A few questions about 12/7 graft

[saralynn143]

Suu, when I had the nerve conduction tests done, they also showed no movement. The technicians even repeated shocks several times in one area because the results were inconclusive. Or they were a bunch of sadists, I'm still not sure which.

At any rate, the next day I went to see the facial nerve specialist, who said he could detect a slight movement at the side of my nose. He advised me to wait for at least a year before making any decisions. Although I could not see the movement, I took his advice and he turned out to be right.

Best wishes for both your surgery and ongoing regeneration.

Sara

[Suu]

Sara - It's comforting to know that the technicians do get it wrong and that the doctors can see a movement that we may miss.  I'm hoping that he's right and all I can do is wait so that's what I'll do.  I'm not as over anxious as I was prior to the AN surgery but I'll be paying more attention to the mirror from now on. 

Bring on Thursday so I can get on with the waiting 

[jockieau]

Hi Suu

Just wondering how you are going - hope the surgery went well and that you are on the up!

Best regards
Jockieau

[Suu]

Hi to all of the wonderful ANers here.

I can't sit so this will be pretty concise and I'll be back when the bruise goes down. (see pic)

Surgery for the sling went ahead on the 16th June 2011.
They took tendon, muscle, and fat from left thigh to transplant.
On the same night my leg suddenly 'blew up'!  It was like someone was pumping it full of fluid. The pain was off the scale at 11!
What had happened was a bleed inside my leg. A haematoma.  The doc was beside me within an hour (he must have flown in!) and told me what was going on, that I had to sleep sitting up, and he was going to put a drain in my leg. He started me on Clexane right away to prevent clotting.  Since coming home I'm on 1/2 disprin.

Sorry to end this here but can't stand much longer.  The blood had gone down into my knee and I'm seeing the doc again on Thursday. 

I'm now game to put my pics up to remind myself that I can get through anything!

THIS IS BEFORE (yes, I'm smiling  )

  THIS IS 10 DAYS POST-OP and YES!! I'M SMILING! 

  OUCH!

I am so happy with the work done and won't be having the nerve graft done even if it doesn't reactivate itself.  Too much has happened in such a short time and I don't want to test fate anymore.

I'm extremely happy to look in the mirror and don't mind the scars.  My teeth cost me a lot of money and I can show them off again! 

[saralynn143]

Lovely! (all except the knee) Congratulations!

[jockieau]

Suu that is an amazing difference, you must be so happy - well done!!! Things are only going to get better now, I can feel it!

Hope the pain eases soon and you can just gad about with your new-beaut smile!

[moe]

Wow what a difference! You look great!
 Sorry you had to go through the leg trauma. That is scarey stuff, but you survived. I bet that was a long surgery.
Interested to hear more when your leg gets better. I would imagine sitting at the computer is not good leg therapy.
Just curious if you can now independently lift that side of the face since the sling. Do you have to do anything to get that smile up? Pretty impressive pic for 10 days post op.
Keep healing!
Maureen

[lori67]

Wow!  Yes, that is impressive for 10 days post-op!  What great news!

That is quite a colorful leg you have there!  Ouch!!

Keep smiling!!
Lori

[kim508]

I cant believe how amazzing you look...im sooo happy for you
It gives me hope

[Suu]

Hello everyone. Thankyou so very much for being here.

Moe - No, the left side doesn't seem to move at all. I'm bringing the right side of my face up and it forms a natural smile.
There is a fairly deep scar in the crease of my cheek and a scar on my lip but I was told that the colour would improve and the swelling will go down slowly.  I've bought new makeup and will put it on when I feel like it's healed enough.

Does anyone know how long after face surgery I can begin wearing makeup and do I need to put any special creams on my face now or in the future?

I'm pretty much against having the 12/7 graft done now.  I've got enough battle scars 
The sling looks to have pushed the bottom left lid up a bit and I'm not having to lube the eye. It rarely bothers me although I take the Lacri-lube with me just in case I need it.

My leg is still very bruised and the 2nd ultrasound I had on Thursday said that it's still 4cm deep and goes from upper thigh to knee.  It's also infected so the doctor doubled the antibiotics for a week and I'm taking 1/2 aspirin daily to keep the blood thin to prevent DVTs.

I'm back to using my crutch (cuffed at elbow) and no more walker so that's another step forward.

Will be back soon to read up on how everyone's doing.

