Hi everyone!

In March/April of this year I started experiencing facial nerve pain (left sided) that lasted for about two weeks. The pain was debilitating. If I was speaking and pain started, I had to stop speaking. Putting on makeup was a task as well as eating or brushing teeth. Towards the end of the two weeks wind even hurt my face. I saw my GP and he suspected I had trigeminal neuralgia. He gave me an RX for gabapentin. About 2-3 days after taking this the pain was almost completely under control. He sent me off to a neurologist to confirm the diagnosis. After seeing a neurologist, he said clinically that was exactly what it sounded like especially seeing success with the gabapentin. He ordered an MRI, but suspected he would find nothing. He said many times TN may not show up on an MRI even though they highly suspect that's what it is.

Fast forward. I had to wait a few months to get the MRI due to insurance reasons. I just did it last week and got the report. (His office told me they got the report but someone would call me back to talk to me and schedule an appointment).

This is what the report reads:

(to be noted) My last MRI was ten years ago. I was having headaches and an incidental pineal cyst and a vascular malformation were detected.

There is a very small focus of increased T2 signal in the periventricular white matter immediately lateral to the tip of the frontal horn of the left lateral ventricle and immediately anterior to the caudate head. This appears stable. A pineal cyst measuring about 1.5 cm in greatest dimension is again noted. It appears stable. The brain parenchyma is otherwise normal in volume and signal intensity. I see no area of abnormal parenchymal enhancement. A small venous angioma is incidentally noted along the anterolateral aspect of the right frontal lobe. It appears stable.


The part that's new to my MRI is the first sentence. Is this just another "common" thing? My Dr sure does take a long time to get into, so I was hoping you guys could shed some light