Trigeminal neuralgia

[wineandsunshine]

Hello!

My GP has suggested this as a reason for my facial/head pain but I'm not convinced! I'm on 20MG amitriptylene and having a blood test Friday. This has been ongoing since the Summer and now I'm starting to worry it's something else. My symptoms are:
Left sided facial pain particularly in cheekbone/behind my eye, ringing in one ear, slightly raised eyelid, vision feeling off at times (fine one minute and blurry the next), neck tightness.
Background history - scoliosis on the same side of back.

Any advice/help? Should I be pushing for a referral with this?
Thankyou

You should have a blood test called an ESR to exclude a condition called Giant Cell Arteritis as a matter of urgency given the blurry vision and the neck tightness. Hopefully this is the blood test you are having.

www.brainandspine.org.uk/trigeminal-neuralgia

Hopefully this is helpful and tells you what trigeminal neuralgia should be like and what the treatment should be - if your symptoms really do sound like this (I can't tell from your OP) then you need to move off amitriptylline onto something else eg carbemazepine or gabapentin and get it working for you.

Hmm, difficult to say, it doesn't sound exactly like typical TN but could be atypical. These are all symptoms that some people with TN do get though. There's a Trigeminal neuralgia UK Facebook group you could join and ask, and the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association has a page that identifies different types of facial pain. I didn't have a blood test when I was diagnosed, but saw a neurologist who did an MRI scan, though some people find it difficult to get their GPs to refer (mine was private). Amitriptyline is fine if it works for you, and is often prescribed for atypical TN, but as PP says there are other drugs that are more commonly successful.

Thankyou for the replies - I think my medication has taken the edge off of it but the pain is still there daily like a dull ache almost.

I think the blood test is checking for Giant Cell A (I'm only 35 though?!).

35 would be fairly odd for GCA - it is very much an illness of older women. I'm on the alert for it as my mother has it!

That's what the GP said so I guess I will just wait and see if the bloods are all ok first!