Once Again...

Well, I went to the ER again on Thursday. I had been in so much pain for almost two weeks straight…which is very rare. I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. Drove myself to the ER, almost running out of gas on the way (which I didn’t notice till I got to the hospital) I got through the admittance process fairly quickly. I was happy to finally have something to tell the nurse other than “My head is killing me!”, because that does not even begin to describe it. The doctor came in to see me. His white coat said “ER Supervisor”. I figured they had him see me because Trigeminal Neuralgia is not a very common problem. He examined me for about five seconds, and said it had to be TMJ. He asked me if I had ever had a shingles infection before. I hadn’t. He said that the possibility of me having Trigeminal Neuralgia without a preexisting shingles infection is basically impossible. He said that without nerve tests, there was no way he would even suggest it being TN. I was so upset. I KNOW my body. I have had TMJ for many years. I know exactly what it feels like. It does NOT feel like this. It does not come in shocks, it is not an electric pain, and it doesn’t make my entire face feel like someone tasered it. He gave me a shot of Dilaudid and sent me home with some Loratab. I don’t think he even cared. He was in with me for maybe five minutes max. I have had some pretty decent ER docs before…but this one was so rude. He basically said my other doctor was a complete idiot for even suggesting a diagnosis other than TMJ.
I went home, just praying that I would sleep through the night for the first time in two weeks. Let’s just say I did not end up doing that. I thought the Dilaudid would end up knocking me up, but instead I was up and down all night in pain. It dulled it a bit. I started taking the Loratab the next day, which also dulled it. I stopped taking my prescribed medication for the TN because I was having a minor allergic reaction to it. I decided I need to try to get the same doctor in the free clinic again. Then we will see what he says to all of this!