Chris!
I know how painful Trigeminal Neuralgia feels because I experienced it, too. It is unbearably painful - and effects everything you do with your face like chewing, talking, sneezing, smiling, coughing....it hurts to do anything. TN affected only the left side of my face - but still, I stopped eating all crunchy foods and sustained a liquid/soft diet for almost a year - which is how long my TN took to resolve (actually it was closer to eight months).
Now, when the pain first started I thought it was a bad bruise caused by an angry baby who kicked me with brute force in the face (LOL)! I let the pain linger for over a month before I scheduled an appointment with my endocrinologist. He was able to diagnose TN. As I recall, he likened TN to a nerve that suddenly gets pissed-off. He explained the compression - or tightening of the nerve - was what caused the pain - and the best treatment option was to decompress the nerve and get it un-pissed! He prescribed some fairly strong pain pills - but those only helped a little. By far and away - the biggest difference was magnesium. Such a simple solution - and you don't even need a prescription! I purchased several vials of liquid magnesium at my endocrinologist's office and a bag of insulin syringes and began giving myself 100cc intramuscular shots of magnesium daily for about six weeks. The pain greatly diminished and I was able to reduce my magnesium injections to every other day for another six weeks...and after three months of magnesium injections I was down to once a week - and eventually only when a flare-up occured. Around 7-8 months later I no longer needed liquid magnesium injections for TN.....which was probably about two years ago.
Perhaps my thyroid condition aggravated my TN - I never did learn the cause. But for what it's worth, I wanted to share my experience with TN and how I was able to resolve it using natural remedies. I hope you find a treatment plan soon. It is an indescribable pain - I never heard TN referred to as the suicide disease but it's a good analogy. I hope you find relief soon.
Keep us posted!
Bloom
I know how painful Trigeminal Neuralgia feels because I experienced it, too. It is unbearably painful - and effects everything you do with your face like chewing, talking, sneezing, smiling, coughing....it hurts to do anything. TN affected only the left side of my face - but still, I stopped eating all crunchy foods and sustained a liquid/soft diet for almost a year - which is how long my TN took to resolve (actually it was closer to eight months).
Now, when the pain first started I thought it was a bad bruise caused by an angry baby who kicked me with brute force in the face (LOL)! I let the pain linger for over a month before I scheduled an appointment with my endocrinologist. He was able to diagnose TN. As I recall, he likened TN to a nerve that suddenly gets pissed-off. He explained the compression - or tightening of the nerve - was what caused the pain - and the best treatment option was to decompress the nerve and get it un-pissed! He prescribed some fairly strong pain pills - but those only helped a little. By far and away - the biggest difference was magnesium. Such a simple solution - and you don't even need a prescription! I purchased several vials of liquid magnesium at my endocrinologist's office and a bag of insulin syringes and began giving myself 100cc intramuscular shots of magnesium daily for about six weeks. The pain greatly diminished and I was able to reduce my magnesium injections to every other day for another six weeks...and after three months of magnesium injections I was down to once a week - and eventually only when a flare-up occured. Around 7-8 months later I no longer needed liquid magnesium injections for TN.....which was probably about two years ago.
Perhaps my thyroid condition aggravated my TN - I never did learn the cause. But for what it's worth, I wanted to share my experience with TN and how I was able to resolve it using natural remedies. I hope you find a treatment plan soon. It is an indescribable pain - I never heard TN referred to as the suicide disease but it's a good analogy. I hope you find relief soon.
Keep us posted!
Bloom