will take a very low dose of daily.

I learned one thing, never "google" your disease! I did and when it came up on wikipedia it said this problems was also called the "Suicide" disease because of the amount of people who had taken their lives because they couldn't stand the pain. Good Grief!

So far, I have very little pain left. I have so many wonderful friends who have been praying relentlessly for me and it is working!

So no time for pity parties, let's move on!

Blessings

Linda

11 comments:

Stephanie D said...

Sorry to hear you had such a rotten weekend, but glad they found the cause as quickly as they did. Phenergan is a crappy drug--works great on nausea, but makes old folks loopy and younger folks get the heebie-jeebies...almost like a restless leg syndrome. Plus it irritates the vein when you give it IV.

Wantta make a million bucks? Invent an effective substitute for Phenergan. Nurses everywhere will love you! lol

Now back to your regularly scheduled life......

smilnsigh said...

Oh my Dear, I am so sorry! I wish you all the best.

Hugs,
Mari-Nanci

Tamara B. said...

I'm so sorry to hear what you went and are going thru. My thoughts are with you and I hope you and your Dr's can get a handle on this.

Carole Burant said...

Hi Linda:-) Finally taking the time to catch up on all your news and oh dear, what a terrible time you had of it lately!! I'd never heard of Trigeminal Neuralgia but it does sound very painful. Please know that I have you in my prayers and here's hoping that the new meds will help you be pain free!!! I so enjoyed your post with your childhood pictures...I'm still giggling at the fact that even after breaking your arm you went back up in that tree to punch the boy who had pushed you out of it! lol I wouldn't have done well having to cross that swinging bridge...those things terrify me!! You take good care of yourself! xoxo

Kelli said...

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to hear about your painful weekend, Linda! I'm glad that the Doctor knows what it is and how to treat it!
Hugs,
Kelli

Trudi said...

Oh my goodness, I've never heard of it. I hope all the best for you and pray the medication stays effective. Just looked at your show and tell and love it. I must make some too.
Best of health.
Trudi

Jodi said...

((Linda)) ~ I am so sorry that you had to go through this ordeal. Glad to hear that the anti-seizure medication seems to have the pain under control. Praying it eliminates the pain entirely, soon!

Lori said...

Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry to hear of everything you had to go through.
Sounds like you were in a lot of pain.
I hope that you continue to feel better everyday.
You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Jenn4Him said...

Oh Linda. My grandma's husband has this. He has had two laser treatments, but they did not help. I will pray for you. I can give you my grandma's email address if you'd like to write her. They live in Arkansas.
Jenn

Deborah aka Miss Bee said...

Oh Linda!...I'm sorry to hear about your painful situation.
You are so right about NOT Googling a disease or symptoms you might have. I'm having some health problems and did that - didn't sleep for a week.

I hope things are better for you now. Take care,
Deborah

Bill said...

I found some information about trigeminal neuralgia. Check it out!