trigeminal neuralgia

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Anne, I had one episode of trigeminal neuralgia 6 yrs. ago, right after my second 7th nerve palsy (often called Bell's palsy). The pain was awful. My neuro prescribed Neurontin, which helped make it tolerable. I was very fortunate in that it pretty much resolved in about 6 weeks. I was left with residual pain (more soreness or aching) above & below my cheekbone & in my left eye. Several times a month the eye pain will start to intensify & if I don't take medication it will spread into my left temple & then the hold left side of my head. At that point it is very hard to treat it. In the beginning I tried a number of meds, including migraine meds & narcotics. Nothing helped until finally my family nurse practitioner suggested Norgesic Forte. It has no narcotic. It contains Orphenadrine, which is a skeletal muscle relaxant, aspirin, and 60mg of caffiene (less than an average cup of coffee). I don't know why it works on my eye pain/headache, but it does. I take one tablet when it first starts--the usual ache in my eye starts increasing--and sometimes a second tablet about 8 hrs. later. If I don't take it at the beginning & let it build, it feels like someone is stabbing the back of my eye. My neurologist & opthamalogist have both agreed that the pain is residual inflammation from the trigeminal neuralgia. The weird thing to me is that all the meds I've taken for neuropathic pain (Neurontin, Lyrica & Cymbalta) don't help this problem. So I guess it's not actually neuropathic pain now. Anyway, the Norgesic Forte works well, doesn't make me drowsy, & is safe with the amounts that I take. My nephrologist even spent about 15 min. calculating how much aspirin I was taking in an average week, then advised me to stop the daily baby aspirin I was taking for prevention of stroke/heart attack. She said I was getting enough in the Norgesic, but that it was still a safe amount for my kidneys to handle.

So the point of all this is to look at different options, or get your health care provider to. And I'm putting in a plug for advanced practice nurses. Yeah, I'm a certified nurse-midwife myself, but advanced practice nurses (midwives, anesthetists, nurse-practitioners) tend to have a different perspective than physicians. They focus more on health maintenance, prevention of disease, and trusting the patient's opinions. There are always a few bad apples in any profession, but the vast number of NP's are safe, caring, wonderful providers. Many doctors now have NP's in their practices.

Ramblin' Rose

Moderator

Reply-To: Neurosarcoidosis To: Neurosarcoidosis Subject: Re: pititary infoDate: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:19:56 -0000

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