Hi All

I'm a 41-year-old Asian male and new to this forum.

I've been having neurological symptoms over the past year. Random, fleeting twitching all over my body, shooting pains and dull aches, also all over my body, and pins and needles sensations on my arms and legs. I had a head/brain MRI in June this year and it was normal except for bilateral maxillary sinusitis. A cervical spine MRI indicated probems with the C3-C4 and C4-C5 vertebrae. Apparently the shape of my neck is also not normal. I've been examined by three general neurologists and a GP over the last seven months and they said my reflexes and strength levels were normal.

In the last two weeks or so, I've had random and fleeting face and head pain. Most of the time it is fleeting, dull, pressure-like pain, a few times it feels like mild electric shocks. Usually the pain comes without any stimulation but a few times it has come when I tap or squeeze a certain part of my face. I have to tap/press pretty hard to elicit the pain. A few nights ago, I tapped the area just under my right eye and I felt mild electric shocks on the right-corner of my mouth. But I get the pain on the left side of my face too, my chin, lower and upper jaws, temples, scalp, the back of my head and occasionally, tongue. Pain/shocks last for three or four seconds and goes on from the time I wake up until I go to bed. Sometimes the pain goes all the way down to my right toe. The pain is tolerable but I feel tired all the time and my head feels 'heavy'. My left cheek feels slightly numb/heavy. My face feels tingly and I sometimes get that 'ants crawling on my face' feeling. My neck and shoulders ache.

I went to see my neurologist again last Monday and after a whopping five minutes he concluded it was trigeminal neuralgia and prescribed me with 200mg Tegretol. I should add that this doctor is eager to prescribe and not so keen on listening.

My question is: has anyone else had similar symptoms to mine? I'm going to get a second opinion from another neuro before going on the Tegretol which is a strong drug with many side effects but before I do that I'd like to hear what you guys have to say.

Thanks for listening.

PS Over the last couple of days, showers have been terrible. I feel pain/aches on my face (especially on my T-zone) as I shower and my knees tremble a little. Pain/aches go away after the shower but I still have that numb feeling on my lower left cheek.