| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| susan828 |
Posted - 03/04/2010 : 14:04:03
I waited 6 weeks for an appointment with a neurologist. I am going because my dentists have suggested it. I have had this pain on and off for 15 years. So I went yesterday and he doesn't know, doesn't really think it's trigeminal neuralgia but knows there has been nerve damage. There is an area of my face that when touched, hurts since a root canal. This isn't TMS, this is real nerve damage that wasn't there before. But that isn't my concern since it doesn't bother me unless I touch it.
I wrote the other day that on my birthday I had pain in every corner of my mouth. I had my front top tooth x-rayed last month and it has no cavity, no filling in it, nothing is wrong that they can see. The roof of my mouth above that tooth hurts as if it is being stabbed and it started up again today, on and off. It radiates to the tooth. That's just one spot where I have pain. It moves around.
He wants me to have an MRI of the brain. Unfortunately, me new insurance has a deductible and this will cost $480 which I can ill afford but want to see what it says. I have a feeling that anyone reading this will say forget it, don't do it but I just want to find out why, is something pressing on a nerve, is this indeed a physical problem. BUT...then I think, why did it act up worse than ever on my birthday (at which time I was depressed about being alone, missing family..birthdays and holidays bring up a lot of stuff, conscious and unconscious.
The neurologist told me that stress can bring out all kinds of pain, which is of course, no news to us here. I am not sure why I am posting all this, I guess for an update since we follow each other's lives...but I think I need to get the MRI and just KNOW if they see something. I am also afraid of them finding something else horrible. One of my drs who is also a friend says he never gets MRIs because if you look, you find. And having ealth anxiety, if I see something that says "probably benign", I freak out and it stays in my mind.
If this were back pain, maybe I could accept the Sarno theory but stabbing pains in my teeth and palate? This is maddening and it hurts right now and I don't want to live like this. I just don't know what to do. I am trying to do all I read here and develop a different attitude but it's hard to think straight when you have this pain and are worried that nobody will find the cause and it will go on forever.
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| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jerica |
Posted - 03/05/2010 : 10:30:36
I had dental work done and about a week after I started getting a horrific pain under my tongue. I went to the dentist, they couldn't figure it out. I went to the ER once because it hurt so bad I felt like I was going to choke (it hurt on the right side and down my neck in the front.) They gave me Vicodin which I took for about a week or two. The whole thing lasted something like 2 months and it was painful 24/7. I mean searing pain. Now I had had a cavity worked on on that side in a molar which may have set it off, but I've since had some pain under my tongue that's completely random (or so it seems) but not as bad. No one ever found out why my mouth went nuts. I also had a bout of torticollis that was super painful which lasted a week or so and needed vicodin for that too. It very well could be TMS. I get pains all over, not just back pain. I get weird sensations, I get chest pain, short of breath, creepy feelings, tingling, goosebumps, anxiety attacks -- a host of things. Had a zillion tests including a couple of brain MRI's and I'm fine. I started to think I'm just a weirdo and weird stuff happens to me and then goes away. It's been like this for over 15 years with stuff on and off coming and going and so on. |
| catspine |
Posted - 03/05/2010 : 02:08:33
yes Susan I agree with that you don't want to go the medication way there is more you have to do before using this as a last resort.
I know well what these two feel like and Tegretol has a potential for fibrosis side effects if you take it continuously. My experience with it was negative and my migraines persisted even while under treatment.
Herpes is a problem because the virus lives "in the nervous system " and although there is meds that would kill the virus it would also be very damaging to the nervous system. As you said acyclovir or one of the four available treatments works well if taken as early as possible when symptoms appear but the best way is not to work yourself up to this point nervously so that herpes doesn't get fired up at all. If I'm not mistaking herpes also triggers an inflammation process which is one thing that can make pain last longer so you may want to ask your physician about it.
Re occurrence of oral herpes is an indicator of the presence of big emotional stress especially if you already have a clue of that yourself so this leads you back directly to what needs to be done about it before you do anything else. It is the first most efficient way to reduce the symptoms. Want it or not many things in your posts lead back to emotional factors messing thing up so you know that your nerves are under constant assault because the issues have not been resolved yet .
You want to get this part under control and out of the picture so that the rest you need to have done can go smoothly and trouble free.
quote:
This may be what's happening also...the nerve pathway is acting up. I have a feeling that this may be what it is.
This one is easier to figure out if herpes was there before then stress makes it worse and if stress was there already than herpes contributes to making it worse, you probably can tell which one appeared first. Fixing the herpes problem if that's what it is will not fix your emotional problem but fixing your emotional problem may fix the herpes one ...
Back to previous post if you mind/body is speaking to you don't ignore it ... you don't want your teeth to have the last word. |
| susan828 |
Posted - 03/04/2010 : 19:37:03
Catspine, the neurologist really doesn't know anything yet. He can only conclude that it was nerve damage since I didn't have that tender spot before the root canal. I also can't answer your other question about the nerve being under constant stimulation. I mean, I never touch my cheek. It does not hurt unless I touch it lightly. That doesn't bother me at all though. If it turned into an unprovoked, constant pain, it would but I don't even want to think about that.
