Hi Laureen,

You are having a busy week or two!

Wednesday was 6 weeks from my surgery. On Thursday I decreased Tegretol to 400. The dizziness has gotten considerably better and today I DROVE for the first time in months! Yay! The ear pounding has gone away. I, too, am still tired though it's better every week. The last couple days I've a sore throat (think that's gone now) and a lot of indigestion. I'd stopped taking Zantac when I went off Topamax, just went back on it and stopped drinking coffee. I have teeth cleaning scheduled this week (unless I cancel). I really don't want anyone messing around inside my mouth yet, but the teeth do need cleaning, and I should have called before this to cancel.

Enjoy your family events - and I hope the decreasing continues to go well.

Hi Jean,

Glad you're feeling better and that you were able to drive. I remember when I had to get my teeth cleaned a few months ago. I was very scared. I took an extra neurontin before I left. I had explained my situation to my dentist a few times and told him what procedures I had done but I don't think he fully understood everything. Anyway he was very rough with my cleaning that day but as I was sitting there I figured it would be a good test for me. I never felt any tn twinges or anything. Needless to say he just retired and a female dentist took over for him. So I'll have to explain the whole thing over to her when I go back. It'll be six months for me this week since my surgery! My daughter is in a play this weekend so we're having a lot of fun with that. Hope your having a great weekend!

Laureen

Laureen,

So you know exactly what I mean about worrying about going to the dentist! I have some sensitive nerves in my upper gums, but if the hygenist who does the cleaning stays on the teeth, I'll be fine.

My previous dentist was wise enough to know that my TN pain was not a tooth problem when I went to him before my diagnosis. But he didn't know about TN at all and never read the literature I brought him, despite being a friend of ours. He sold his practice a few years ago and the man who bought it knows all about TN and is very sympathetic. He and the hygenist always check to see how I'm doing.

Like you I figure this will be a test. I didn't think it was fair to cancel this close to the appointment (which is tomorrow). And the teeth really need it cause this bout of pain kept me from cleaning well for awhile.

I hope your daughter's play went well and you had a great weekend. I had a busy day from 10 to 9:30 yesterday and did fine with it. But I'm having problems with heartburn and more dizziness (maybe the dizziness is from the increaed meds for the heartburn).

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Hi Jean,

Hope everything went well with your teeth cleaning. Let me know. I decided not to decrease my medication this past Sunday. I was starting to feel some weird sensations 2 days ago, not really pains, sort of light ones. Anyway I decided not to mess with things with the holiday coming up. Instead I'll decrease next Sunday if all goes well the rest of this week. I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving and hopefully everything went well at the dentist today.

Take care,

Laureen

Laureen,

The teeth cleaning was a piece of cake. I took 2 Tegretol before I went (I usually take 2 at night, and 1 at breakfast, 1 at lunch - figured I'd take the 2 in the a.m.) The hygenist was very careful but probably didn't need to be. My gums are red on the lower left, probably from not cleaning as well there for awhile. I know the gums have been sore. The dentist said that should improve as I clean better, if not come back in.

Sounds like a wise choice to wait a week for a decrease. I have some aches and pains now and then but they don't seem to get worse as I decrease, so I'll go to 300 mg of Tegretol tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day).

I was lucky to get in to see my internist today before we left town for Thanksgiving. I made the appointment because of the heartburn that has been bothering me lately. Then last night I got a bad sore throat. That worried me. I didn't want to take germs to my mother-in-law who is in her 90's and I didn't want my husband to get sick, because he has surgery scheduled for next week. My internist is adjusting meds for the heartburn (took me off my osteoporosis medication and added more heartburn medication) and she said my throat is not red - so I am probably not getting a cold or flu (hope not!). It could be from the heartburn! I'm really tired of being dizzy and having all these different problems. I'm getting my strength back from the surgery, I'm getting low enough on Tegretol that side effects should ease - and yet I have all this other stuff happening!

Hope you will have (or have had) a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Jean,

Glad to hear that your teeth cleaning went great. That was smart to take the extra tegretol before you went in. Sorry to hear that you still have all these other things going on. Hopefully in time all of that will go away. Thanksgiving was nice here. Hope you enjoyed yours. Yes, Sunday I will decrease my neurontin. I guess I have to stop being so cautious and just do it. The thought of the pain coming back just scares me so much and that's why when I feel any little pains or twinges I get scared to decrease medication. Hopefully next week will go well though. My daughter has a sore throat today too. She got it yesterday on Thanksgiving. I hope your husband's surgery goes well next week. I had a hernia repair also. The surgery went well for me.

Take care,

Laureen

Laureen,

I understand the fear of decreasing the meds. I think I've had so much else going on that I don't think about it as much as I otherwise would, so maybe that's good. I still occasionally worry about chewing something hard. One way to look at it for you might be that the worse that could happen if you have some pain would be that you would have to stop decreasing and increase a little. (Have I said this before?) When you started you were on a whole lot more medication and still had a lot of pain. You are doing so much better than that now. Still I hope you can get entirely off the meds.

Despite what my internist said about my throat not being red on Wednesday, Thanksgiving day I awoke will all the symptoms of a cold. I was blowing, sneezing, and coughing constantly for the next 2 days (then using antibacterial gel on my hands each time in hopes that I would put germs on any household surfaces and give anyone else a cold). When I got home I bought a "Neti Pot" and started irritating my nasal passages. I love it, and it has eliminated most of the blowing, sneezing and coughing. I still feel congested way up in my head, but my nose is clear and feels clean.

Glad to hear your hernia repair went well. I sure hope his does. He has had a rough year with his cancer surgery in January and then a fistula. And then me being out of commission. I hope if you daughter has a cold it will be mild!

Hi Jean,

I hope everything goes really well with your husband's surgery today. Hopefully you are feeling better by now also. So far, so good with my medication decrease. I haven't felt any twinges or anything so far. How is your medication decreasing going?

Talk to you soon,

Laureen

Hi Laureen,

I'd so glad to hear that your decrease is going well. I was wondering about that. I am decreasing to 200 mg of Tegretol today. Getting down there... Fortunately with all that is going on in my life I'm not thinking about the decrease at every meal like I might otherwise be.

My husband is home from the hospital. He's in a lot of pain today. He did a lot of walking last night at the hospital and probably overdid it. But that pain will ease. We are so glad the surgery is behind us. The surgery went well and didn't take as long as the surgeon thought it might.

I hope the decrease continues to go well!

Hi Jean,

I'm so glad to hear that your husband's surgery went well for him, especially since he's had such a rough year. Hope his pain is better today. That's one thing about keeping so busy like you said, at least it keeps your mind off of worring about having any tn problems. So if your going down to 200mg of tegretol now, is that all of the medication your left on for the tn? If so that's really great. Not much farther to go. It will be nice someday to not have to worry about any of this any more.

Take care,

Laureen