"I was in so much pain I couldn’t chew, brush my teeth, or wash my face. You can imagine how bad it was. I would want to go out and eat something different or something nice--have a nice dinner with my husband, but I could only order soup or pasta as they are softer and easier to chew. If I want to have steak or chicken, forget it! I suffered for 8 years because I thot it was going to go away by itself. No one told me that it would get so bad. It had peaks where the pain would go up and be really bad for around a week, then go down and be more manageable for say, 3 weeks. Then it would go up again. I knew it was about to be bad again when I tried to brush my teeth and it would be too painful to.
It got to a point where I had enough. Dr. Andres Machado's mother was a very good friend of mine and my children grew up with him. I’ve known him since he was a baby and he now practices in Cleveland. Many years ago, I spoke to him on the phone and he told me he could fix the pain for me. I got back in touch with him and he gave me Dr. Sekula’s name. It was now or never. I no longer have any more trigeminal nerve pain. I thought my whole face would be swollen after surgery, but there is no swelling at all. Can you believe I had surgery 24 hours ago? I had no pain brushing my teeth yesterday--something I used to not be able to do. I’m excited to get back to my life!"