Baohene - top rated. Not too back for an African, that became a Veterinarian in Moscow, and was then trained at the Mayo clinic.
Several surgeries and all were a little unique with a few subtle surprises. Easy surgeries. Go to sleep, wake up, convince the outpatient nurses to let you go, few days of discomfort, probably some bandages,
For surprises, the sureal cross facial nerve graft has small stitches near both ears. My girl friend was impressed and said it looked like the stiches from a really good face lift. (Note: facial paralysis ..it's not as easy as a facelift). However, I was surprised by the stitches in my mouth. It turned out they pushed the nerve to connect the good facial nerve with my paralyzed side, by putting an incision on the upper inside of the lip. Hence I needed stitches on the inside of the mouth. In this case, no swelling, and needed to care of the stitches by the ear. Mouth hurt because of the stitches for a few days, and little difficult to eat for the first day. Never took pain medicine or aspirin. It turned out that my leg, where the nerve was harvested, hurt the most. And I now have three small scars on the back of my lower leg to show for my unique experience.
The Masseter To Facial Nerve graft. This had some swelling around where the masseter nerve connected to the jaw. Not too bad on swelling. Didn't take pain medicine. In this case, I needed to wear a sling, that went to the top of my head and around the jaw. This was less than ideal, and impossible not to get stares when leaving the house. Honestly, I didn't really care, and I needed to wear this for two weeks.
I would imagine in your case, with a muscle transfer, you will have some inconvenient surprises. i would bet you would require a sling. I know most plastic surgeries, (including breast implants, butt implants), you need to really avoid anything to stress that area until the body can heal with the new muscle, nerves, implants.
Now, that I have lived through it, I don't think I would have changed anything about how I provided with my analysis. Even if I knew everything in exact details, I would have proceeded. I had enough on my mind. I'm betting two weeks out of work is about giving time for the transplant to successfully integrate. Don't worry on the bruising. I would bet the leg will be slightly more painful than the face.
As for the time. Yes three months is where I started to notice some slight improvement. In this case, when I would bite hard, the corner of my mouth would slightly move. It was hard to tell at first, and I needed to look in the mirror. The sureal cross facial nerve graft was more subtle. It was supposed to give me symmetry when I smile, but this didn't completely work. When I smile, the sureal nerve graft does not move the paralyzed side of my mouth. However, I have some more definition on my face. In summary
* I have learned to smile using the masseter nerve graft, but I don't need to bite down anymore to activate. It's a small smile. If I try to smile to hard, the eye starts to close.
* The sureal nerve graft added definition on my paralyzed face. Basically, I have that normal crease that separates the cheek from the lips and runs up to the nose. So my face looks more symmetrical.
In the end... No guarantees, but in our elite, complete facial paralysis group, we have nothing to lose. I'm definitely much better, but I'll never be like I was prior to my AN experience. Hence is life.
