I was 18 years old and enjoying those carefree months between high school and college when my life changed forever, and it all happened while eating a Rice Krispie Treat.

I was in the car, heading across state with my sister and some friends for a concert, when I started to eat a Rice Krispie Treat that my mom had made and packed for our trip. All of a sudden, my head snapped back, so fast that I thought I had been shot, and I had severe, sharp pains in my left cheek, eye, and mouth.

The pain continued for four days, never deviating from the left side of my face, and with such sudden and sharp bursts, that I was barely able to talk. Everyone figured that my wisdom teeth had started to come in, so when I got back home, my mom took me to an oral surgeon.

After a set of x-rays that revealed my wisdom teeth were starting to appear, he decided to pull all four of them at the same, despite telling me that they shouldn't be causing me the amount of pain that I was in. It turns out, it was because he had failed to diagnose a serious, rare, and incurable neurological disease, called Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is a disease of the fifth cranial nerve. The "tri" comes from the fact that that the nerve has three branches, controlling all sensation to the face. I was in excruciating pain for months after having my teeth pulled, and finally a MRI showed that I had a blood vessel that was wrapped around the Trigeminal nerve, and with every heartbeat was pressing against it.

Now, this is not that uncommon, and can occur without causing any problems. However, a genetic defect in my nerve caused the protective sheathing to deteriorate, and the blood vessel was compressing an open nerve; causing sudden, severe, and constant "bolts of lightning" to hit my eye, temple, cheek, gums, lips, nose, and jawline.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is often referred to as the "suicide disease" because the pain is unbearable and can be brought on by such simple and every day tasks as putting on makeup, brushing your teeth, drinking and eating, and even having a slight breeze against it.

While the disease is not fatal, it is also not curable. There are several medications and surgical options available to help alleviate the symptoms, but they all carry serious side-effects and risks, and none have been proven to be long-lasting.

After four years of moving from drug to drug due to allergies and bad reactions, I decided with the blessing of my doctor to have brain

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