Dude, can you ask whereupon if it's okay if I ask the other med students in my school about this? We talk mainly on facebook, and I won't link anything to her fandom journal--but we're spread throughout the US, and one of us might be in contact with a pain specialist in TX. I can't promise anything, but I could give it a shot?

♥ ♥ ♥ You are AMAZING. Thank you so much and please do. We keep finding pain specialists under her insurance (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) who are like "oh yeah, no, I don't do jaw pain..." And that's where it's primarily located, but it tends to radiate through her neck/back/body. :(

Okay, I've shaken a few trees. I'm talking to the president of my class, the president of the internal medicine club, and both of our two class representatives. Some of our faculty also have ties in Texas, so I'm going to see if I can contact them, too.

I'll keep you updated.

We're incredibly overwhelmed. "Thank you" doesn't begin to cover it, but yeah, that. Ugh, I love fandom.

Hey, in the meantime, I don't know if you've contacted the Mischer Neuroscience Institute in Houston, as well as the TNA (Trigeminal Neuralgia Association) Facial Pain Association? I would also start harassing any of the neurosurgeons in the area, because they can at least tell you who the TNA referrals in their offices come from. Most surgeons I've met can name five or six referring doctors off the top of their heads.

http://www.fpa-support.org/healthcare-providers/

UT Physicians Neurology Clinic
832-325-7080

Mischer Neurosurgical Associates
713-704-7100

http://www.mhmni.com/PatientsFamilies/content.aspx
http://www.mhmni.com/TrigeminalNeuralgia/

OH. Those look extremely helpful, wow. THIS is the kind of info we've been looking for from the start (as well as money for a solid acupuncturist). Thank you thank you thank you.

Okay, great, I'm glad those links are helpful. Give them a call and see if a neurologist (any one would do, but if you can get into a diagnostic neurologist's office, mention that an ER doc thought she might have trigeminal neuralgia, that would probably be best) can see her soon. Also go on your Blue Cross/Blue Shield online database and try to find a neurologist that way. If whereupon is feeling pain for no discernible reason, she should be seeing a neurologist rather than a pain management specialist at this point, anyway, to go for the root cause rather than only symptomatic treatment.

If they give you the "opening available in three to six months" thing, then please go on your Blue Cross/Blue Shield network and find an internist--that is, a doctor of internal medicine who also practices primary care. There should be TONS of them around. They should at least be able to treat whereupon symptomatically in the interim, and they would have the best handle on how to get a quick appointment with a neurologist and/or pain specialist--they usually have a network for desperate patients, (according to a med student who has done some work in Texas), and if whereupon tells them everything she has just told fandom, I think it would help get them moving. (I'm going to send some money by paypal when I get home this evening; I can't afford much right now, but it should help with some of the co-pays.)

Also, I'm continuing to talk to the other med students at my school, and I've been given the contact info for an alumni that has been putting together an alumni network. Hopefully one of them can help. (But please let me know if you find a doctor, so I'll know when I can stop shaking everything up.)

♥

Ok, this isn't the most helpful thing in the world, but has she been screened by someone (I think usually dentists do this screening) for TMJD? I would never have even heard of this if it hadn't been a fact at issue in a case I'm working on (loooooong story), but another thing that I learned while working on said case is that a) it can cause severe, debilitating jaw, neck, and shoulder pain; b) dentists (rather than pain doctors) treat it by using various scary-sounding methods to correct jaw alignment; and c) at least around here, some dentists occasionally do work on patients who can't pay as a combination charity/publicity thing. Now, I have no idea what the market for that sort of thing might be in Houston, but it might at least be a new avenue of inquiry.

TMJ was actually the first thing that was suggested back in Alaska, by the guy who is apparently the one and only specialist in the state, an hour away in Anchorage. He was a jerk on a number of levels, and made her this special mouthguard thing he told her to wear for four months, which was supposed to realign her jaw (and keep her from grinding), but after two months he asked if it's helped the pain and she said no, so he said it must not be working and he didn't know what he could do for her, goodbye. He was probably also pissed at her because she filed a HIPAA complaint because he refused to send the records from her visits to her primary care physician, or herself, even after explicit written requests.

This is (part of) why she's in Houston now.

But thanks for the suggestion, it is a pretty good one.