Hi. I have had trigenimal neuralgia for about 5 years. For the first 4 it was bearable, just shock like pains when brushing my teeth or washing my face and only for a few months of year. A year ago the pain became incredibly strong, I could hardly eat, it was agony to move my mouth to read to my children. Even walking set it off. Gabapentin initially worked but after a few months, even at a very strong dose, it was ineffective. At that point I met with a neurosurgeon and we discussed MVD. He also suggested I try carbamazepine in the meantime and it worked wonders. On a pretty low dose I became practically pain free and now I'm not taking any medication.

As you can imagine, this is wonderful. If the pains trigger I take carbamazepine for a couple of days and it seems to be keeping it in check. Or is it? Is it just that for now the pain is in remission and any time it could hit me again like it did this time last year?

Despite feeling much better I decided to go ahead with the MVD surgery and have been on a waiting list. The date for the op has just come through and I'm due to go into hospital in 3 weeks time. Now I'm thinking what on earth am I thinking of. I'm terrified! It seemed to make sense to get it over with and I thought if I could do it as a non-emergency - ie not wait until the next time I'm in terrible pain - then it would be easier for us all. I could prepare the family, the children for it, have a chance to prepare my work for me being absent for a couple of months and time it so that it didn't interfere with big occasions in the year. But am I being daft going ahead with major surgery when I don't actually need it at this moment? Why am I putting my family through this? Every time I read up about the surgery the scary bits about it scream out at me and I'm petrified that something will go wrong. It's my children I'm most stressed about. It feels so scary.

Shall I just bit the bullet and get it over with now? I'm 47 and in good health otherwise, I have an experienced surgeon. TN can't just suddenly cure itself can it? The pain will come back. Or should I wait until the next bad episode - who knows, I might have another few years pain free.