Trigeminal neuralgia
Dreams and notions
As I slept through the night, having fallen into bed after a nice aurora in the evening, I dreamt a strange strange dream.
The trigemnial nucleus originates in the upper cervical spine 1-3, and then into the cranium in the pons and medulla of the midbrain. Now upon its exit from the brainstem, the sensory fibres from the principal nucleus of the regimental nerve in the pons, travel via the maxillary nerve, through the foramen rotundum, to provide sensory light touch and discrimination to the face and jaw. Most of these nerve fibres, cross the midline, except for intraoral fibres which tend to be ipsilateral.
This is just about how my dream went.
And then…..
I woke up with trigemnial neuralgia, specifically in the distribution of my left maxillary nerve at its zygomatic branches to the face. Bloody painful.
Like a sharp shock from an electric fence, it went off every 5-10 seconds or so, bringing sharp pain accross my face. What to do!!
!
Well…I went back to sleep initially. Broken bones, concussions….these are the sorts of things I’d normally sleep off, so a little shock not to bad. But I woke up with it too! Lucky for me, it was an aurora storm this morning reaching a 7.6 on the Kp scale. Some amazing shots at 5am, and then off to work. It does not seem to be a lingering pain, and I often act out the experiences of my clients to bring about the healing pattern required for change. But not usually in my dreams!