And now for something completely different

For years, the course of my TN episodes was perfectly predictable. Stimulus, followed by a brief period in which one knew the thing was starting, followed by the episode with the lancinating pain every half-second to ten seconds, followed by the hours of "pain hangover." This went on for six weeks to three months, then went into remission, usually when the weather got better.

Over the past year, I've had brief, noticeable  pain episodes  more or less  at random. Taken individually they have been just as acute as the previous episodes, but I've long believed that frequency and duration was what made TN such an interesting guest.

Today (11/19/13) I had two very acute pain episodes about 20 minutes apart. There was no warning save the dull roiling in the nerve that I live with most of the time, except when the weather is especially nice. Both spoilt my hypothesis, because they struck with exceptional  intensity, BAM! and were gone. This is much more in line with typical TN experiences than where I've been.

Thus far it's no different, save in intensity, than my random episodes, except that these two left me with the pain hangover...still have it 13 hours later as I write.

I've spoken with a number of clinicians who are aware of the hangover phenomenon, and agree with my description that it is exactly like having a hangover without the previous pleasure of getting drunk. Nausea, not so much, but one is groggy, all-over head-achy, sensitive to sound and light, and one finds it hard to concentrate. It seems to be a pretty general feature of the disorder, and one which undermines quality of life nearly as much as the episodes themselves.

Seems like a suitable topic for a study. Meanwhile, back to the special K.