Hi, Laureen,

I was interested in hearing more about your experiences.

I thought the gamma knife often took several months to take effect (I know that is true of some of that kind of cyber-knife treatment). It sounded like you and your doctor expected to to work right away. But with all the trouble you were having the MVD was probably a better way to go, particularly with several veins growing right next to the nerve.

I am reducing my Tegretol from 600 to 500 today. And I'm not feeling all that well but I am just getting started and haven't even had breakfast yet. Hopefully I'll perk up.

No twinges at all yesterday. It was a quieter day at home. Maybe that helped. I'm not as worried as I was.

I guess my medication level wasn't all that high compared to yours and others here, but I was having a lot of trouble with the side effects. I was so dizzy, I was no longer driving. I was always so tired and "stupid." My memory was terrible. I just didn't want to drag through life like that anymore if I could help it.

My husband and I are retired, and we like to travel. He had surgery for cancer earlier this year. At our ages you just don't know how much more time you have. So when my pain started to escalate, and I had to keep increasing my dose of medicine, I felt like I needed to do something to get my life back, and the MVD was really my only option left.

Since you slowed down your decreasing have your twinges gone away?