Thanks for all the replies!

I mentioned to my doctor about the trigeminal neuralgia possibility, to which she responded that she did not believe it was actually trigeminal neuralgia.

Sometimes these doctors just make me want to

Anyways, I slept AGAIN from 5 pm to 9 pm this evening.. now it's almost midnight, and I'm ready to go back to sleep again.

Possible I caught a touch of something, but I am going to wait until I can contact my doctor and discuss the drug before taking any more of it. I did feel absolutely dreadful.

I've tried:

Amitriptyline (lots of side effects)
Carbamazepine (changed my pitch perception of music in 2 day's worth, scared the crud out of me, discontinued this)
Neurontin/Gabapentin (the stuff made my head feel like it was going to explode)

Clonazepam is the only one thus far I have been able to tolerate.

So that's 2 "nos" on the anti convulsant front, and 1 no on the anti depressant front. Effexor may join the list as a 'no'.

My doctor wanted to try the extended release venlafaxine (37.5mg tablets), starting with 1 daily for 10 days, and then up to 2 daily.

In any event, I felt truly awful all day, and it began about 1 hour following taking my first pill.

I believe I am seeing my neurologist in November, but it may be worthwhile to call him and see what he has to say about this head burning. It's almost like my burning mouth I had for so long (which by the way, is nearly gone.... still some tender spots though) moved upwards into my head. I've had the head pain before, but it had gone away, now it's back and it does not seem like anything is breaking through it.

For all I know, my neuro may suggest another round of IVSM, or prednisone. The pain has gone away completely before, but the quitting smoking definitely triggered this current relentless pain I'm having.

Edit: Cherie, nope I didn't try that but maybe I'll go grab some tomorrow. Worth a shot!