Hi Wendy,
I hope you are feeling better! What a nightmare! I just wanted to tell you that I still occasionally deal with trigeminal neuralgia due to a case of shingles I had about 8-9 years ago. It really sucks! I was on meds for the nerve pain for quite some time. Once in a while I still feel the pain.
I am so sorry you had to go through that. I don't have a true answer for your question about our immune systems except to agree with what you said. Our immune systems CAN make our lives so challenging! So we fight. Each and every day and we don't give up. And we come here and support each other through it all. That's the best way I have found to deal with it! Take care, hun!