New symptoms

[Mlamb]

Hi everyone. I had surgery three years ago in December (Dr. Sisti - retrosigmoid) and gamma knife (NYU Dr. Kondziolka -will be 2 years in April). Mybtumor originally was about 3cm and it was a trigeminal schwannoma not an acoustic neuroma. DR. Sisti removed a very small portion that was lying on the brain stem but really left a large portion behind. Since the surgery, most of the left side of my face is numb( including my left cornea) except the lower part of the face and jaw.  After having gamma knife radiation about 1 year and half ago, I really didn't experience any additional symptoms. However, suddenly now my mouth is tingly, my teeth on the left side kind of hurt and feel strange, my tongue also feels weird and the absolute worst is I am getting episodes of what I think is lockjaw. The nerves around my jaw tense up and my mouth literally locks.  It a very scary sensation and it's painful. It happened once when I yawned, another time when I sneezed and also just out of nowhere for no particular reason. Again, my tumor is on the trigeminal nerve and now I'm so scared that it has maybe grown. I am going for an MRI in about a week. I cannot imagine facing another surgery. Please let me know if anyone has had any similar issues with their jaw.

[robertweeks]

I don't know that this will be helpful, but I see no one has responded, so thought I would give you what little I could.  I am two years post translab for AN, so not the same condition at all as yours.  I continue to have symptoms to this day involving poor balance, some facial paralysis and "wonky head" which is the worst ongoing symptom and drives me nuts.  I have not had problems with lockjaw that I attribute to AN.  However, I did have wisdom teeth removed in the past year and for some weeks following that suffered recurring lockjaw and pain.  I think it resulted from having stretched my jaw too far during removal.  It took awhile, but those symptoms did subside and go away over two or three months.  Given your specific condition I would definitely agree with getting another MRI.  Hope another surgery is not recommended.