so I could print out your letter and respond to it in a more detailed fashinion. DEAR MARY, although I am not familiar with either condition you describe, I am sure in sympathy for someone who has something no one understands. You are fortunate in that your doctor at least does. My PCP simply refers me to specialists, each of whom gives me a different Rx for a different condition. Then when I have complaints, he just says, "gee you just take so many meds. Each one has side effects. It's hard to say!" But I have had severe "electric shocks" to the brain [coming off Cymbalta], very severe itching [long-un-dx'ed allergy to Tofranil], restless legs-every night, and lots of pain. And I certainly don't think wearing bigger clothes would help anything! Bless your heart. This is much like mental illness - from which I suffer - let's face it, people who write about it and treat it usually haven't had it, i.e. they don't know what they are talking about! What is worse, they have studied it, so they think that they DO! Let's face it, Specialists are one of the biggest reasons we have this forum - to talk to people who've had something similar or for some other reason, understand something of what we are feeling. Re the TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA recurring: again, who is saying this? The episodic shooting pain in your R temple that you mention might BE the recurrence, and you may never have anything more. The shocking sensation you have w/ the Meralgia Paresthetica may be the recurrence. Or the discomfort of the MP may actually block out the painful sensations of the TN - like a TENS Unit, or like, if you had a severe headache, and someone hit you in the toe with a sledgehammer, you wouldn't have a headache anymore - not til the toe stopped throbbing anyway. I can't blame you for dreading an oft-predicted recurrence of something that was was traumatic. But if it's been 3 years, I'd say that you've beat it, aside from the above. billie