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A patient writes:
I am Cynthia Smith and was recently a patient at Mayo. I have written the following story to share...
Thanks to Dr. Link, and the entire Mayo staff, I am now pain free from 7 years of excruciating tongue and facial pain. I suffered from glossopharyngeal neuralgia (severe tongue pain) and trigeminal neuralgia (TN), the “suicide disease”. I had all the usual triggers which caused pain: swallowing, chewing, moving my tongue, cold or hot temperatures, etc. Because eating was so difficult, I was losing weight and strength while basically living on yogurt and a liquid diet.
I had been diagnosed early on and had tried every possible medication, with little or no relief. In desperation, we traveled to the Mayo Clinic and went to the emergency room at St. Marys Hospital. It took a couple days before I made it into the “Mayo machine,” an efficient, smooth moving motion of tests, MRIs, and consultations. On Sept. 4th, Dr. Link and his team performed a craniotomy where they snipped the 9th cranial nerve to correct the glossopharyngeal neuralgia and then did a decompression vascular procedure by putting Teflon pad into between the vessels and nerves to correct the “TN”. Both procedures were completely successful! With the help of my faith, family, and friends, I’m now enjoying the pleasures of daily life again.
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