March 10, 2011 was the first day of the longest six weeks in my life. It started with pure joy as I decided to drive to St. Louis and watch the Missouri state Lady Bears basketball team participate in the Missouri Valley tournament. I arrived 30 min. before the game, bought a cup of my favorite brewed hot beverage and a large tub of popcorn which is a heavenly experience for me. The ballgame progressed nicely with the Lady Bears having little trouble with their opponent and it was pleasant and fun to watch the victory. At halftime, I was sitting in my comfortable seat surrounded by 200 or so fans dressed in maroon sweatshirts with MSU emblazoned on the chest of those shirts. I did not own a maroon MSU sweatshirt and made a mental note to buy one on the way out of the arena. I am not usually in the mood to identify with a crowd of any type but this seemed a valid exception. Also during halftime I experienced an incredible pain shooting through the left side of my head above my eye. The duration of the pain, in my estimation, lasted approximately a fourth of a second. This is a very short period of time but was long enough to bring tears to my eyes and make me wonder what in the hell had happened. I remembered having the same pain about a year ago that my doctor said was probably trigeminal neuralgia and probably nothing to worry about if it did not continue. I was feeling exceedingly pumped and happy to be watching my favorite basketball team in person and had the good fortune to sit by one of the players family and to get invited to the festivities that included supper for the team surrounded by their most avid fans. Being tired and a wee bit concerned about the pain I went to the motel, played a game of Internet poker, won $.57 and went to bed with a big smile on my face. I slept late and enjoyed a huge breakfast consisting of a sausage skillet heaped with vegetables and potatoes, sausage and two delightful eggs cooked over easy. I arrived at the arena in my brand-new maroon Missouri state Lady Bears sweatshirt and felt part of a special crowd of people, which is not an experience I have often. The basketball game was as exciting and entertaining as its predecessor and the Lady Bears played their way into the conference finals. I am basically a white meat only guy but I accompanied my coffee and tub of popcorn with a foot-long hot dog with chili cheese and onions which was quite a treat since I had consumed one hot dog in the last seven years. I was a bit comprehensive about having another nasty pain in the head but I enjoyed the game my funky meal and had a delightful time with no mystery pains and was quite happy as I drove back to the motel and I was getting very close to the motel when another searing, hot, diabolical, insidious and quite nasty pain shot through the left side of my head above the eye. I swerved a bit but got my car back under control with only one digital signal from a motorist on the side of me. I was getting a bit concerned about the repetitive nature of the pain but decided to not let it ruinanotherwise perfect outing. I ate at a seafood restaurant in the Westport area of St. Louis and had a most delicious meal of steamed salmon with a honey glaze, steamed broccoli and steamed asparagus. I mused to myself on the way back to the motel that the day could not have gone any better with the one fourth of a second unexpected, unwelcome and insidious flash of pain. I played another game of Internet poker, won 11 and went to bed quite content. Awakening was a most pleasant experience on Sunday and the clerk at the motel agreed to give the Lady Bears a lot of love for the finals of the tournament. I had barbecued turkey and fried okra for lunch and took my seat a half hour before game time clutching my cup of coffee and tub of popcorn. It was obvious during the first 15 min. of the game that this would not be the year that the Lady Bears went to the NCAA tournament. It was disappointing to see them lose but they actually lost to a better team and I was not unhappy. The ride home to Springfield from St. Louis was uneventful until I pass through the town of Marshfield and had another incident of my now, very irritating, repetitive pain. Loverwas away visiting our kids and grandkids in Tacoma Washington and not due back until Tuesday. I decided to take it easy as Monday is one of my lighter work days and just chill. The day went well until about 2:30 when I sneeze and thought my life was going to end because nobody could endure that kind of pain without dying. This was not a quarter of a second flash of pain that I had experienced previously lasted at least 5 to 6 seconds which seemed like an eternity and the pain was to the extent that I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I had several more flashes on Monday but they were back to a much shorter duration. I decided on Tuesday to go see my favorite Chinese herbalistic acupuncturist. He put me in a little room, needled me up and put Angel music on the boombox and I had a most pleasant 45 min. I felt wonderful as I got off the table, put my shoes on and started to leave. When I reached the door the pain was so intense that I collapsed on the floor and this time it wouldn’t go away, open chest surgery was a walk in the park compared to this pain. I was convinced by this time that a trip to the emergency room (If you did not know it I am not a fan of Western Medicine, in general, and emergency rooms in particular) seemed inevitable, I could not drive the people due to health regulations could not transport me and none of my close friends was available so I took a quiet ambulance ride with incredible pain firing ever 2 to 3 min. The emergency room didn’t seem to know what to do with me so he filled me full of morphine which didn’t seem to help at all as my head kept firing on a regular basis. The doc called a bunch of people including my family doc and they concluded that I indeed had trigeminal neuralgia(which I found out later as one of the worst pains that a human can have) which the docs didn’t have an answer for. I spent five hours in the emergency room and my son-in-law came to take me home and helped me wobble to the couch hoping the pain didn’t continue but knowing it would. At 11:30 PM my Guardian Angel in flesh housing of my wife arrived on the scene and I was never asglad to see anybody in my whole life she took incredibly good care of me doled out my OxyContin which I did not think was working at all until I decided to skip a dose and changed my mind in a hurry. The doc sent me home with a new brain drug called Lyrica which did not help at all. I somehow survived until Thursday morning when we saw the neurologist who(guess what) told me I had trigeminal neuralgia. He said it was like controllable by drugs and gave me a drug called Tegretol which took the pain away by the next day. We had to increase the doses of Tegretol for a week or so to keep the pain down. He seems quite satisfied with me staying on the drug but it has weird side effects and I don’t see it as an option over the long run. There is a noninvasive surgery that is supposed to cure the condition permanently but the reviews on it are mixed. Before I decide whether or not to have it I am going to a acupuncturist who says he has excellent results with what I have. If it works I will be a most happy camper and if it doesn’t work I will be finding a way to get the noninvasive surgery. I should know about the acupuncture in a week or two as my first treatment is Friday and I will let you know what happens.
Keep the faith
David
I am very tired and on the verge of being wiped out so I did not edit this entry. I hope it’s legible and I’ll clean it up later.
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