A question about facial recovery

[kiwi]

This is a question for those who have had facial paralysis and are back to a normal face.  Not even sure if anyone ever gets their normal face back.....well thats part of my question.

Can people tell me if they got movement back bit by bit.  Was it noticeable or so slow?  My eye doesn't blink anymore and I was wondering if one day I will just wake up and be able to blink? Has this happened to anyone?  I think that my smile will return slowly bit by bit rather than suddenly. I have had electric shock like feelings in the middle of my lower lip, which has been going on for nearly 6 months now and I know that is a good sign.  Today I was having lunch with my sister and she was watching my lower eye lid twitch like mad....I couldn't feel it at all but I am pleased with that news. I am really just wondering how people got their faces back, especially those people that have had paralysis for longer than 6 months...

Thanks
Jacqui

[jazzfunkanne]

hi i had grade 6 palsy after my op in dec 06 i had a gold weight in my eye for 3 years, i got it removed 3 month ago, my eye blinks now not as fast as the other , my face has got better slowly every other month i, i would say i am a grade 2 nowx

[badbadbrain67]

I had surgery on Dec. 2009. I had paralysis on the left side of my face which has gotten better over time. I'm still a long way from normal (it's a goal but I'm not sure I will ever be normal again).
My point is that it's been slow progress but it's been progress. I don't know that you wake up one day and things are fixed. At least that's not what happened to me.
What I can tell is that every once in a while I have to remind myself that after surgery there were things I couldn't do then that I can do know. The healing was so gradual that I never noticed.
I too experience the twitching on my eyelids and on my upper lip. In my experience, this  has always been followed by more movement or control in that area.
Like i said, it doesn't happen overnight but it happens. I don't yet have a full smile, but there is some movement there where there was zero before. I can almost wink with my left eye where
before I had to have it taped shut because I had no movement there.
Like I said, I've got a long way to go before I reach my goal but I can tell you that when I think about how bad I was when I first came out of surgery and how great I feel know, it is a world of difference.
These experiences are mine and mine alone and I've been on this forum long enough to know that everyone's healing experience is different. I can tell you from experience that I believe the twitching is good.
Every time I twitch I get a smile on my face (ok half a smile) and I get all giddy. Yeah people look at me funny because my face is having spasms but I don't care. It reminds me that I am alive and recovering.
The one thing I still can't do is to produce tears from my left eye. I've got my fingers crossed though. There was a time when I was using eye drops  maybe twenty times a day, and now I usually only
use them when I first wake up (and not every day) and maybe once or twice during the day (again not every day).
Hang in there because I know that in the future you will be helping someone on this forum who has some questions or concerns that are well in your past.

[Brewers7]

My surgery was Dec 08 and my face is not back to normal, but it has improved in recent months to HBIII.  My recovery seems to be much slower than most, but I had lots of complications.  I had a gold weight in my eyelid for a few months.  I had it removed in the spring.  My eye now blinks though not as quickly as my good eye.

[DKL]

I was not prepared for the total facial paralysis that I experienced after my surgery.  My doctor told me that they can never tell how the nerve is going to react to surgery---some people with really large tumors have very little or no facial paralysis and other people with really small tumors have paralysis.  I had a pretty good sized tumor, but I guess I had convinced myself that I would be one of the lucky ones and wake up with a normal face.  Wrong!  My face continued to make very slow but steady progress for a year and a half.  I went from virtually "0" movement in the right side of my face immediately post-op to what I would say 80-85% back to normal.  I know I will never reach 100%, but when I was at 0%, I would have killed for 80%.  Will it continue to make very subtle improvements? I don't know.  I did not have to have the gold weight and my doctor strongly discouraged any therapy on my face unless it was by a trained facial specialist and he said there are very few in the country, so it was going to be a long drive for me to see one.   My eyebrows are even now (one was about an inch lower than the other post-op) and I can blink both eyes and wink with both eyes with a little effort.  I know they don't always blink together, but again it is much better than what it was.  I also have pretty even "smile wrinkles" on both sides of my face.  Was never so happy to see wrinkles.

[mom of AN pt.]

My daughter now 21 had AN surgery at 16...she did have facial paralysis after her surgery,  but over time her face has become totally normal...

She does have some residual facial problems such as no tears in one eye, (although she has enough moisture to wear contacts), and she can't taste on one side...but she looks great...really.  She is now five years post op...and looking forward to getting a Soundbite if they get FDA approval.

I would love to show an after surgery photo and one from today but don't know how to do that. 

Debi
Mom of AN pt.

[jazzfunkanne]

I would love too see the photos, someone might see this and tell you how too upload them

[leapyrtwins]

Debi -

this is how to post a photo in general (within a post).  Posting a profile photo is basically the same idea.

Go to http://photobucket.com and sign up - it's free.

Once you move your photos to photobucket, it's easy to copy the image.  Look for a series of boxes under each photo that say "email & IM", "direct link", "HTML code" and "IMG code"  Position your mouse on IMG code and left click.  A yellow box that says "copied" will appear. 

In the text of your post, just right click with your mouse and choose "paste".

You will see a set of brackets with the letters IMG in them and the address of your photobucket photo inserted between the brackets.

If you have numerous photos to post, just copy and paste each IMG code.

If you want to check and make sure your image(s) copied correctly, just "preview" your message before you hit "post" and you should see your photo in the preview box.

Good luck,

Jan