facial pain during recovery

[spiderwebb72]

Hello! Im new to this forum so i appologize if this topic has been covered before.
What i would like to know is if anyone has had similar recovery issues to me and if there were any tips you could give me.
I had a large An removed at the end of July and my recovery has been slow. My doctors say i am doing fine considering the large size (a little bigger than a golf ball) and the fact the it was hemmoraging badly and took almost 11 hours of surgery to remove. They left a little to preserve my facial nerve.
My biggest problems now are the constant facial pain and my eye. I dont have any movement on the left side of my face, but have regained about 70% of the feeling(felt nothing immediatly after sugery). The pain on the entire left side of my face is constant and sometimes really bad, and i was wondering if anyone else had this so long after surgery (8 months almost)? Massage can help a little and i hate drugging myself loopy. I havent been able to return to work more than a few hours a week due to the face pain and the headaches it seems to lead to. The more active i am, the worse the pain seems to be. (Which means im getting a little overweight !

Im wondering if anyone has been on a similar recovery timeline and how long it took them to get back to a semblence of normalcy.
Im getting a little restless/discouraged with the pain and paralysis of left side of face and eye. (really getting sick of eye drops too, lol)
Any tips or insight or encouragement would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Mike W.

[ginsue]

Hi Mike,  I had my surgery 21 years ago so I really don't remember the time line. I remember thinking that I would never get used to the pain but eventually I did. Now it happens only when my paralyzed side is touched.  Your brain will more than likely put it on the back burner.  I actually look at the pain as a blessing, it is the only feeling I have but I know if I'm being hurt, or have a tooth ache, etc.  Now the eye thing has always been there. I never use eye drop just a small amount (bead about 1/4 inch long) of Soothe PM in my eye two to three times a day. I found that drops had to be used every 30 min. or so, who wants to make time for that?   With the ointment I put it in after my shower in the a.m. then I clean mucus out of it after work and re-apply, then I do it again before bed. Mucus builds up in your eye and burns so make sure that none builds up.  I use a Qtip with saline to remove it then put in more ointment in using a magnifing mirror. Good luck!

[spiderwebb72]

Thanks for the tips! I haven't heard much from people who didn't recover facial usage. Its good to hear someone is getting along ok after so long.
Hopefully you are right about the pain and it will lessen/i will get used to it over time.
The eye is definitely annoying though! I will try your tip about the Sooth pm. You are right , I am sick of putting in eye drops every 30 min to an hour for the last 8 months.
Do you wear anything over your eye when its windy out? or cold? Its gets irritated pretty quickly in those situations. (hate wearing an eye patch).

[ginsue]

Hi Mike,
When I go outside I'm just styling in a pair of DARK and BIG sunglasses. It is great that they are in style.  If they are too tight to your eye your eyes will sweat, you'll get uncontrollable tears streaming down your face.  This happens when your are hot so don't get excited because it is not the tear duct producing this moisture, I fell for that one years ago.  The ointment will help also with the wind but not the cold.  People's consensus is that the eye is the most bothersome of all issues that come with AN post-op issues so you are not alone. I just made an appointment this week to see a contact specialist in Chicago.  There is hope out there.  It is called a scleral lens.  Look it up on line at sclerallens.org.  Also look into the "eye issues" folder on this site and there is a thread there started by Dena King that talks about it. The thread is called simply "scleral lens".
Hope this help will guide you, Sue

[spiderwebb72]

Thank you Sue!
I will check that folder.
Its funny how people who dont have this think that the loss of hearing or the loss of facila movement are the worst part, but its definitely the eye!

[PamJ]

Hi my face was paralised on one side for over a year and never thought I would get feeling back but it did return slowly, my facial palsy has recovered about 80%.  My biggest promblem was my eye and eventually had to have tarsorrpaphy for a year.  It's been 2 years since my translab things take time to recover.

[spiderwebb72]

Hi Pam! Could you tell me, did you have much facial pain during the recovery and when you began to regain movement? Mine has been hurting quite a bit lately and also getting that tingling "my foot fell asleep" feeling in my scalp. No movement yet. Although really uncomfortable i assume this is a good sign?

[PamJ]

Hello again.  I still get pain in my face and especially if I bend down a lot like when gardening.  I've had terrible problems with my eye but at last i am getting it sorted out.  My eye dropped down 12% the surgeon told me so i'm waiting to have another operation to put it back in place.  I am still having to use drops for my eye although my eye is now blinking it is a very weak blink but at least it's working.  Everyone is so different in their recovery and if you're anything like me you're getting impatient and want to get back to normal as soon as possible.  When I'm sitting watching TV I constantly massage my face and round my eye to try and help it along as anything is worth a try.  Good luck.    Pam