Then during Veer (2010), it (the pain) came down towards the lower jaw and it was so painful that it used to take me about an-hour-and-a-half to eat my omlette.
So I was put on to 7,500 mg of medication. But that too didn’t help, so throughout Veer’s shooting in London, I used to sit with my head down.
Then, the pain went away. It came back about a year ago. And since then, it hasn’t gone. There is constant pain. If you Google this thing, you’ll find out that the amount of pain it causes results in maximum amount of suicides.
But I don’t get any such feelings. I’ve started enjoying it now. But it’s getting too much. If there was a choice to give this pain to my worst enemy, I would not give it. They wouldn’t be able to take it.
I’ve been handling it for the longest. But since this time, it (pain) wasn’t going, we decided to do an MRI. We already knew it was Trigeminal Neuralgia. However, they got to know where it comes from.
Then we did the angiography. When they were going through the results, they saw that nerve. Usually, one nerve is wrapped around one vein. But since nothing simple can happen to me, there are about four or five of them wrapped around mine. So I can’t have ice, anything cold, I can’t eat… I can’t do anything.
While I was getting checked, they were trying to find out what else is wrong with my brain. So they found something at the back of my head; it’s called Aneurysm.
So that has a chance of bleeding and could be fatal. But they’re just scaring me. The pain is a bit too much now. So I’m going now to the US to get it fixed. As a result, I’m not going to be in Mumbai for the Bodyguard release, Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi.
Talking of work, pain does come in the way. But I manage to hold it for those 50 seconds for a shot.
But look at the bright side. When I informed the doctors about an issue in my mouth, they suspected cancer. Cancer of the mouth is really bad man…. They checked it out twice and ruled it out. I said, ‘Thank God, then what is it?’ and they said, ‘Nerve ka problem hai.’ I said, ‘More than welcome, more than welcome.’ No problem… aur do problem aa jaane do (bring on two more problems)’. This pain is better than the first option.
Now, we’re getting down to something we should have done a long time ago — taking care of it. But there’s no cure as such. These discussions are on, but till they don’t see me on the table, they won’t know exactly what to do. Either way, I have to get it done, so I will.
