Hi there Leeanne and everyone else

This is my first time posting anywhere about TN,
As the title says i feel yours and everyone's pain with TN

I diagnosed with Atypical TN nearly 2 years ago now, it all started one day when i came home, i bent down to kiss my dog and got this electric shock in the left side of my face, the pain itself is just right above my left lip under my nose where my crease is ( hope that explains OK) thought nothing of it just thought it was your everyday shock, Oh boy how wrong was i, over the period of that day i got it more and more, it came out of nowhere and makes me jump, i get the shock and all of my left side of my face goes numb, burns, tingles, you name it, it does it, it goes from the point of pain and spreads out to my jaw and top of my head. this happened for a few days when i brushed my teeth, drank, ate ( the usual suspects) so i looked on the Internet to see what this could be, TN was the first thing that came up, being in denial after reading it, i though this couldn't possibly be what i got.. Then one day the SHIZ hit the fan
I was washing dishes, it had gone off a few times, but then it kept going off and going it got to the point where one shock just finished another started, my husband came home and i was a mess, so we went to the hospital....As i walked through the doors and stood at the desk my shocks were like some kind of rapid throbbing motion ( only way i can explain it) then my face under my eye and at the side exploded ive never in my entire life even through child birth have i experienced pain like it, im screaming,shouting holding my face, people must have thought i was crazy..it just felt that the whole left side of my face had been blown off.

After this very traumatic experience i found myself a neurologist who had me do an MRI, they found a skull based tumor that is pushing another nerve onto the TN nerve (double whammy). i am taking 1,400mg of Tegretol (generic Epitol) a day, for such a high dosage i don't get many side effects, i do get twitching in my fingers since it was upped last time, I am also under a specialist for my tumor and hopefully soon something can be done, i can have the usual Tn procedures done, but my doctor wants to go in and suck that tumor out because of it position (at my brain stem) its costly and i don't have insurance I think i have slight memory loss, as sometimes when in conversation i go to say something and cant think of that bloody word lol but also i'm nearly 40 so that could just be old age.

Tegretol has been good for me, the pain comes and goes when it fancies, i have a couple of months without pain.. which is nice, you kind of forget but you don't if you know what i mean, then when it rears its ugly head i snap back to that day in the hospital...i hope it never gets that far again, just the emotional pressure and anxiety does me in.

When i get the shocks i try to move on with my every day to day doings, but your right Leeanne, people don't understand, my family have been very supportive ...i wouldn't wish this condition on my worse enemy, it's horrific, but we are not alone, this isn't our cross to bear, i try to stay as positive as possible ( as we all know is very hard)

Hope this post is not too long, I'm sure there is other bits of information i've missed, its been a lot to take in, deal with and come to accept the fact that its there, I'm doing what i can for the present to help with the pain and so on.

Hopefully one day we can ALL smile, drink, eat and brush without having to worry if our faces are going to explode

Thank You for reading my essay like i said there's things i've probably missed please feel free to ask.