I'm still pain-free after 10 weeks. I feel I've been blessed with a second chance at living pain-free, so I feel obligated to pass on my good fortune in the way of support through this eCommunity which has provided lots of good info and support.

I don't have MS or other ailments; just TN. I suffered with TN for about 7 years; the last 2 years were extrememly painful. It slowly shut me down due to the pain. I ramped up Tegrotol to 1600mg/day. It worked for about a year at 1000mg which was wonderful. Then my body got used to it I guess or the nerve continued to detriorate. At 1600mg I had no short term memory, super sleepy, groggy, walked around like I was on a thorizine drip. Finally had a Gamma Knife treatment on Sept. 26th of 2008. After about 30 days of the pain ramping down, I was pain free! Unfortunately it only lasted about 60 days; the pain returned worse than ever! I had the MVD surgery on April 3, 2009. I was more scared of the recovery than the surgery itself. The operation lasted about 2 hours, 12 hours in ICU followed by 2 days in regular room, then released. No jaw pain from moment I woke up. I had pain from the incision but none from jaw and still none after 10 weeks.

I recommend having an MRI done and having a neurosurgeon and only a neurosurgeon analyze it. They have the best 'eyes' for spotting issues and the experience of 'seeing' the issues firsthand. I could have saved myself years of pain if I had done this sooner. Sorry for the long post, but I hope my experiences and amazing good results from MVD help someone out there. I will gladly answer questions in here or via direct email if you prefer.

God bless you all with pain-free days ahead.

Todd

I'm glad you've had a successful outcome. Enjoy your drug free life.

Take care, EE

yeehaw!!!!!!!!!


cat

Thank you EE03. I wish the same for you.

Wondeful!!! Thanks for sharing...

Todd,
Great advice regarding having a neurosurgeon evaluate your MRI - my neurologist always talked about my "clear" MRI. When I finally got to the neurosurgeon, he did a "thin-slice" MRI, and found a bunch of vessels around it.
Thanks,
MLN

So happy to hear your news. I'm 2 and a half weeks into recovery after a MVD. Here's hoping I'm still pain free once I'm off the meds. It will take me 2 months to taper off.

I had an MRA before the surgery, mostly to rule out any other cause of the pain. The imaging showed two compressions (though a previous one years ago had not shown any). It was nice going in knowing there were some there. My neurologist told me the other day that I had both a vein and an artery pressing on the nerve. He thinks I made the right choice to have the surgery. None of the other options seemed reasonable for me at this point.

Jean

I just wanted to let you know that I'm very happy for you and that your feeling better post surgery. I also had an mvd done on June 16th of this year so I am 19 weeks post surgery and feeling great. Still tapering off of the medications though but hopefully I will still be pain free after off of all meds. I hope you continue to be pain free also!