A squashed nerve had meant the slightest touch on his face caused agony. Now surgeons have inserted Teflon in his skull to stop contact with a nearby artery which sparked the spasms.
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| Happier Mark and his wife |
Pain from Trigeminal Neuralgia, which affects 12 out of 100,000 people in the UK each year, is so intense nearly a third of victims resort to suicide.
Relieved father-of-three Mark, a probation officer, said: “I can’t say how wonderful it is to kiss Louise and my kids again.
“The disease destroyed my life, the pain is so debilitating you can’t do anything.
“Once I was at my parents’ house for dinner and before the spoon even got to my mouth I was on the floor in agony.
"It feels like you have been hit in the face with a bolt of lightning, or at it’s worst like a whole thunder storm has hit you.
“There were up to 250 attacks a day. Sometimes the pain would drop me to my knees, other times it would feel like all of my teeth on the right hand side were on fire.
"I had to take 50 pills a day which left me like a zombie.”
Mark, 38, from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, was left unable to go outside or even wash his face after being diagnosed with the condition in 2009.
But the gruelling six- hour operation at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, should leave him free of pain for at least 10 years.
Louise, 35, said: “I can’t describe how good it is to have my husband back. I can’t stop kissing Mark now.”
