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Inverse relation between sleep and PMR symptoms
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Sep 27 2:20pm | Replies (32)Comment receiving replies
@dadcue thank you fir your comment. My TN is not so bad yet however, my doctor said she can prescribe something. Those other medications have long term affects, so if it gets too bad, I will now consider surgery. I did not know that was an option. Thanks for sharing.
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@rhonna
TN has many causes. It is associated with some autoimmune conditions but not PMR or any of the other autoimmune disorders that I have.
https://www.facepain.org/blog/medical-causes-of-facial-painpart-ii/
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My initial TN attacks were severe and extremely stressful. TN started shortly after I was diagnosed with my first autoimmune conditions which were reactive arthritis (ReA) with uveitis. The zaps of electricity were near my left eye so I reported the zaps to my ophthalmologist. My ophthalmologist knew exactly what my zaps of electricity were and referred me to a neurologist.
The neurologist said it was "classical TN" but could not find anything that was causing it. That was a long time ago and CT scans and MRIs were still new technology. In any case, my TN didn't respond well to medical treatment. The medications the neurologist offered me only made TN worse. However, prednisone worked reasonably well but the neurologist said TN wasn't treated with prednisone. I decided to use prednisone anyway and later I decided that I didn't need a neurologist.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9727472/
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TN is known to get progressively worse. I can only say surgery for TN is usually the best option if they can find where the problem is. We are talking about extremely small areas and the surgery itself is called Microscopic Vascular Decompression (MVD) surgery.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11724535/
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MVD surgery requires navigating an incredibly small and delicate space at the base of the brainstem. A high-resolution FIESTA MRI scan is often done first. Even with this scan, the neurosurgeon can't always trust what the report says. My neurosurgeon said he was looking for one thing and found something entirely different. He had never seen my particular problem ever before. Under the circumstances ... my neurosurgeon said he did the best that he could. He actually said I should ask God for answers to any of my questions because he didn't know why it happened. He did concede that Prednisone was probably helping to alleviate my TN pain so I felt vindicated to some degree. While TN is primarily caused by nerve compression rather than inflammation, steroids can reduce localized swelling around the nerve root, briefly taking some pressure off the nerve.
Medical conditions that we humans have can get extremely complicated. I guess God will explain it to me someday.