Extended Absence from Blog Explained: Conquering Trigeminal Neuralgia

Although this blog has few readers, it behooves me to explain that the lack of activity is due to health coinciding health crises with both my spouse and my elderly mother who recently underwent a leg amputation because of gangrene brought on by diabetes. She is now resting and recuperating in a nearby rehabilitation facility.

Not surprising as complication from diabetes is becoming an epidemic in the United States due obesity and other life-style choices.

My spouse has the more interesting case. He suffered from a painful condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia, a painful of the facial trigeminal nerve caused by continual contact with a pulsating blood vessel that wears away the nerve's myelin.

This misunderstood condition is actually quite common, and usually misdiagnosed.

My poor husband consulted dentists, oral surgeons, accupucturists, chiropractors, TMJ specialists, and so on. His was fitted for appliances, had tooth extraction, root canal, and a plethora of therapies that failed to relieve pain that suffered over decades.

Google to the Rescue

Highly motivated to relieve his pain and reclaim his life, he did a Google search of his symptoms and discovered Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN).

The Sunshine State has several reputable centers where this condition can be treated. But he found out to his surprise that he could not get an immediate appointment to see anyone because the condition is so common.

Finally he was able to convince neurosurgeon Dr. William Friedman at the University of Florida's Shands Hospital to see him and to perform one of the offered procedures, Microvascular Decompression that involves drilling into the skull and probing deep into the brain and placing a pad between the Trigeminal nerve and nearby blood vessels , a serious intervention as depicted in the graphic.

The surgery took place as described on the University of Florida site:

The operation requires making an incision in the back of the head, creating a small hole in the skull, and lifting an edge of the brain to expose the trigeminal nerve which is located approximately two inches deep. The incision is made behind the ear on the side of the head where the patient feels pain.

The blood vessels that press on the nerve when the nerve leaves the brain are exposed and pushed away from the nerve. A small pad is inserted between the nerve and the vessels. This relieves the pain in most patients.

My husband was released after two days at Shands to recuperate at home.

The next hurdle was to find someone locally to remove the parallel stitches on the behind-the-ear incision as we don't want to drive all the way back to Gainesville, Florida from Florida's Space Coast just to remove stitches. Fortunately a neighborhood friend was qualified to do the job.

So far the surgery has been an unqualified success: my husband is mostly pain free. Obviously the incision area is still tender, but the trigeminal pain that plagued him for decades seems to have disappeared. However as the cranial arteries are still becoming accustomed to the packing material and overcoming being handled during surgery, every once in a while he gets a migraine-like headache that is relieved through the use of caffeine pills. In two weeks he sees the surgeon again in a followup that hopefully will release him to full participation in life.

I praise and thank God in heaven for this miracle and place Dr. William Friedman in the pantheon of mortals that we humans sometimes see as gods: gods of medicine.

Thank you again Dr. Friedman of the University of Florida for achieving this miracle.

Yes, I had, and continued to have a lot on my plate, but now am energized as my life partner's ordeal seems to be coming to an end.