A patient writes:
I am Cynthia Smith and was recently a patient at Mayo. I have written the following story to share…
Thanks to Dr. Link, and the entire Mayo staff, I am now pain free from 7 years of excruciating tongue and facial pain. I suffered from glossopharyngeal neuralgia (severe tongue pain) and trigeminal neuralgia (TN), the “suicide disease”. I had all the usual triggers which caused pain: swallowing, chewing, moving my tongue, cold or hot temperatures, etc. Because eating was so difficult, I was losing weight and strength while basically living on yogurt and a liquid diet.
I had been diagnosed early on and had tried every possible medication, with little or no relief. In desperation, we traveled to the Mayo Clinic and went to the emergency room at St. Marys Hospital. It took a couple days before I made it into the “Mayo machine,” an efficient, smooth moving motion of tests, MRIs, and consultations. On Sept. 4th, Dr. Link and his team performed a craniotomy where they snipped the 9th cranial nerve to correct the glossopharyngeal neuralgia and then did a decompression vascular procedure by putting Teflon pad into between the vessels and nerves to correct the “TN”. Both procedures were completely successful! With the help of my faith, family, and friends, I’m now enjoying the pleasures of daily life again.
Thanks to Cynthia for sharing her Mayo Clinic story. If you would like to share yours, click here for options.
Tags: Mayo Clinic, Neuralgia, tongue pain, Trigeminal Neuralgia
October 29, 2009 at 5:24 pm |
I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia today – I was in the ER all last night with bursts of pain that were almost exactly like an electrical shock in my mouth and face under one eye. Originally, I thought it was a tooth nerve and loaded my mouth with tooth pain medicine – nothing worked. Maybe had 20-30 attacks last night and about 7 today. Praying the medicine works – I understand why they call it what they do. I cannot imagine living life with that kind of pain all the time.
October 8, 2009 at 3:23 pm |
Thank you so much for being an encouraging source of information during our difficult time with my husband’s diagnosis of this condition.
September 29, 2009 at 8:36 am |
Hello there,
I’m a Rochester reporter and I’d like to see if Cynthia would be interested in doing an interview about her experience.
I am wondering if she’s from MN? Or if she plans to come back to Rochester at some point again. If there’s any way you could help me get connected with her, that would be great. Thanks much.
Donny Rowles
reporter
507-440-2535
ABC 6 News, Rochester