Ron,

My TN is bilateral and affects all three branches. My earliest attack involved my eye. I suffered with stabbing pain to the eye for approx. 3 weeks. After the first week, I saw an opthamologist who couldn't find anything wrong with the eye. He gave me allergy eye drops an attributed the pain to that. The drops didn't help and the stabbing pains continued, constantly, and didn't respond to any pain meds. Then one day, it was gone. The intensity of this pain was low considering the lightening bolts associated with the condition, but it was constant and felt as though I was being stuck with needles, repeatedly. Some active neurosurgeons believe that bouts like this are the early, pre-TN attacks, before it gets to the lightening bolt stage. In my case, it took a little less than five years to progress to the full blown lightening bolt attacks, but sadly, it did. Prior to that, I had repeated episodes of the pre-TN stuff, with each successive attack lasting longer than the previous one. Since this is a rare condition, most of the literature on the net is not updated. If you haven't already done so, you may want to check out "Striking Back" a book which is available through TNA and also check out their website. There is a lot of information there which may be helpful to you.
Take care, EE