Rob
07-20-2010, 06:49 PM
Since Friday, I have been having intermittent stabbing pain where my jaw line meets my ear on the left side. I have TMJ, but I am not having a flare up - no pain in the jaw, no locking, no pain inside the ear, and no dental issues. Doesn't feel the same at all as a TMJ flare up. I also have infrequent migraines, but they are accompanied by aura and it isn't like that either.
The pain is like an electroshock to the face. Lasts a few seconds, stops, comes again every 10-30 seconds. Then it will stop for some random number of hours -- it started Friday night around 8 pm, stopped about 6 pm Saturday, started again in the middle of the night Saturday, stopped around 9 pm Sunday night, started again in the middle of the night Sunday night, lasted till 10 am Monday, stopped till 11 pm Monday and has kept up ever since. Can't really tell if the stoppage is Advil-prompted - at first I thought it was, but now I have taken 5 Advil since 11 pm last night and no relief.
My doctor has been on hiatus between practices and was supposed to be up and running at her new practice 2 weeks ago. It is a new office of a multi-location practice. I called and the new office is postponed so she won't be back till August 2 at a different location. I hate my doctor's old practice, and I work near a medical building so I called 19 doctors all of whom are not taking new patients. I called my doctor's new practice to see if I could see someone at a different office till she got back and I was told I need to wait for new patient processing to call me back. I guess a new doctor at the old practice is a last resort, but they no longer accept any medical insurance and they double bill - which is the reason my doctor left.
My internet searches all come up with one thing - Trigeminal Neuralgia - aka "the suicide disease" because it can be intolerable. It all fits, my age, the pain description, the fact that I had a couple of isolated pain shocks to the eye a few weeks before this started - a typical precursor/warning sign. Sounds like I will need an MRI and some tests to rule out tumors and MS. Treatments include anti-convulsants and weird sounding surgical procedures, but while I am seeking out a referral, there are some homeopathics like B complex and accupuncture. I will try anything at this point, and I figure those can't hurt much if I get a different diagnosis. If anyone knows anything about weird facial pain and has any recommendations on what makes it better or worse, please post!
The pain is like an electroshock to the face. Lasts a few seconds, stops, comes again every 10-30 seconds. Then it will stop for some random number of hours -- it started Friday night around 8 pm, stopped about 6 pm Saturday, started again in the middle of the night Saturday, stopped around 9 pm Sunday night, started again in the middle of the night Sunday night, lasted till 10 am Monday, stopped till 11 pm Monday and has kept up ever since. Can't really tell if the stoppage is Advil-prompted - at first I thought it was, but now I have taken 5 Advil since 11 pm last night and no relief.
My doctor has been on hiatus between practices and was supposed to be up and running at her new practice 2 weeks ago. It is a new office of a multi-location practice. I called and the new office is postponed so she won't be back till August 2 at a different location. I hate my doctor's old practice, and I work near a medical building so I called 19 doctors all of whom are not taking new patients. I called my doctor's new practice to see if I could see someone at a different office till she got back and I was told I need to wait for new patient processing to call me back. I guess a new doctor at the old practice is a last resort, but they no longer accept any medical insurance and they double bill - which is the reason my doctor left.
My internet searches all come up with one thing - Trigeminal Neuralgia - aka "the suicide disease" because it can be intolerable. It all fits, my age, the pain description, the fact that I had a couple of isolated pain shocks to the eye a few weeks before this started - a typical precursor/warning sign. Sounds like I will need an MRI and some tests to rule out tumors and MS. Treatments include anti-convulsants and weird sounding surgical procedures, but while I am seeking out a referral, there are some homeopathics like B complex and accupuncture. I will try anything at this point, and I figure those can't hurt much if I get a different diagnosis. If anyone knows anything about weird facial pain and has any recommendations on what makes it better or worse, please post!