trigeminal neuralgia

[Gail]

Hi,

Would appreciate some input on this case - the modalities are so clear
it should be easy, but I'm going round in circles with it.

50 y.o. Male - thin wiry build, eats a lot, very active, works hard,
takes on a lot of responsiblity in volunteer roles like sea scouts,
loves deepsea fishing. Family is very important, they do a lot together.

These episodes of right sided trigeminal neralgia have recurred annually
for the last few years in spring - weather here is very changeable,
going from the full heat of summer one day, right back to a wet cold
winter day the next. He says he can set his watch by the attacks -
9.10am exactly there will be one, but they come on at other times as
well.

They start with tingling across the scalp - his wife notices that he
will begin touching and rubbing his scalp. Then his right eye begins to
lachrymate profusely and his nose begins to run freely. Vision can
become blurred. Then the pain begins - it is so bad that no pain
medication touches it. He paces furiously, yells and screams with the
pain. His wife has taken him to the emercency room, not because they can
help (they never do), but because they are desperate, she fears he will
collapse and they don't know what else to do.

The only thing that helps (apart from pacing and screaming) is to run
scalding hot water over the right side of his head and face. Between the
attacks a lesser pain remains and he relies on strong medications - not
because they help, but because they might. He looks drawn and haggard -
but he keeps working as though nothing is wrong. During the period of
attacks he becomes averse to tea and starts drinking coffee.

When the attacks first began, Belladonna relieved the acute episode and
Kali Bich seemed to suit him constitutionally. After a couple of doses
of the Kali Bich I hadn't heard anything from him until this year. Now
he says he has had attacks annually since, gradually getting worse each
year. This year they are as bad as when they first began. The main
difference from the early attack is in that he now paces and screams.
When it first started he would stay very still and not move. I also
don't remember him using the scalding hot water last time or that there
was profuse watery discharge preceding the pain.

Gail.

[Tanya Marquette]

i was thinking a bit about rhus tox and rhus v which both have amelioration by hot water.
but i also think your suggestion of meeting the intensity of the pain with an equally intense
counter force is a more general way of understanding the modality. but why hot water and
not pressure?
what is the character of the pain? is it neurological pain? or a more general burning or
stinging or needle like pain? that might help focus a solution.
tanya

[Donna Earnest]

Have you considered Nux Vomica? It seems to fit some of what you have written here.
I also found for Nux - Trigeminal neuralgia (infra - orbital) with clear fluid from eye and nostril of affected side.
It also covers the coffee issue in between attacks, you mention he is work oriented, and will work as if nothing is wrong
Is he a driven individual? I would take a guess that he is using the scalding hot water and the pain from the hot water brings a bit of relief due to the intensity of the pain that in itself brings.
Donna
Donna M Earnest, DHM
Homeopathic Consultant
www.the-healingroom.com
thehealingroom@comcast.net

[Tanya Marquette]

you didn't confuse me at all. i understand exactly what you were saying
and i took the thought further. i tend to use extremely hot water to relieve
my poison ivy so i am very familiar with that modality. it is a matching of
intensities, or actually besting the intensity of the pain. however, i then raised
the question about whether it was the water or just the heat. and then
going a bit further, questioned why water and not intense
pressure which would have been a different modality. so the water may be
very specific to the case.
i do know that it wasn't your patient and assume that gail will read both our
posts and use our queries if they seem relevant to her.
tanya

[Donna Earnest]

Hi Tanya
The use of hot water was something that this gentleman did to help relieve his pain from what Gail wrote not something she suggested. This was not my case. I was just thinking that perhaps he chose to use the hot water due to the intensity of the pain that in itself caused. Meeting the intensity of the pain h=e felt with the neuralgia. The water was “scolding hot” not just hot so the intensity of his pain must be pretty intense to go to that extreme for relief.
Sorry if I confused you.
Donna
Donna M Earnest, DHM
Homeopathic Consultant
www.the-healingroom.com
thehealingroom@comcast.net

[Donna Earnest]

Hi Tanya
Ok I see what you mean now. Ok and that is a good question, and yes I would also wonder what other means of relief where tried, perhaps that would give more the case as well.
Thanks
Donna
you didn't confuse me at all. i understand exactly what you were saying
and i took the thought further. i tend to use extremely hot water to relieve
my poison ivy so i am very familiar with that modality. it is a matching of
intensities, or actually besting the intensity of the pain. however, i then raised
the question about whether it was the water or just the heat. and then
going a bit further, questioned why water and not intense
pressure which would have been a different modality. so the water may be
very specific to the case.
i do know that it wasn't your patient and assume that gail will read both our
posts and use our queries if they seem relevant to her.
tanya

[Pauline Ashford]

The other remedies that come up for the Trigeminal on what you have described are Arsenicum – restless > for movement, periodicity – daily, every year, at same hour, Better for really hot applications, lachrymation etc, Mag Phos also and as mentioned Rhustox

Regards Pauline

Pauline Ashford

Homoeopath

130 Ansell Rd Witta QLD 4552

Ph 07.54944101

email: paulineashford@optusnet.com.au

[rajib nain]

i think you put him on sulphur and lycopodium.sulphur for the periodicity and his constitution,Lycopodium for the right sidedness.

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[Dale Moss]

You might take a look at Verbascum. It's predominantly a left-sided Rx, but it can have right-sided trigeminal neuralgia that's quite maddening in its pain.
Peace,
Dale