Love and hugs to all,

(¯`v´¯)
`•.¸.•´
¸.•´¸.•´¨) ¸.•¨)
(¸.•´              Suu xxoo

[moe]

Hi Suu,
thanks for the continued update. I am thinking once the  incision has completely healed, you can start wearing make up. Kaybo probably knows. There are lots of special creams out there for scars/incisions. I can't remember the exact name. Good ole vitamin D comes to mind though. Just clip off the top of a gel cap and squeeze the vit out and put on the incision at night, but the incision has to be completely healed. Good luck
(¯`v´¯)
`•.¸.•´
¸.•´¸.•´¨) ¸.•¨)
(¸.•
Maureeen

[Kaybo]

Suu~
glad you are doing so well. Even though I read the other day that Vitamin E isn't really suuposr to help, I have always used it for all my scars - like Moe said, you can clip the capsules or I found some E salve at GNC (chain here in US) that was much less work & less messy. Since the T3 scar was on my face, I did use some scar cream that I got from Dr Byrne. I can't put my had on it right now but I'm sure I could find out the name, if you'd like. It was a bit expensive (not outrageous) but you only used a tiny bit - it was so worth it - it worked great!!

As far as make-up goes, I guess I just really waited until everything was healed up really well...& then probably waited again!! I'm not a huge, everyday make-up wearer so I probably eased into it slow after a special occasion. I wear Bare Minerals powder make-up (base/foundation too) so I never really "rubbed" anything into it. I do rub on concealer now but it has been 3 years!

Don't know if that helped any!! If you need me to get something here & mail it, I'd be more than happy to do that for you! Let me know!

K 

[lori67]

Glad you're doing well, but sorry to hear that leg is still giving you problems.  Hope that gets better soon.

After I had my 12/7 my doctor said that once it was healed to just keep it moisturized as that would help the scar look better.  He said it didn't really matter what I used as he hadn't seen any difference in using Vitamin E, Vaseline or whatever.  I did use the Vitamin E capsules for a little while since I had them around anyway, but after that I just used the same stuff I use on my face.  I looked at some of that specialty scar cream in the store one time, and maybe it was just the brand I looked at, but the only thing in there was sunscreen and some vitamin E.  I didn't think I needed to pay $11 for a little tube of that since there was no miraculous healing ingredient there that wasn't already in my moisturizer anyway.

Happy to report that my scar healed beautifully.  It isn't noticable at all.  I am a beach bum in the summer and I was afraid that when I got tan, it would stand out more, but it doesn't.  My new doctor here (at a teaching hospital) was actually calling some of the students in to show them how impressive my scar was.     Oh well, I guess it's nice to be good for something!  So, in time I'm sure your scars will fade and not be noticeable too.

And as far as the makeup, I'll echo what the others have said - just wait until you're all healed and there are no open areas along the incision and then you should be good.

Happy healing!
Lori

[Suu]

Hello everyone.  I'm back.  I've been lurking around on here but went through a kind of mini depression/anxiety thing so haven't been posting.
Only a few weeks after the massive haematoma I had to have a hip replacement on that side and it's all gone a bit wrong and I'm still on crutches.

I am so happy with the work done and won't be having the nerve graft done even if it doesn't reactivate itself.  Too much has happened in such a short time and I don't want to test fate anymore.

Well there's suddenly more news.
I saw the specialist that took out my tumour, who fixed all the brain fluid leaks, and who also transferred the tendon into my face.
Seeing the facial nerve is definitely not going to regenerate I need another operation.  The tendon op was to lift my face to give the nerve a shorter route to send signals and it's 'dropped' a bit and my nostril is closing again and my face sagging just a little bit. 
I said that I'd rather just stay this way but there's a big reason he has to do a nerve jump from my tongue.  If he doesn't do it then my muscles in my face will wither and the tendon may stretch and droop further.
There's only 8 more weeks to go before this opportunity wouldn't be viable as it has to be done within 2 years of the tumour coming out so he's booked me in for next Thursday the 9th Feb.

I'll have to learn to use my tongue to smile but I'll have movement back in my face and eye!  He couldn't do it before because he was sure the facial nerve was going to regenerate signals.
 
So, there's my news.  Sort of good but it doesn't stop the scaredness. 

I promise to keep on coming back to help as I hope I was doing before.

♥ ´)
.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•♥ ¨)
(,.•´ (.♥ •´ *Suu

[Suu]

BTW - hubby and I went on the cruise and had to get off and fly back. The rocking motion had me in bed on board for the first 3 days and on pills for the next 3 while waiting to get to a port with an airport.  It didn't help that the carpet chosen on the ship had zig-zag lines running up it!  Hanging on was difficult as there was only handrails on one side of everything and hubby and I use walking aids.
Doctor put it down to the lack of a middle ear for balance on a rough sea. 

It was so rough that the pool was emptied after kids were being thrown into the sides of the pool by big waves!
♥ ´)
.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•♥ ¨)
(,.•´ (.♥ •´ *Suu