7 Months Post Microvascular Decompression for Trigeminal Neuralgia | Laura’s Update

I chatted with Laura about her post-MVD journey 7 months later. How she manages school and life, tips for recovery and much more! #trigeminalneuralgiaawareness

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My name is Charlie Meehan and I have been struggling with TN and AD for about 25 years. I will write a quick preview of my pain problem. I will swear to anyone that it started with a dental procedure. Dentists will never own up to it unfortunately. Anyway it took 5 years of terrible pain and multiple Doctor visits only to have it diagnosed by an ER doctor on a camp trip. I went to Stanford to see a neurosurgeon and he steered me away from surgery to Cyber Knife treatment. Cyber Knife is pinpointed radiation that burns the trigeminal nerve. The TN pain stayed as well as side effects from the Cyber Knife called Anesthesia Dolorosa. I then had microvascular decompression surgery in my home town ( Santa Cruz, CA.). Surgery helped the TN immensely for a few years. Pain has come back to the TN and no has been able to help me with The AD. Just this year I returned to Stanford and went through an MRI to prepare for a nerve block in September. WTF???? I've been in hideous facial pain 24/7 for 20 years now. I'm 69 years old with a very caring wife and 2 amazing sons that live elsewhere but call every night !!! I'm lucky in that department. It's very difficult for me as the pain just gets worse and worse. I have also lost use of my right eye. I wear a patch over it that kids love and dogs like to bash their noses into !! Eating is a chore as the mouth muscles are going south. So in a nutshell, that is an overview of my life with a cheeky trigeminal nerve.