Eye Blinking

[mimoore]

Hi,
The last two days I have been getting a tiny, I mean tiny bit of blink back. I thought I could see my lid kind of coming down but when I stare in the mirror I could see nothing. Anyway I had my daughter video tape it and it is blinking- just a wee bit. Nothing else has happened, my understanding was that the shorter nerves would generate first, like near my lip, cheek. I think David you had some eye return first? You were ready to get your weight and then had to cancel (yipee). I am getting excited but am feeling so guarded - I am afraid it is not true. I get my new external eyelid weight (heavier one) this week - figures. I will take any movement - yippeee.
Michelle
Blinking a tiny bit with her googlie eye.

[Kaybo]

That is GREAT news!!  Very happy for you!
Sending continued movement vibes your way...   

K

[MAlegant]

Yay Michelle!  That's great news.  Sounds like you just have to exercise patience (don't say it  ) while you wait for your nerves to start working again.  I am amazed at what a slow process it is.  Hopefully you will have to return your eye weight.  Are they returnable?
Again, congratulations.
M

[LADavid]

Hi Michelle
That is great news!  Yes, I started to get eye movement in my upper lid at about two months.  I had been scheduled to have an eye weight and a tuck, but insurnace dragged their feet so long and by the time I got approval, my opthamologist said I only needed the tuck.  Another month or so went by and I went in for my pre-op physical and the opthamologist looked at my eye, and told me I didn't need the tuck.  I had full closure at about five months -- not with out synkinesis movement -- but I could close it.  And yes, that was the first sign of facial movement.  It had been so minor that I didn't even recognize it.  But what I could barely see at first was fully there 5 months later.  If you're following my pace, you're doing great.  But as a caution, from my experience with synkinesis, when you try to close your eye, don't try so hard that you pull your cheek and mouth and neck muscles up into a bunch.  If I've listened to my PT correctly, by doing that, I trained my muscles and nerves to respond with that action -- now I'm stuck with it and in therapy to untrain them.
Great news on your eye movement!
David

[mimoore]

Thanks Gang.
Marci I still will try to use the weight for full closure.
Good advice David - I am listening with my good ear (hehe). It is hard to to try hard because I have shown hmmmm 50 people in the last two days. Yes slow and steady wins the race. Patience is an ugly word for me, although I am trying. It is good to know that someone else started the same way. What came next David?
Thanks for all of your continued support everyone!!!!
Michelle 

[LADavid]

Hi Michelle

The next thing -- March 6, 6:11 PM -- standing at my kitchen counter -- judging by the time, no doubt pouring a glass of wine -- I got tiny twitches in my cheek.  For the next month, I started seeing a little movement in the corner of my mouth and my eye was closing a little more.

Then one morning in mid-April, I woke up to find my cheek, eye, mouth and neck all bunched up in a big muscle spasm.  As I got up and started moving around, it relaxed.  Later in the day, I walked out into the sun and my face bunched up again.  Two weeks after that, my doctor confirmed that I had developed synkinesis.  Since that time, even with Physical Therapy, very little has changed.  Whenever I close my eye, my cheek bunches up.  When I try to relax, my neck spasms.  And eating is a three-ring circus of muscle movements.  But if I look back at pictures of me in late March, my face looks much better.  It's just stuck where it is for awhile.

Hope that helps.  Enjoy your twitching.

David

[mimoore]

Thank you David that really helps me. I hope that things relax for you soon - so exciting to get movement and then spasms. Sounds like you are working hard, let me know how things go. Michelle 

[jazzfunkanne]

david, did your forehead move when your eye started closing, my eye closes with the goldweight but i dont have muched movement in the forehead

[LADavid]

No, Anne.  My forehead and eyebrow have yet to move and that's been almost 9 months post-op.  I have feeling in it and the tension pain that used to be there is nearly gone, but no movement.
David

[saralynn143]

Man, I am just going to freak if my face starts to twitch. It was a surgery to get my hemifacial spasms to stop that got me in this mess in the first place. It bums me out just to think about it.

Honestly I wonder if it would be best if I don't get movement back and have to have a 12/7 jump. At least then I won't have to worry about the hemifacial spasms starting up again once movement comes back.

Sara

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

Michelle - movement is a good sign. It means the motor neurons are active and not dead... yeah.

Sara- hang in there and see what returns. More normalcies can be achieved with neuro facial retraining- once the nerves are firing up again- even with twitching.

Remain positive and optimistic … and keep moving forward.

DHM