Patricia Ann Florio , TN Patient

Her Personal Story

I suffered for over four years without any relief in sight until my court reporting instructor saw me during a second dose of aspirin in her class one evening. Something she had noticed about me before. I explained what I had been going through with misdiagnoses galore, taking antibiotics for sinus infections, using plates in my mouth, and the usual horrors a TN sufferer goes through. She had the same disease. And she referred me to her dentist, who had a practice in New York City treating facial pain. For over 15 years, from 1985 until 2000, I was injected in the face, neck, all over my head, shoulders, and hips for a pain that had me reeling. Treatment helped for weeks, and then months at a time. (He is now deceased) I'm now using acupuncture to alleviate bad spurts. One of my sons has been suffering the TN pain since he was 24. Now 38, we had to keep him with us from time to time, afraid he might do harm to himself. Last year was the worst he ever suffered, although on several types of medications. Finally, gave in to the MVD surgery this past November at Wythrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York.

During these years I was on treatment, I worked a court reporter in the federal court system in Brooklyn. The judge I worked for called my doctor a quack. And of course, he considered me a nut because I was having this type of treatment. People just don't understand. We need as much press and exposure as possible. I freelance as a writer occasionally, doing commentaries for the Philadelphia Inquirer, South Jersey edition and several other newspapers in my area. My articles have been published in print and online. But I have not written an article dealing with TN. I think I've stayed away from it because I'm ashamed of how people made me feel when I was so sick. I know my son felt the same way, and said he was having pain from brain seizures. Isn't it awful how we have to mask what we really have because people just don't understand. Please tell me if you think the time is right to write about TN and mine and Joseph's personal experience.

Updated 11-21-05