Hi,
Sorry you are going through all of this. First of all if they found an artery in contact with the trigeminal nerve you are, in a sense, very lucky. Most times this cannot be seen on an MRI, even if there are compressions.
As for you not being a candidate for surgery--I would question that. How long have you had TN? What type of TN do you have--Type 1 or Type 2? There is a video by Dr. Ken Casey that you should watch. Google "the tides of neuropathic pain". It is an ask the doctor series. It is two hours long but VERY informative. TN can be progressive and if surgery is an option, the sooner it is done the better your chances of complete recovery.
I do not know a lot about MRI. I think the areas of white matter can be due to MS but there are many other reasons they could be there. So the spinal tap is to test for MS. How old are you? Have you had any other neurological symptoms??
It sounds like you are being well taken care of and following all of the right steps for a proper diagnosis. Have you found medication that has helped? Are you still in pain?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterfin
Im new to this forum.
I've developed and been diagnosed with TN since Jan this year. I jumped the 6 month waiting time for a neuro appt by going private initially.
The neurologist agreed it sounded like TN, transferred me to his NHS list and sorted out an mri/MRA for me. I got the results yesterday.
The letter confirmed that I have an artery in contact with the trigeminal nerve, most likely the cause of my pain. I will be referred to Prof Eldridge at Walton who will tell me that surgery isn't worth pursuing as I am mostly managed by my medication.
But it also says that it shows several high signal areas in the white matter in both sides of my brain. It says that they may indicate inflammation or a vascular problem but that the dr who looked at the scan couldn't tell. I'm to be admitted to Walton as a day patient to carry out further tests including a lumbar pictureand blood tests.
I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm not sure what the lumbar puncture is to test for, apart from to try and rule out ms.
Any ideas welcomed .
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