Neurosurgeon tomorrow & facial nerve question

[JHager]

Hey everyone,

I'm meeting with my neurosurgeon tomorrow (thanks, Sue!), and I have a fairly detailed list of questions to ask him.  However, it just struck me that I don't know exactly what to ask about facial nerve preservation.  I currently have no facial nerve complications, and I would REALLY like it to remain that way!

Anyone have any experience with good facial nerve function before surgery?

Anyone have a nerve graft done, and if so, was it done during the surgery, or in a follow-up procedure?

Thanks for everyone's willingness to share their stories, ideas, and advice!

Josh

[barbjo]

Hi Josh!

They only facial nerve experience I had was, the right side of my face was numb prior to surgery.  I came out of surgery with all nerves functioning normal, thank God!!  My AN was 2cm, they only issues I had after surgery were, loss of balance and partial hearing loss about 50% on the right side.  I feel very grateful for my outcome. 
Barb

[bhiggins]

Hey,
I was a little less lucky, I lost my facial nerve after a long surgery.  So I went through a seperate procedure about 3.5 hrs long in which they took a nerve from my tongue and grafted it into the facial nerve, they also inserted a gold weight, 5oz., into my eyelid to help me get a full close.  It has taken some time for the graft to catch on, but I have sense regained about 50% in a year and a half, probably going to stay there, and I am fine w/ that.  The doctors know that keeping the facial nerve is crucially important to every one of their patients, so if I were you I would have him talk to you about the care of, and heaven forbid something bad happens where they have to cut it, the options for nerve graft, recovery, and all that fun stuff.  A good test to do in front of someone is blink both of your eyes as rapidly as you can and see if there is any drag in the eyelid of the side that your tumor is on, I thought that I was fine but had quite a bit of drag once we did that simple little test.  Try that and let me know what happens.
Brian

[JHager]

Brian,

Thanks for the info.  I actually did ask my neurosurgeon about the nerve graft - figured as long as he's in there, he might as well graft if there is a problem.  He said he's done that, but would prefer to leave a little tumor and preserve the facial nerve.  If the small piece of remaining tumor grows again, he'll Gamma Knife it.  (I'm not sure I can use 'Gamma Knife' as a verb, but what the heck!) 

I'll keep everyone posted as time passes - my surgery is scheduled for November 7.

Thanks again,

Josh