Desperate For Something, Anything...

Around late september I started having a strange feeling in the right side of my face. The only way I can describe it is that at first, it was simply an over-awareness of the right side of my face. Un-like the left side of my face, which felt normal and thus was not in the fore-front of my thoughts, the right side of my face felt slightly strange. For the first week or so I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, it wasn't a pain, it wasn't aching, I was just aware of it more-so than I knew I usually was.

After about a week this awareness was feeling more like a pressure. Specifically I was feeling a pressure in behind my right eye, and this pressure felt like it was somehow connected to a pressure or a tightness that I began to feel in the right side of my neck. There were points during this first week of pressure in which I felt like there was air behind my eye that needed to escape, that is the only way I can describe it. Also the tightness in my neck began to feel almost like an inward pulling, or tightening. Like the skin is being pulled into or tightening into my neck. Also for 1 day during this period I experienced a very sudden soar throat that lasted only about 24 hours, and by the time I went to the doctor it had came and gone. I explained the pressure and tightness I was feeling that was running from my right eye and right side of my face to the right side of my neck, but he just kinda looked at me strange and told me to come back in a couple weeks if it was still happening.

Around the second week of october I began to (in addition to the above feelings) experience a dull, aching pain in my cheek bones, and upper teeth, and specifically my 2 front teeth which seemed to have an ache/pain that would resonate somewhere in the front of my nose (inside not outside). Again, all of this occuring only on the right side of my face. Also, at about this time that my teeth started to ache I started to notice a really strong bitter taste in my mouth. At this point I became convinced that all these problems were stemming from an infected tooth or something to do with my teeth. So I did what was logical and visited the dentist, only to find (after tapping my teeth, blowing air at them, and x-rays) that my teeth were healthy. I then proceeded to head to my family doctor at this point. (the doctor I had seen previously was not my family doctor).

I saw Dr.Bert that day (not my family doctor but from the same clinic, and a very nice man) who listened attentively to my symptoms and immediately wrote down the words "trigeminal neuralgia". I also told him that I was noticing a strange bump in my right nostril. He put on a glove and felt around in there and sure enough he said "yes there is a strange bump there, but I don't think it is anything to do with the symptoms you are describing, its probably just something else". The bump is a hard lump and he said it felt almost boney (meaning, it is not a boyle or zit like bump or anything). At this point he booked an appointment with an "ear nose throat specialist" for 2 months down the line, and wrote me a pain killer prescription for the trigeminal neuralgia. He said at this point that we woudl get ct scans, etc, book an appointment with a neuroligist, etc... But of course, being that this is the canadian healthcare system, all these appointments would be about 3 - 4 months down the road. In the meantime I was to have x-rays of my sinuses, and blood work done, and also to take the painkillers for the "trigeminal neuralgia" (which I still havent been taking because I want to be able to gauge my pain and what i'm feeling).

A few days later I went to see Dr.Hartwig (family doctor for about 15 years) . Since he hadnt seen me the first time I went in we discussed everything again, and he said he didn't think that it was tn but probably just a bad sinus infection. He said they got the blood work back and nothing came up, but they were still waiting for the x-ray results. He gave me some nasal spray at this point to try and releive some of the pressure I was feeling behind my eye. Neither doctor said anything about the bitter taste I was still having in my mouth (although this would sometimes go away for a day or two).

A few days later towards the end of the 3rd week in october we got a call saying the x-ray results were in and to come in to see them. We went in, I will make a long story short, the x-ray results were totally contradictory so he said we had to wait another day until he could talk to the other doctor to find out exactly what was up. In the meantime I brought to the doctors attention something I had noticed the night before, a crater, or hole was beginning to develop next to the lump in my nose. He of course took a look up there and said "ah yes, indeed". At this point he prescribed me some anti-biotic cream, and also some anti-biotics which he said I would most likely need to start taking the next day when we got the x-ray results to show it was a sinus infection. (although he did say that maybe we shouldnt buy it just incase it wasnt a sinus infection, but we bought it anyways thinking tha tmost likely this was all just a sinus infection and would have to get it the next day anyways).

The next day came around and we got a call from Dr.Hartwig saying that my sinuses are clear and no evidence of infection. So we are back at square one. It's not my teeth, it's not my sinuses.

At this point I have been applying cream to the lump in my nose for about 4 days (3 times a day) and nothing is happening.

Also something strange has happened over the last 5 or 6 days, the way my face feels has changed somewhat. I am nolonger having aches/pains in my teeth, and the feeling of pressure behind my right eye is less severe. However, I have started having tightness and aches/pains in my head, specifically in my temple area and the area just above my ears, it has predominantly been on my right side, but I have been getting it on my left side as well. This seems to come and go for periods of time, and consists of a tightness followed by little aches or pains that occur every 30 seconds to a minute, these episodes seem to last between 30 minutes and 3 hours.

Also, I have not mentioned this to my doctor or my family yet (not wanting to think that I am just taking notice of every little ache and pain) but for 2 nights in a row over the weekend, when I woke up after a normal sleep (8 hours) I felt a tightness, or ache/pain in my chest... Nothing tremendous, but nonetheless uncomftorable and similar in nature to the feelings I had been having in my face. This seemed to hurt more when I breathed out. I have not experienced this in the past day however. Also the tigthness/pulling/pressure feeling in the right side of my neck has gotten more sever, and I have even felt pains and aches in this area for the first time.

1 more thing. I just got off the phone with a friend that I had been "seeing" for some time, who had just recently just moved away. (she moved away about 3 weeks ago). I had simply said to her "just before you left I started feeling strange tightness/pulling/pressure in parts of my face" and immediately she said she had been feelin the same thing, except only in her nose. She said she is feeling a "tighteness or a pulling" sensation in her nose that comes and goes. I told her to go to her doctor and get it checked out and told her what I have been feeling.

At this point I am totally at a loss, and so are my doctors. It is getting harder and harder to go through the motions of a normal day with this lingering over my head, and any insight at all would be a god send. I just want to know what this is (no matter how serious) so I can get on with it, and put my mind at ease.