I was diagnosed with TG about 1990, it was all a bit matter of fact from the doctors and consultants I saw on the NHS. I was told 'people live with pain', given options of burning the facial nerve or head surgery (the later requiring who knows how much investigation before) and spent months bouncing around to arrive at these options. I was 23 scared and in pain.

My TG started as the odd spike, I was thinking I am sure like other sufferers that it was a dental issue but it got worse and worse. Nobody could understand the pain I was in, it was basically 24 hrs non stop, luckily I was young and strong and I got through that but the options given to me did not seem to be confident ones, I was put on Tegretol for 3 months, initially it suppressed the pain but after that wore off the doctors just kept increasing the dose, I was like a zombie (and told I might experience memory loss!!!), I stopped taking the drug and turned my back on the health system. There was no way I was going to take a synthetic drug for the rest of my life with unknown implications, I was only 23!

So I just got on with life, the lack of Internet made research limited, I realised anxiety and stress could bring it on so I tried as much as possible to avoid getting like that but it is not always that easy. I started self medicating with lager, not a particularly good idea but after 4 pints I could feel the nerve thrashing around but could not feel the pain ! Clearly this was not a long term solution or correct but on Saturday evenings it gave me a break from 7 days of agony, at the end of the day we all went to the pub every Saturday so I just used the social experience to give me freedom for an evening. If you are a sufferer you will know there are good days and bad days, as I have got older I have noticed it would go quiet for a month and then come back, could never quite spot the triggers. I have the odd cup of coffee (maybe 2 in a month) but I have never been a coffee drinker and I understand coffee can antagonize the nervous system. There was actually a period from about 1994 to 2004 where it went away, couldn't understand why or what had changed but it just stopped. It came back early 2004, I was devastated, and had to adjust having it again like brushing and shaving certain ways, chewing on one side etc etc and just living with it, it was hard but it made me so angry I hated it and fought it every day, "bring it on" I would say to myself, "is that the best you really can do to me??".

In autumn 2010 by chance I met a homeopathic therapist through friends, she turned my life around and showed me that there are potential cures and gave me hope. She told me to take vitamin B12, and Omega 3 and started giving me acupuncture in the legs and feet to address energy issues (I guess I was in a mess) and eventually acupuncture on my face at the same time. She also prescribed for me Chinese herbal tea remedies. After about a month this approach suppressed it and I had 2 months free of pain but then January 2011 it came back in vengeance and I had a terrible month. We persevered, she changed the tea recipes, it came and went like a roller coaster ride and eventually the TG was under control, not fully gone but just giving me spikes instead of prolonged pain, that was last Summer. I moved away in July and stopped seeing the therapist then I ran out of tea, I was traveling during all of August with no treatment, needless to say as September 2011 started TG was back and full on. I was in agony and called the therapist, she sent me a tea recipe but said I should also try XUE FU ZHU YU WAN. I was in London mid September so went to a Chinese medicine shop and bought 2 months worth. You need to take 8 pieces / balls of this 3 times a day so I organize that with meal times, I also still take Omega 3 capsules (1 capsule a day at breakfast) but no longer take B12. September was bad, I could hardly eat, October the pain was less and by the end of November the TG was gone (I had purchased another 2 months supply during this period) This second lot took me to mid January then I stopped as I had ran out. I had 6 weeks without pain or spikes and continued only to take Omega 3 once a day. Then about end of last March (2012) the odd spike started, I immediately went out and bought 2 months more of xue fu zhu yu wan. The spiking stopped shortly after restarting, this time I will continue to take xue fu zhu yu wan for 3 or 4 months after the spiking has stopped, then try and gauge how long I can get away before it starts again.

I have written my story here to give other sufferers hope from my experience. My TG is not gone but it is under control, I am able to live a life without pain. I can not guarantee this remedy will work for everyone, as I learnt through this experience there is no black and white in medicine. I had given up and thought I just had to suffer but the homeopathic therapist I met and this remedy has shown me that is simply not true. After 20 years this has been the only thing that has worked for me.

Good luck John