When life changes

My life changed unexpectedly on January 7, 2006 when I woke up feeling a little sick - like I was getting a sinus infection. As the day progressed, my pain worsened. I began to feel like I'd been hit across the right side of my face with a baseball bat. Then it got worse. The attacks began. Like a heated ice pick shooting into my face or a strike of lightning slicing through the skin, the right side of my face from below my eye to my lower jaw became a war zone of pain so intense I couldn't speak or even move. I had no idea what was happening to me. It was one of the scariest days in my life.

Finally after about a week on high-powered pain killers that provided no relief, my doctor diagnosed me with Trigeminal Neuralgia, a problem with the fifth cranial nerve that causes excruciating pain, usually on one side of the face.

Thus began my journey through several doctors, two brain surgeries and the continuing search for pain relief.

My blog is about nine months late in sharing all my experiences with this disorder, but I hope to share my experiences here on this blog, and maybe even some of the other stuff going on in my life, in hopes that others can relate and maybe even learn from what I've endured and explored.

Read on to learn more about the challenges of living a life with TN.