Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is often considered the most painful disorder known to mankind. TN (a.k.a. tic douloureux) is a disorder of the fifth cranial (trigeminal) nerve that causes episodes of intense, stabbing, electric shock-like pain in the areas of the face where the branches of the nerve are distributed, such as the lips, eyes, nose, scalp, forehead, upper jaw, and lower jaw. This blog chronicles my journey.
Monday, 16 June 2014
Bad Vibrations
Oh Monday, here you are again!
Is that the normal response to what is described as the worst day of the week? Doubtful. When Trigeminal Neuralgia is a fact of life, it often doesn't matter what day it is.
I can't go out to pubs or nightclubs. Now I could go out and drink coke or 7up, but it's the noise that I can't take. I have noticed it and really has upset me. This rules out concerts and gigs, and that is just not cool.
I love music, and great music needs to be played LOUD, or not at all. The vibrations set off my pain. That rules out clubs and pubs. Normally I hate the stuff played in nightclubs so that's no great loss, but when all loud music is intolerable, that is soul destroying. I can't put earphones in and get lost in a great song like I used to, in fact I can't put earphones or ear buds near my left ear at all!
What am I going to do when some of my favourite bands announce concerts, or there is a great gig going on? There is no point logging onto the ticketmaster website, waiting for tickets and the adrenaline of refreshing the page to make sure I am in the queue. The excitement when these tickets come in the door, and the absolute nirvana of having a drink in the bar of a venue, waiting for these fantastic musicians to take the stage. Then when they take to the stage and hammer out the songs that I know and love. The palpitations when I get to see my heroes up close, see them clutch their guitars, grab microphones and belt out their masterpieces. Thanks to Trigeminal Neuralgia, that is all gone for me, and it's not fair.
It may seem strange that facial pain can stop life like this, and I would have been a sceptic. Vibrations and noise set off my pain, especially loud noises. Even the smoke alarm going off when I burned toast set off an attack that nearly knocked me on my ass.
Does this affect everyone with TN, or am I in the minority? It would be interesting to know.
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