Hi All-
Well, I am back and ready to share some pictures! The rest of the trip went very well - lots of hard work, but much to be optimistic about. Yes, I have some synkinesis, but the good news is that a lot of the facial contortion is being caused by tight and knotted muscles. And, those can be fixed! The nerves that healed wrong will always be wrong, but I will be able to dramatically minimize their effect on my face.
This trip has been such a good experience for me. I have been struggling with the sensations in my face for almost a year and a half, never really knowing exactly what it was that didn't feel good - or in some cases, hurt. Now, I know! And, no wonder my face felt sore - I have the equivalent of 20 or 30 charlie horse cramps all over my face! Sure explains a lot, doesn't it?
I came home with an hours' worth of facial stretches which I need to do twice a day (so two hours daily) and about 20-30 minutes of isolation movements for my lips and eyes. What is amazing is that I can already see a difference! Here are a couple of "before and after" pictures. These are taken 4 days apart, so you can see how much improvement I've already gotten.
Here is my eye closure the first morning in Jackie's office. You can see that my lip is pulled up and you might also notice some knotty looking spots in the muscle down the side of my neck (the platysma).
In the pictures from this morning, you can see a lot more symmetry and almost no pulling on my mouth!!
Now, here is my "smile" picture from the first morning. You can see that my chin is dimpled and my right eye is tight. You can also see the muscle on the side of my neck kind of sticking up. That whole side of my face is pulling and tight.
And, now this morning! In fairness, I have to smile much smaller right now in order to control the muscles and to keep the rest of my face more relazed. But, with work, I'll be able to smile much bigger. You can already see alot more symmetry to my face.
Also notice in the before pictures that my right eyebrow is higher than my left. I wasn't even aware of that until we got started. That pulling is/was also caused by knotted muscles.
So it is fair to say that I am a BIG fan of Jackie's! This experience was SO much different that the facial therapists I've seen in the past who really focused on facial exercises. Jackie focuses much more on facial stretching which, in my case, really gets to the root of what is going on.
If anyone reading this wants to know more about the specifics of my time with Jackie, just PM me - I am glad to talk on the phone, email, or whatever.
