Salman Khan recently opened up about his battle with the painful nerve condition trigeminal neuralgia and revealed details about the eight-hour surgery he underwent to overcome it.
Long-lasting unbearable pain for years
In a two-parter with Kajol and Twinkle, Salman recalled going through years of pain. He shared, “When I had trigeminal neuralgia, that pain used to be… you wouldn’t wish that pain on your worst enemy. And I had it for seven and a half years.” Elaborating further, he added, “And it used to be every four to five minutes. It would take me an hour and a half to have breakfast and I would go straight to dinner. For omelette, it would take me… because I couldn’t… so I would force myself (to eat),” he said, recalling that even painkillers didn’t help.
Misdiagnosis and first symptoms
Salman revealed that initially doctors thought the problem was with his teeth. But when they noticed that the pain was getting worse when he drank, they realised it was nerve-related. He recalled that he first felt the pain on the sets of his 2007 film Partner when Lara pulled a lock of hair out of his face. Laughing, he said, “I said, ‘Wow Lara, I’m getting electrified!’ That’s when it started.” Salman said the pain had gone away but recalled, “It’s the worst pain. It’s called ‘suicide disease.’ The highest number of suicides happen due to this condition.” Aamir added, “Because you can’t cope with the pain.” Salman explained that he was sharing his experience to raise awareness as many people suffer from the condition but only a few know about it.
Performing eight-hour gamma knife surgery
He also stated, “Now it is very easily treatable. There is gamma knife surgery. They fix screws on your face for 7-8 hours. They make you lie down and with gamma knife…”, he said as he recalled going through eight surgeries. He shared that after the surgery he was told that his pain might reduce by 20-30 percent, but thankfully it went away completely. “Now the aneurysm is there. There is arteriovenous malformation. But you have to live with it. There are a lot of people living with bypass surgeries, heart conditions and so many other things,” he concluded. Meanwhile, on the work front, Salman is currently shooting for Battle of Galwan.
