Maureen,
I certainly understand what you are going thru. Yes, Christopher had all those things. The swallowing problems were mostly while he was in the hospital. About 3 weeks after the surgery he was able to eat thicker foods. The water was a problem going down because it is fast and he couldn't feel it so they started him with thicker liquids and water-based liquids came last. He had swallowing tests done daily. He gradually came back from that problem.
The eye problem goes with the facial paralysis. While in the hospital, several days after the second surgery to get the tumor, they took Chris to the ophthamologist and a gold weight was placed in his eyelid. Even though he had muscle-tone at the time, the doctor knew he would need it and sure enough he did. The gold weight closes the eye, you can't see it at all. It will improve the appearance of the eye. I'm glad he had it done.
The facial paralysis: 3 months after the tumor surgery, the doctor did a jump graft. He took a very small piece of the hypoglossal nerve and connected it to the facial nerve. This is expected to reanimate the face. After 4 months, we are beginning to see results.
His tumor was 5.3 cm- a monster.
