got such strong nerve pain in the face. cant read, watch tv or use internet anymore. cant even stand mild wind anymore. guess this is trigeminal neuralgia?
did anything help you? is it lyme or a co-infection?
the worst thing is i dont tolerate any meds anymore.
read that benadryl helps some, but dont understand why cos its supposed to help against allergies?
Posted by dogmom2 (Member # 23822) on :
so sorry you're going thru this. I had similar symptoms start after minor dental work last year. I haven't tolerated any treatment for the lyme/babesia either.
What seemed to help was going gluten free for awhile, and using magnesium and fish oil. Just things that lower nerve irritation generally. Also just avoiding anything that aggravates it.
My symptoms are calmer now but I still avoid crunchy foods.I've had a temp crown for a year now because I'm afraid to stir the symptoms up again.
Hopefully others will be along soon will more ideas.
take care
Posted by dogmom2 (Member # 23822) on :
I forgot, I also took lyrica for a short time when the pain was especially bad.
Kept the dose low though because it gave me headaches. Just took it a few times, but it did help some.
Posted by lpkayak (Member # 5230) on :
neurontin helps me
Posted by jlf2012 (Member # 36002) on :
I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia 2 1/2 years ago. I took tegretol and it took the pain away like magic but had bad side effects. Neurontin is supposed to help too. There's a good website on trigeminal neuralgia called "Living with TN". It's unbearable pain...so sorry you have to deal with this too.
Posted by agmorgan (Member # 36230) on :
I too take Neurontin, well...the generic form Gabapentin, and it helps me.
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
Hot Epsom soaks, fresh lemon and ginger root rubs might help. Ginger shrinks the nerve endings.
Posted by T.Maria (Member # 36396) on :
St. John's Wart infused oil can help calm the nerve endings - used topically.
Posted by riverspirit (Member # 19435) on :
I was going to write about St. John's wort as well.
Two other ways of taking it :
homeopathic hypericum.
You could take 30x or 30c and see if it helps. It's really not very expensive. Hylands brand is fine, and available at most natural food stores and online.
The other thing is herbal forms of hypericum/st. john's wort. There is a nice tincture that herb pharm makes called "nervous sytem support" or something like that. It has herbs to support the nervous system, including st. john's wort, lavender.
I take it regularly. Twenty drops in a little cup, add a bit of boiling water and let it sit an hour, then gulp down. Or you could add the tincture to some tea.
Sometimes doctors can give you a nerve block, but i've never tried that. Hope you can find some relief.
ease ~ peace ~
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
Try the benedryl. It got rid of it for me, which was a godsend.
Evidently the benedryl shrinks the swelling in the sinuses area which relieves the pressure being put on the facial nerve. That is how it works as I understand it.
Posted by steven (Member # 13101) on :
thanks for all of your replies. it helps to read that others got better.
what id really would like to know: was it for you also not possible to read, watch tv or use the computer because it triggered your facial nerve pain? since i have this i also feel weird in my brain and pressure on it so that it also could be encephalitis?
i have the feeling it gets a bit better when i close my eyes, but you cant close your eyes 24 hours a day.
unfortunately i think i am not able to try what helped you (except lemon and ginger). for any reason after all this abx my body has become so hypersensitive i even get neurologic symptoms from fish oil.
i also had a terrible experience with st johns wort/hypericum which is supposed to be natural and harmless. still havent fully recovered from it. no way to even think about sth like lyrica. so maybe behaverioul changes or something topical should be better. will talk about benadryl with my llmd.
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
In the beginning, my facial nerve pain was always triggered by chewing. I got it near the end of a meal. Soft foods set it off less; hard chewing was the worst.
But, after so many episodes, I could get it at any time for no reason at all. And, a dull pain became constant.
I never noticed what you described--use of eyes setting off pain, and closing eyes making it better.
I tried many things--cranio-sacral therapy, neurontin, etc. But it was the accidental use of benadryl that did it for me. Only problem was the benadryl made my already very dry mouth even drier.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Anything that works against inflammation helps.
Posted by finallylyme (Member # 33807) on :
Gabapentin and nortriptylline!! It's the only thing that keeps my functioning. Do not be afraid to ask for something that will give you relief of symptoms while you are treating.
Posted by GiGi (Member # 259) on :
Was just listening to a doctor calling in Dr. K. on an open telephone forum, with the same question.
Trigeminal N. starts with dental toxins/infections also involving herpes virus. Need to clear the dental problem (biological dentist) and treat virus with Valtrex. Then the usually underlying Lyme can be successfully treated.
It can be very easily tested with good ART or other energetic testing.
Take care.
Posted by steven (Member # 13101) on :
Any more ideas?
Posted by cleo (Member # 6646) on :
xanax helps mine. I am not sure why though.
Posted by terv (Member # 29410) on :
Are you gluten-free? My mom had terrible trigeminal neuralgia. Her doctor insists that all his patients get off gluten because he has found a lot of lyme patients are sensitive to it. Since removing gluten, she has found that a lot of her TN pain is gone and when she has even a taste of something with gluten it comes back.
It might be worth a try - I dont think it will take long to see results.