Meet Kristin McQueen, a brave TN Warrior and cancer survivor.
Spin is a few things to me it kind of helps me just establish a routine because right now i don’t have any routine being off of pork i do it as a way to kind of make me feel normal i always have a constant burning like deep ache you tell people you’re numb and they say well if you can’t feel anything how does it hurt and the best way i can say it is it’s like there’s
A fire from the inside out my name is kristen mcqueen i have trigeminal neuralgia i was diagnosed with cancer at age 24 i had radiation for thyroid cancer and i developed this awful pain within a couple of hours of ingesting the radiation mine progressed very quickly from being just the zapp’s in the lower jaw to but then being zaps and upper jaw and then being
This burning pain nobody really had any answers for me i kind of figured it might be trigeminal neuralgia because my great grandma actually had it as well a neurologist at university of chicago confirmed that it who was choi jongwon raja so i was 27 when i had the radiation which brought on i call it stabby joe it’s my name for tn when stabby entered my life very
Unwelcome guests he just turned my life upside down he took everything my money my job my social life my body my hair function of half my face my ability to be a good friend my ability to be a good aunt good sister everything i mean i try to live despite it but it just took everything i started marathons in 2002 decided to cross over into triathlons pretty much
The majority if not all of my bike training is in that spinner it gives me a reason to kind of get up and keep moving and push forward it helps me deal with everything just mentally psychologically i pray during that time i don’t know what i would do without it my name is diane mcqueen i am kristin’s mother and proud to be her mother i don’t think anybody can
Totally understand he and unless you have it but my mom comes pretty close as a mom it’s extremely hard to watch her suffer like this and be so helpless what she calls him she cries i don’t cry on the phone but when i get off the phone i just because i’m i feel so helpless all i can think to do is to try to take her to the grocery store take her out have her
Just come over and get a hug i worked as a physical therapist i stopped for the deep brain stimulator surgery in march of 2016 and i was supposed to just be out for two months but it’s now been a little over two years to try to re define yourself in your late 30s has got to be very frustrating it’s hard to have to crowdfund your life so you can afford to rent i
Miss just being able to support myself i hate that saying that everything happens for a reason because i think that minimizes what people go through but you can create a reason for things i would hate to see all this happen to me for nothing our pain can make somebody else’s pain less than that’s what we need to do if somebody can benefit from my experiences and
We can raise some awareness we can educate people without aligns with my heart you
Transcribed from video
Kristin McQueen- A Trigeminal Neuralgia Story By Facial Pain Research Foundation
