The Suicide Disease

Growing up as a child, I watched my mother’s struggle with a tremendously painful neurological disorder known as Trigeminal Neuralgia. This disorder is a form of neuropathic pain, which results in episodes of severe, sudden, and electric shock-like pain in one side of the face that lasts for seconds up to a few minutes.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is regarded as one of the most painful disorders known to medicine. The exact cause is unknown, but believed to be due to compression from a blood vessel against the nerve as it exits the brain stem in the base of the skull. As a child, I witnessed my mother’s screams and collapses from her pain. My father was an amazing caregiver, who searched high and low for relief. Her options of treatment at the time were neurological medications and Stereotactic Surgery. The neurological medications can cause dizziness and brain fog-like effects. The surgery option involved zapping and burning a healthy part of the nerve in the jaw area in order to numb half of the face and stop the pain. This seemed to me like cutting your arm off in order to prevent severe carpal tunnel pain, as an example. In addition to neurological and pain meds, my mother had several Stereotactic surgeries over the years, until the nerve became fray, and now she can only manage with medications alone. Very tough, but she has been managing relatively well. My mother is a talented artist, a painter, a poet, and a writer. Now in her mid 80’s, I am amazed at her enormous production of paintings, poetry, and writings. She published 3 books in her 80’s, and just had a book signing event recently. My mother has been an inspiration to us all.