Shining light on awful condition

I, like Gaynor Trevett (KM letters October 18) suffer with the accursed affliction Trigeminal Neuralgia. I was diagnosed in 2010 after numerous trips to the dentist with pain in my face. The dentist couldn’t find anything wrong and referred me to a pain specialist who subsequently made the diagnosis. I was prescribed anti-epilepsy drugs and ended up taking the maximum dose prescribed. The pain from this

condition is indescribable and the problem is not knowing when an attack will happen. It’s totally random. It feels like the whole of my upper jaw is receiving electric shocks and the jolts going up my face make my whole body convulse. My husband is unable help and can only hold my hand while I writhe and cry in pain. I lost confidence and wouldn’t go out on my own. This is no exaggeration as any sufferer will tell you. However, in my case I was attending a chiropractor for another condition and he had family knowledge of this affliction. Through chiropractic treatment and keeping my nervous system, muscles and bones in the best condition I can, I have weaned myself off medication and have not had a severe attack for the best part of four years. I still occasionally get the feeling of small electric shocks in my jaw, but nothing like the severe pain I suffered in the past. I’m not saying that chiropractic treatment is the ‘cure’, only an operation can cure it, but it seems to have worked for me. Unfortunately this is never going to go away and the likelihood is that I will suffer severe attacks at some time in the future, but for now I am grateful that I can get on with a normal life.

Jennifer Fulton Coverdale Avenue, Maidstone