I started getting really intense pain going all the way from my throat to my left ear. It was the kind of pain that would make you drop on one knee or convulse rigidly in your chair. It seemed like anything I did with my throat, coughing, yawning, talking and even sneezing, would trigger this pain. The spasms lasted about ten seconds and came anywhere between ten minutes and three hours apart. The pain was like hammering a four-inch nail into my ear. Excruciating!

I went to see my doctor and he sent me to an ear, nose, and throat specialist. They couldn�t find anything. This thing went on for two weeks until I went to a pharmacist. He just told me to buy an off-the-shelf back pain reliever. I did that and the spasms went away. I didn�t know what that pain was and I didn�t really want to know. That was the end of that, I thought.

Well, it wasn�t. The following year, in the spring, it happened again only this bout lasted a month. I thought I was dying. I saw countless doctors and was prescribed all sorts of remedies. Some of them, in combination, made me very sick. The back pain pills weren�t working either. Spasms, at one point, were coming at three-minute intervals. Then one day, they weren�t there, but I no longer thought they were gone for good.

The pains skipped a year and I thought I�d gotten rid of that black cloud hanging over my head. But in the autumn of the following year, it hit me again. This time I was able to get an appointment with a Neurologist. (Six week wait, bye the way) But instead of waiting the six weeks, I went off and tried some alternatives.

I went to a Chiropractor and then to an Acupuncturist. I�ll write a separate entry about my Doctor Z (the Acupuncturist), but suffice to say that I truly believe she was able to control this thing. The spasms went away.

Finally, well after the symptoms had gone, I saw the Neurologist. I described the problem - took all of five minutes � to which he replied; �Oh I know what that is. It�s called Neuralgia. In your case, Glosopharyngial Neuralgia�. He prescribed pills (I WILL go on a rant some day about doctors and their pill-pushin� ways). They�re the same pills that are prescribed for epilepsy.

Anyway, the next time (following year) I went through a bout, I got the pills and they worked. So that one only lasted a couple of weeks.

It went on like that for a few years and then, after Luvofmylife and I got back from Italy in 1998, I was hit with a SERIOUS bout of Neuralgia. I was incapacitated for four months over that summer. It was like I was being tortured in some Hanoi jail or something. I went to Naturopaths (love your pain, sheeesh!), Herbalists and a whole list of other doctors. Even my Acupuncturist couldn�t do anything at this point.

Anyway, I finally got to see a Neurosurgeon. He didn�t have a whole lot to offer because the only kind of operation that�s done in Canada is to go in there and sever the nerve. That operation renders the whole left side of the head numb.

However, he did have a colleague who was now working out of the University of Pittsburgh where he performs a fairly revolutionary procedure for Neuralgia. He drills a hole at the base of the skull, finds the nerve and wraps it in Teflon. You see, the nerve is actually like a bare wire. The insulation�s gone. Whenever anything touches it, like blood vessels or other nerves, it shorts out. So all he�s doing is wrapping electrical tape around a wire.

My Neurosurgeon decided not to recommend me for this operation right away because the particular four-month bout had ended, so I was under observation. In the meantime, I�d cut out all caffeine and alcohol. Although my bouts were more frequent in the years following, they�ve been quite mild. Between the pills and no alcohol, I�ve had them under control.

Lately, however�well, this past year, actually, they�ve been getting impossible to control. Apparently, neural disorders either go away completely or are degenerative and will only get worse. Mine is the latter. So, a year ago, I was recommended for the operation in Pittsburgh.

Yesterday, I received word that I�ve been approved.

I�ll keep you posted

Arc