Tanya Moore, TN Patient

Her Personal Success Story

Pain! Excruciating Pain! I feel as if my teeth are being drilled on without Novocain, but they're not - I'm riding in the car and didn't do anything to bring this on. Surely it will go away - this is just one of those weird pains we get for no reason that leave as soon as they come.

Hours later I still have the same pain except it has intensified. 2:00 AM and I can't sleep. I've muffled my cries in the pillow long enough and it's time to wake up my poor husband for a ride to the emergency room. After a shot of demurral and then morphine I am pain free. Whew! Elation! I didn't think I could ever feel so good and so tired.

What did the doctor say?? Tri-what? Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN)? What in the heck is that? Apparently I'm being diagnosed with some weird nerve disorder. Sure enough - after the drugs wear off I'm in pain again. The Tegratol they gave me takes a few days to kick in and then I'll be pain free, but drugged up. This Tegratol knocks me on my rear - I can't drive or think correctly. It's pretty heavy duty.

After research and meeting with a neurologist I find out that TN becomes more frequent and lasts for longer periods as we get older. I refuse to be on these drugs for the rest of my life - I'll just learn to deal with the pain. The other option of course, is brain surgery. That doesn't sound too appealing either.

Now we flash forward several years and several bouts of TN. I've missed some work, some fun, and some normalcy. Never know when this pain (excruciating pain) will pop up - at dinner, on vacation, at work, driving down the street. So far I've been able to remain off the drugs and avoid surgery. I was able to do some Jin Shin Do (form of acupressure) treatments to help me deal with the pain - it helps, but I'm constantly walking around with my fingers on my forehead and neck trying to hit the correct trigger points to get the pain to alleviate. I'm sure I looked pretty comical a few times. :-)

Ya know you hear that everything happens for a reason, right? Well, my poor father had to take a spill and hurt himself for us to find a way to fix my TN. After my dad being in pain for quite a while from his fall he saw an ad in the paper for NUCCA. He decided to give it a try (which still shocks me because he doesn't like doctors - especially "quacks"). My dad had nothing but wonderful things to say about his experience with NUCCA (still shocked). He talked about it for weeks (shocked even more) - how he was feeling better and it didn't hurt to be adjusted. He started telling me that his doctor could probably help with my TN. I ignored it for a while, because I've heard all sorts of things that could help, but I had decided to live with the pain rather than get my hopes up and get them dashed after spending a lot of money on different treatments.

Well, luckily my dad is persistent and I decided to meet with his doctor. He explained to me how NUCCA works and how the adjustments were done by moving only the atlas (no cracking). He let me know that he could not heal my "TN", but that the body has a better chance of healing itself after the spine is aligned and the nerves are not being pinched. It made a ton of since to me and I figured it was worth a try - at least I would get my back aligned even if it didn't help the TN.

I've been a proponent of traditional chiropractic for a long time and have frequented their offices after car wrecks, etc.

After my first x-ray it was quite obvious that my spinal cord was being severely pinched by the atlas because it was turned at an angle and the spinal cord only had a tiny area to go through the spine.

We started my treatment plan and it has been about 4 months since my first appointment. WOW!!!! I haven't had any bouts of TN in the last month (I had pain 80% of the time before treatment began)!!!!!!!!! Priceless!

It's wonderful to be able to plan an event and not worry about if the pain is going to ruin the experience. We went camping last weekend and it didn't even occur to me that I might be in pain. I'm getting used to this no pain deal pretty quickly. Thank you to my doctor!!! My coworkers are also happy that I'm feeling better since I miss less work now. Of course, going to the doctor has become a family affair, but I'll let my other family members write their own testimonials.

If you have some indecision about meeting with such a doctor, please put it behind you and schedule a consultation. You'll only feel better with NUCCA.

Posted 10-12-06