Thanks for the post. I just want the results and see what happens after that. I do not want to be on Neurontin or Tegretol, or any similar drugs which seem to work for these conditions. They space you out and I can't imagine the long term effects. If the pain was every day, maybe. It's now 7 hours and I still have the pain. When I have had it before, it is gone in the morning. I am concerned because I have had it twice in a week.
I will also mention that I have ongoing problems with oral herpes and one common spot is on the roof of my mouth. Whenever it is healing, it leaves me with residual pain. If you know anything about shingles (in the herpes family but not what I have), it can leave people with post-herpetic neuralgia if they don't get quick treatment with acyclovir.
Well, I asked the dr. if regular type 1 herpes can do this and he said yes. It can stay dormant in the nerve (it does, always) and rears its head when we're under stress. And he said you can have it and not know it, not see it. This may be what's happening also...the nerve pathway is acting up. I have a feeling that this may be what it is. |
| catspine |
Posted - 03/04/2010 : 17:03:19
Hi Susan,
I'm so happy for you it's not trigeminal neuralgia, having suffered over 30 years of migraine I can tell you you don't want that.
By the way I don't have those anymore.
Did the neurologist tell you more details about the nerve damage?
If you feel pain when the area on your face is touched does it mean that the nerve in question is under constant stimulation? even if you don't touch it. I mean by that does it generate permanent tension ready to add to something else?
One problem is not exclusive of the others and on the contrary a physical nerve /teeth problem will exacerbate an other underlying problem and combine to give you a hard time sometimes.
When I was going through the worst of the TMS syndrome imperatives I had pains in my mouth I would have never imagined existed but I had no money so there was no question about what to do.
If your mind is divided between knowing and not knowing the process is exactly the same to generate fear in both cases. it is eliminating the fear that will allow you to make a decision and to proceed with what ever you think is best but there is another way. More difficult at first but it works as well. Although it was drastic then it served me well at the end because I paid more attention to what my body was telling me.
The body's memory can recall what our conscious mind conveniently forgets and therefore help you during the self diagnosis process , an example of that is for example when one says: I knew there was something wrong! I just knew it! so you know what I'm talking about now.
The problem with this is that your body's own knowledge can be impaired by your thoughts just as much as it can be repaired by them because it depends on the process that takes place in your brain more specifically the interaction with the autonomic part of the brain which is the guardian of our well being. It seems like there is everything needed in the subconscious and the autonomic brain to fix the problems in our body because it has the natural ability accumulated over millions of years of evolution to do so and it was passed on from one generation to the next . We just don't practice enough to make this work to our advantage but we have a sense that lets us know there is something like that happening somehow and some people have it more developed than others.
In other words if you feel there is something there then there probably is but you just don't know what to call it and the indication you get from your feeling makes it hard to resist the temptation to use modern technology to confirm where the problem might originates from but finding out can be devastating which only means that you must be ready to hear that before you find out because what will you do if you're told there is no cure for whatever the problem is?. you 'll not be better off . on the other hand if let's say you don't care this will have no effect whatsoever.
So, clearly in one instance you know already and in the other you soon will know. What makes a big difference is to find out what can be done about what you suspect and stick to the fact during your research that it is only a suspicion.Limit your thoughts to what you can handle. This is why it's good t learn about these things while there is no symptoms. I always do my reseach when I feel really good it is the best time because there is no tension and if there is no tension there is no fear.
After reading your posts it looks like you don't have one problem but two maybe , MAYBE! . The good news is that if you can take care or the TMS part for now and at least that part will be eliminated and then you can tackle the other part if it persist. Don't forget that there were times you were pain free for a looooong time.
Make your mind your friend not your master.
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| susan828 |
Posted - 03/04/2010 : 16:57:03
Thanks for the reply, Dave. What I mean is that back pain I could deal with. I have had it in the past and as much as it hurts, I never anticipated something that would drive me off a cliff. There is nothing much worse than a toothache and I keep thinking there is a nrve dying or something that can't be seen and I am going to have a toothache that nobody will treat because they don't see it on an x-ray.
I had a root canal on the tooth next to it some years ago with a similar "cutting" pain and the dentist didn't see anything but the endodontist did it because he was baffled and I was in agony. I have had pain in this darn tooth on and off since 1996 but it is so infrequent. Now I had it on Sunday and now 4 days later again. I took 2 advils 3 hours ago and it still hurts. I feel like there is something up there in my upper palate and now I'm thinking, a brain MRI could show nerve compression of a nerve that runs this way, but maybe they should do some kind of cat scan on my face where the pain is.
I do know that Sarno mentions every part of the body. It's just hard to think of this is not having a physical cause. I do clench my teeth at night...I have woken up and felt this. I need a bite plate but not now with new dental work pending. They want to wait until it's over I need an implant which they're holding off on with all of my pain). |
| Dave |
Posted - 03/04/2010 : 15:19:30
quote:
If this were back pain, maybe I could accept the Sarno theory but stabbing pains in my teeth and palate?
Not sure why you have this belief. If you have read Dr. Sarno's recent books then you should learn that TMS is not relegated to back pain, but there are many possible symptoms.
Do you know if you grind your teeth at night? This is a possible source of jaw/tooth pain.
In any case, if you want piece of mind, then I'm afraid you might need that MRI. If you focus on the symptoms and believe there may be a structural cause, then you will have difficulty making progress if it is indeed TMS. |
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