Trigeminal Neuralgia

Pull up a chair.  This might take a while.

Remember that twist I mentioned on Monday?  Well!!  Friday morning of last week saw me sat in the Accident & Emergency department of the local hospital for two hours.  I had gone to work as normal, taken children to classes, spoken to parents and taken phone calls.

I had tried to get an appointment for the Dr to phone me about pain management for the neuralgia (TN) in the side of my face.  I couldn't get an appointment as they were all filled and a Dr couldn't call me back as all those slots were filled too.  My only option was to call at midday and hope to get an appointment, that afternoon, at another local hospital.

Getting back to work, I popped into the front office to pass on a message, when I suddenly felt like I'd been hit across the head with a shovel.  The pain was excruciating.  It went along my jaw, up the side of my nose, through my eye and into my head.  I yelled something rude and keeled over.  It felt like the top of my head was going to split open. The ladies in the office were naturally alarmed and managed to get me into a chair, but I couldn't think straight, couldn't speak and I was in floods of tears with the pain.  And I had snot on my sleeves.  It lasted all of a minute, but was the most horrendous minute of my life.

I was taken back to my office where my friend called the NHS emergency line.  We spoke to a lovely lady called Nicola who took all my details and said that I needed to be seen within the hour.  She booked me a slot at the hospital and my friend took me up there.  Luckily it's only 10 minutes from work.

The staff at the hospital were amazing.  I saw the triage nurse within 10 minutes and the consultant 10 minutes after that.  Dr Abdulah was an international student from India and was very good.  He listened to my symptoms and took a history of the pain.  He then related all of that to Dr Ash, the consultant, who explained that it was Trigeminal Neuralgia.  (See link for details.)   A condition that can't be cured, only managed.

To start with they give you epilepsy medication and if that doesn't work there are several surgical routes you can take.  I'm hoping that the medication works, as I have enough going on at the moment, to add another op into the mix.

The pharmacy was extremely busy, so I had a 45 minute wait.  Time for a coffee and a spot of people watching in the hospital cafe.  It brought back memories of sitting there when mum wasn't well.  I chatted to a very nice lady who hadn't been eating properly the last few days and was really looking forward to her cup of tea and buttery toast.  

The pharmacist took the time to explain the medication to me, even though they were maxed out, and I was very grateful for that.  I have, since, read and re-read the leaflet that came with the tablets.

My friend came and picked me up and I went back to work.  I felt absolutely fine, so stayed for the afternoon.  The head teacher did tell me to go home but I said I would stay.  This is something I have to live with now so best start as I mean to go on.  I apologised for saying a rude word but he said that under the circumstances he understood!!

I felt washed out by the time I got home, so I had some dinner and flopped onto the sofa to watch All Creatures Great & Small, followed by an early night.

As my mum would say.... "These things are sent to try us".  And she was right.