Hi, All! Recent lurker here (last week or so), been studying AN for a while now as it is the only single condition that seems to account for my symptoms. I saw my neurologist earlier this week (first saw her last Fall for my symptoms and for hand numbness—carpal tunnel it turns out—and she prescribed physical therapy first which didn’t help). She agreed that the first thing to eliminate was the possibility of AN so she called in an order for an MRI, and I’m having it done next week (I was very happy to see she went for the right kind of MRI—both without and with contrast).
My symptoms (which have been growing slowly over about two years) are left side facial numbness/odd feeling and continuous left ear tinnitus (a high-pitched whine, like off a piece of electronics). I do sometimes feel a fullness in that ear too, and she confirmed it’s clean of wax. I don’t think I have any hearing loss, I don’t seem to have balance issues, and I don’t have frequent headaches.
I thought I’d post here because of another possibile cause. Seventeen years ago I had a LeFort I (or was it II?) procedure on my upper jaw to correct severe cross-bite that was causing grinding and jaw joint issues. (WARNING! Medical grossness coming up!). In that procedure they cut my upper jaw away from my skull, spit it down the middle, and repositioned everything to fix my bite. In doing so they cut nerves, but the only thing I noticed immediately (and forever more afterwards) is some lack of sensitivity/numbness in my upper gum—if I press on it I feel nothing until I press hard enough to hurt.
She doesn’t think that such a procedure would cause my AN-like symptoms to start 15 years after the procedure, but if the MRI doesn’t show an AN it will be something to look into.
So, if you’ve had jaw surgery (particularly upper jaw surgery) and you don’t have an AN, you might ask your doctor if your earlier surgery could’ve triggered your symptoms.
I will post in this thread after I have my MRI.
