Viral related Trigeminal Neuralgia

[vstankosky]

I have a condition that has come and gone over the past 14 1/2 years.  I experience an almost unbearable, searing, stabbing pain that radiates up my right throat (eustacian tube area) into my right ear.  I usually describe it as what it might feel like to have someone stab me with a knife there and twist it around and around.  It's set off by swallowing but not every time I swallow.  "Usually" once I have experienced the pain and it has subsided I am able to finish eating or drinking and won't have to worry about it until the next time I eat or drink something.  Ocassionally it causes a build up of mucous in the back of my throat which is painful to clear.  It leaves my throat and ear tender in that area.  This past time around I had an ear infection with it, and although the ear infection cleared up, my ear remained so sensitive it hurt to have anything brush against it.  Today is the first day I have had relief from that particular sensation (my doctor has me taking Neurontin - perhaps it's helping?).  The first time I experienced it the doctor I was seeing could not see anything and refered me to an ENT.  My grandfather had died from throat cancer when I was young, so I worried.  By the time I went to see the ENT I could hardly swallow anything.  The ENT diagnosed me with GERD, recommended Maalox, and sent me home.  He told me it was stress related although I had not felt any unusual stress or changes prior to the onset.  Through the years and with a change in doctors I simply reported my GERD was acting up when I had another bout of it.  The GERD meds have increased in strength through the years until last year my doctor finally sent me in for an endoscopy.  I was told I did NOT have GERD; it must be something else.  This time around my doctor treated me for the ear infection, and I tried to convince her it had to be GERD related, because as the situation wore on I began to feel the indigestion.  She explained I was most likely developing the indigestion "after" the onset when I began to worry about it rather than it being the cause and sent me in for an MRI.  I quit worrying about it being GERD and sure enough the indigestion stopped, but the MRI revealed a healthy head.  No compressed Trigeminal nerve, no tumors, nothing visibly wrong.  My doctor believes it is viral related.  I thought we built immunities to viruses we've already experienced, so how is it that I can continue to experience this same situation periodically throughout all these years?  Could there be another explanation?  If it is indeed caused by a virus, what virus, and how do I avoid getting it again?  Thanks for any insight or advice you might have for me.


This discussion is related to Re: Trigeminal Neuralgia.