Is this symptom something to worry about?

[frank1591]

Hi.

This is a question on behalf of my wife.   She's 63, in pretty good health but, like all of us beginning to feel the years add up physically.

For about a year now she's been having sharp and sudden pains in her lower jaw, more precisely, if you were to draw a line down from the edge of her lips on the left-hand side (her left-hand side) and stop at about 3 centimetres, that's where she always feels the pain.   It can come at any time, day or night and lasts for just a second or two.     Sometimes it happens up to three times a day then she could go a couple of weeks without it happening at all.   She says it really hurts when it happens.    What is slightly more worrying is that about 80% of the time she also feels an identical pain in her elbow.   It's like an electric shock that hits her in the two places at the same moment.  

We've looked on the net and can find very little on why this should happen other than it possibly being a heart or an angina problem.    She saw her cardiologist about two months ago who said it's not possible that it could be connected to her heart.   She had an x-ray of her jaw done at the beginning of the year but nothing was seen.

Does anyone know if this is something she should push further with her cardiologist?  

Thanks in advance for any replies

[achillea]

Actually, we live in California, but having relatives in France, travel there often, and have had opportunity over the years to see how French medicine works both for our relatives (who are not well to do) and for ourselves when we have fallen seriously ill over there.

Good luck to you both.  I am certain this must be both annoying and worrisome, but I suspect it is not dangerous.

[frank1591]

Thanks again and sorry, I assumed CA to be Canada instead of California.

[achillea]

Ah, I see that you are in France.  As a resident, you have to wait quite a while to see a specialist?  

The symptoms you describe sound like those of a nerve irritation, and you are correct that simultaneously experiencing both trigeminal and ulnar nerve pain is odd.  Curiously enough, there has been an earlier discussion here of just that, where the victims alas found no answers:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/Sharp-pains-in-head-and-elbow/show/781470

However, I would personally want to rule out anything like pressure from a tumor or any condition that could cause the myelin sheaths that insulate our nerves to be in trouble and produce erroneous signals.

[frank1591]

Yes, you're right, we do have to wait a very long time for appointments with specialists here in France (how did you know that?   I see you're living in Canada.  If it's a French/Canadian part of Canada do you have the same problems there with the way that the french sometimes do things, i.e. "What's the hurry"?.   We have friends who moved from the UK to Montreal and they get really frustrated with the way some things are done there for the same reasons.)

We will get an appointment ASAP with a good neurologist.  

I sometimes wonder if this could be some sort of mineral or vitamin deficiency (magnesium, B12, D3 etc.).   My wife has always twitched when she sleeps (for the past forty years that I've known her) and often has leg cramps at night.   Her B12 levels aren't particularly low and neither are her D3 levels.   She reacts to magnesium supplements so maybe there's a clue there?  

Amyway, a neurologist first to check it's nothing too serious.

Thanks again.

[achillea]

I do not believe that your wife's pain is heart-related.  Please google the term 'trigeminal neuralgia.'  This is a disorder of nerve function characterized by frequent bursts of pain in the area of the face you describe.  It is treatable.

The elbow pain does not fit with this, but it does fit with other neurological problems.

Please make an appointment with a highly rated neurologist in your area.  I think you will find some helpful answers soon.

[achillea]

Please google or look up trigeminal neuralgia.  It is not exactly a rare condition, maybe a little difficult, but treatable.

This one is not a heart problem.  Your wife's elbow pain is a little odd, but please do make an appointment with a neurologist.  I suspect your wife's problem is going to turn out to be manageable.

[frank1591]

Yes, we did take a good look at TN but nowhere could we find that simultaneous elbow pain is a symptom.   TN always seems to affect different parts of the head.    Even the variants of TN and similar ailments don't seem to affect the elbow.   So, it is a bit weird but it's a definate and distinctive problem.   We'll contact a neurologist (possibly online as the waiting list is so long) just to see if they can shed some light on the issue.

It's good to know that you think it's not heart related anyway.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[erijon]

Pain from a heart condition is not normally intermittent unless it comes on with exertion and is eased with rest. Heart pain that radiates normally is steady and increases in intensity until the event is over.

Having said that, women are much more likely to feel cardiac pain in this way. If you are still concerned after seeing a cardiologist perhaps you should get a second opinion for some reassurance.

[frank1591]

We're fairly sure it's not heart related but, I agree, it won't harm to get a second opinion from a different cardiologist.
thanks for your reply.