[Barb Ferraro]

I was recently diagnosed with T.N. after googling my symptoms after 4 years of pain and hell. I went in to my doctors office with a print out of Trigeminal neuralgia and told her that this is what I have.
I should start at the beginning. Four years ago I had an upper tooth that was bugging me. I asked my dentist to check it out. He felt that it was probably some decay under my old filling and that it was best to replace it. He did, my pain increased, he did a root canal, the pain increased, he did a root canal in the tooth beside it, the pain increased, he did a root canal in the other tooth beside it (referred pain?), the excruciating pain increased, he redid the original root canal, the pain increased, I went to a root canal specialist, he said there was nothing wrong with my teeth, maybe it was my sinuses or maybe my dentist damaged my sinus nerve, (if it was that it would just take time to heal, up to a year). I went home and cried and cried.In the mean time I was taking lots of meds from my dentist, including anti-inflammatories and narcotics, codeine, whatever I could. I begged my dentist to remove my "evil tooth", I went to another dentist and asked him to remove it, finally my dentist removed the "evil tooth". Of course the bloody pain was still there. I went to my doctor, I had a CT scan of my sinuses (nothing wrong), my pain increased, I developed a couple of strange sleep disorders as well as insomnia, I suffered from sleep deprivation, anxietystomach problems (from the meds) and of course the horrible bouts of pain. I went to the doctor, with my various complaints of pain and the crazy symptoms of sleep deprivation and sleep paralysis. She diagnosed me with peri-menopausal symptoms and depression. She thought that my pain symptoms were probably not real.
I never mentioned my pain to anyone for 2 years after that. I thought I was crazy. I took my Paxil,my prometrium (hormones) went to depression courses and luckily went into a period where I didn't have pain very often. This is when I learned what my pain triggers were. In the mean time I was also taking drugs for joint pain and muscle relaxants for help sleeping.
My pharmacist asked me why I was taking all the different meds and about my symptoms, and if I knew if I was suffering from side effects. He suggested I see another doctor for a second opinion. I went home, made an appointment with another doctor and started googling my symptoms. When I found a hit about trigeminal neuralgia, I felt such a sense of relief. I wasn't crazy, my pain was real and other people have it too.
My new doctor is wonderful, he has gotten me off all of the other drugs and I am on gabapentin, increasing all the time, right now I am taking 1500mg three times a day, and still increasing, I feel the potential of the drug working. I almost always have pain or feel the twinges of pain in the "evil absent tooth". I also have stabbing pain. My face moves too, especially after a pain attack. I can't stand it, but my doc says it might be a side effect of the Paxil and it may go away in time.
I am happy to have found this forum, not many people understand.
I'm sorry my story is so long.