Maxene from California

Her Personal Story

I came across your Fall 2004 issue which asked for alternative methods people with TN have tried that work. I was diagnosed with TN in 1998. I thought it was a toothache and went to my dentist who sent me to a neurologist. I had had the TN for about six months without any medication. It had started out very mildly and got worse and worse. However, by the time I went to the neurologist, the TN had begun to abate on its own. I was prescribed Tegretol, and after taking about two weeks of very little Tegretol every day, the neuralgia disappeared completely. I never gave it another thought and never thought it would return.

It returned with a vengeance about one year later. Tegretol was the only medication which had even a small effect on it, and I had to take a ton of it without being rid of the pain. I am very sensitive to drugs and substances and I could not function on the medication. My neurologist set me up for surgery at UCSF since even large amounts of medications did not take the pain away.

I did not want surgery if I could help it. I had had many many years of problems with my upper neck on the right side which I had ignored. My TN was on the right side above my teeth. A friend persuaded me to try acupuncture, which I did for several weeks without any benefit. I decided to try chiropractic.

There is a chiropractic college in a nearby community, so I went and signed up for help from the clinic interns. I told them about my neck and they confirmed quite a bit of displacement of my two upper cervicals, C-1 and C-2. The problem was restoring those to a more natural position, after so many years of trouble. It took a long time, and I was passed on to new interns whenever my old intern graduated. Some interns did a better job than others, and last summer I had to ask to change interns when the one I had was not able to take care of my neck well enough. The result was a summer of TN.

At the start of my chiropractic treatment, it took almost a year before my TN disappeared completely, but after that I was okay except for the slide I had last summer. The secret for me is keeping C-2 adjusted. If I wait long enough without adjustment (say two weeks), then C-2 slips back into its old dislocated pattern, and I begin to feel signs of TNA returning (tongue ache, ear pains, jaw aches). Although I must keep going to the school to have my neck adjusted, I have avoided surgery. I hope, although I cannot know with certainty, that continued chiropractic adjustment of my upper cervicals will help keep my TNA at bay. I still take Tegretol, but I have been able to get by on a low dosage. I do not know if I stopped the Tegretol whether chiropractic would of itself stop the TNA. I have been afraid to try. But the chiropractic worked a miracle for me in combination with some Tegretol.

Updated 1-4-05