“I am 72 years old. My journey with trigeminal neuralgia started about two years ago when I started feeling a lot of pain in the upper right side of my face. I thought it was a dental issue. I went to my dentist, he took x-rays, and said everything looks great. After a few weeks, the pain came back and I went back to the dentist again. He took new x-rays and said everything looked great. This kept on going on for almost a year and he had sent me to a few other associates who all did the same thing and couldn't figure out my problem. Finally, he decided that it must be one of my teeth on the right upper side of my mouth. He said while it looks good he suspected that there's an underlying problem with that tooth. He pulled the tooth and as I was sitting on the chair waiting for the bleeding to stop, he came running back in and said, “I figured out your problem--it's trigeminal neuralgia.” He went and printed out many papers for me to read up on, telling me that I will have to speak to a neurologist.
I started doing research. I came across Dr. Raymond Sekula's name and a number of reviews where they all said that he is the top doctor to take care of this problem and that he has a lot of experience with a lot of positive results. I made an appointment and I met with him. My wife and I went down, meeting him and his nurse Caroline in his office. The minute I met with him and Caroline, I knew I was in the right place. They were very informative, explaining everything that was involved with my process of what has to be done. They said at my age, they normally do not do the surgery and would treat with medication, but that wasn't a long-term solution. So they checked my medical records and checked me out, telling me that I was a perfect candidate for the surgery. I felt so confident, I did not hesitate for a moment and scheduled the surgery.
I had surgery in May 2024. When I woke up from the surgery, I felt like a new person right then and there. That night I took just one strong painkiller. I really didn't need it, I just felt like I wanted to have a good night's rest. The next morning, I felt very good and that I was a candidate to be released so I went home. I was told to keep my work at a limit and not to strain myself, but that whole week I felt great. I took a very minimal amount of painkillers--no narcotics, just regular painkillers. After a week, I went back to work. From what I read, it was supposed to be 4 to 5 weeks of recuperation with some pain. I really can't say I had any major pain--I felt great and had a minimal scar that my hair grew back over. Since then, I feel like a brand new man. I wish everybody's outcome will be as good as the one that I had and every one of his surgeries will come out as good as mine. I would highly highly recommend him and if anybody wants to talk to me, I'd be glad to talk to them about it.”