I think I fried my Trigeminal nerve

[fireface]

I'm about 3 weeks still coming off the worse "high cycle" I've ever had... 5,6 up to 8 one day for several weeks... all on the left side and really deep burn throughout the entire Tri nerve. I'm down to 1, 2 sometimes 3 a day, but I still have a constant ache... like a sinus ache..all day long. When I drink something cold the nerve endings on the roof of my mouth back by my throat hurt. I'm thinking anything that hurts that much, that long, has got to leave a scar. I tried Prednesone as an anti-inflammatory... didn't do anything. I'm not sure if that's what you guys refer to as a shadow... I know... I shouldn't be a cry baby about some little nagging ache in my face... it's just different then anything before.

Dave

[les genser]

Its not being a cry baby at all, its being smart because ignoring those shadows will prolong your cycle if you are episodic and deepen your pattern if you are chronic. Standard antiinflammatories will not do much. Picture it this way: It is the nerve itself that is firing mistakenly, and drugs act not on the nerve but on the tissues the nerve affects, so the real problem is never addressed.

For what its worth, in my opinion corticosteroids are virtually never worth taking. Too much collateral damage; they date rape the most sensitive electrical/chemical interfaces in the body and cause permanent tissue change. And, as I mentioned, it won't stop it from coming back.

The key is recognizing that the 'outside in' triggering of the trigeminal and or associated nerves which pass through the hypothalamic region is A) what causes majority of attacks later in episodic period and what causes majority of daytime hits in chronics and C) it must be treated seriously and concurrently and not as a separate syndrome.

It is best addressed in two ways: First, most important and most difficult is remove whatever is triggering the nerve. This may be physical, like nicotine or alcohol, or emotional/energetic, or some combination. I don't mean to sound facile in the least, but this is the absolute only "cure" there is. Everything else is palliation.

The good news is that although the tissues are exhausted, there is no 'scarring'. Try to stick to mostly mechanical, low metabolic load aborting methods with the intent of shorting out the nerve path. Stuff like ice packs, oxygen, caffeine; whatever works for you that has antiinflammatory effects.

Self-administered acupressure, stretches.

Do not neglect muscle involvement. Chronic pain, like ripples in a pond, affects adjacent muscle groups and the bound energy in turn triggers more pain. Acupuncture and massage can be very effective in breaking that part of the cycle.

In the large subset of CH people that are affected by neurogenic pain, it is at least half of the problem in that it is not stoppable by way of the hypothalamus, i.e. busting.

There are also effective herbal and nutritional things you can do to support regeneration of nerve tissue.

You are being wise in not ignoring this.

[fireface]

Thank You, Thank you..Les. I think you hit it on the part of being more active, stretching, those types of things...I'm in a real emotional/energetic funk right now... like I'm just sitting around waiting for the next attack to come. I do need to get out and do the things I usually do. I have tried o2 without much luck in the past, but after reading all these posts I'm going to try again with the optimask..just order a H tank. I think that may help with these lingering shadows. Thanks again, Les. I would have just moped around not knowing what to do next.

Dave