didn’t get notifications here for a few days for some reason!
I think my pain may have hit a peak finally? it eased its way up to very painful over the past two days and seems to be easing its way back down slowly today. just a bit achy right now.
my eye will stay closed if I close it, but still won’t close on its own. thinking it’s swelling related more than nerve maybe at this point? I’m very swollen and bruised by my eye.
I can’t open my mouth barely at all, but I’ve been reading on here that that should be better in about two weeks.
the chattering of my jaw that lead me to my eagles diagnosis to begin with is still going on, but if I use my mouth guard then my jaw gets stuck open and I can’t close my mouth, so don’t really know what path to take on that right now.
my ear is very swollen and I’m not sure how ill broach needing to use my hearing aid when I reenter the real world, as I’ve read that can take a very long time to go down and it’s definitely too swollen to go in right now. oddly, on like day two and three I could actually hear better but as pain has peaked the whirling noise in my ear has as well. Will be interesting to see if I gain some hearing back when everything heals in there.
all of my actual throat swallowing issues were gone post surgery and so far have been absent.
the pressure inside my head has been gone since post surgery and my resting heart rate has stayed about 10bpm slower since the styloid was removed from abutting my carotid post surgery
What a good post op report! I’m so glad for the positive changes you’ve seen. Days 3-6 post op are when the swelling peaks & so does the pain so you’re right on time for noticing the peak yesterday & the beginning of improvement today. The swelling should begin to gradually reduce now, & I expect that the whirling noise in your ear will gradually decrease along with the swelling.
It may be that your hearing improved in those 3 days after surgery because during surgery they administer epinephrine which is a powerful anti-inflammatory. It stays in your system for several days post op, then the swelling jumps in & causes the post op symptoms which gradually fade as the swelling goes down (sorry that was a bit redundant).
Glad that you think the pain has peaked, I hope so for you! There can still be ups & downs though, especially as you start to do more, so be prepared for that & try not to be disappointed! I had bruising over my eye from the clips they used to monitor the nerves during surgery, so maybe that’s the same for your swelling & bruising? It might be interesting to ask about that if you have a post-op report? The swelling & bruising could be affecting the nerve though…
Hopefully the ear swelling will go down soon in your ear too! Nerves are funny things to heal so will be interesting to see what happens with your hearing- I had a horrible sensation in my ear, like concrete being poured down it, & I lost hearing in it, but it did disappear after a couple of weeks thankfully.
Good that you’ve noticed improvements in your vascular symptoms too! Will keep praying for you
yes, the ear is my main pain point. i get the concrete reference, it feels completely stuffed and heavy
the nurse led me to believe that the bruising and swelling on the side of my eye was related to how the glue from the eye covers was ripped off. thus far the eye and the stress of it refusing to stay in focus for any period of time is the absolute hardest part of this process. definitely more exhausting than any level of pain I’ve went through at this point. I am just holding on to there are other folks on here who have mentioned this battle and that i will follow their path to being near the end of the worst of it.
Hi tp
Glad to I hear you’re having some improvement.
I had that occasional chattering feeling in my jaw prior to surgery. It’s no longer a problem. I had a really hard time opening my mouth for quite some time. I think I couldn’t put any solid food in my mouth until day 7. I did some jaw stretching to help it along. I still do the stretching. my tmj and surgical sites need a little massage a couple times a day. At my follow-up appointment he recommended massaging the surgical sites to prevent scar tissue. My ears can sometimes still feel full also. I specifically notice stuff when I get upset. I’m sure the stress and muscle tension causes pressure on the nerves.
I’m so sorry you’re having a problem with your eye. I feel like it’s related to all the nerves. try to keep icing. I wore one of those neck travel pillows to bed it helped keep my ice wrapped around my head.
can i ask how long the paralysis lasted for you guys? I can smile slightly more, but still haven’t really improved with the pucker or lifting eyebrows. my swelling is still massive and pulling my eye lid as has previously been mentioned. my pain isn’t awful. it comes and goes in waves but I guess I just was not remotely prepared emotionally for so much paralysis? my face has released slightly in the last twelve hours in that I can feel my cheek and stuff now and it’s not AS tight and stretched as it was, but there is so much discussion of pain and swallowing and nerve sensations which aren’t really bothering me the way the just paralysis feels like it’ll never end.
I would say my smile was back to normal at about two months.
Although I didn’t have much swelling at all. I think once your swelling goes down your gonna start seeing more of the paralysis go away.
had my follow up work Dr Hackman yesterday, he said everything looks good and that he’s not remotely concerned about the paralysis. he explained the signs to me that it wouldn’t return and told me I didn’t have any of them. so hopefully my eye will close properly and stay in focus soon. I am about two hours away from chapel hill and that was a very rough drive fighting the eye and dizziness.
my swelling has been substantial and it just went down in the last 24 hours enough that I can touch the top of my skull without pain. my right side of my skull is finally painless after 14 days. the ear area is finally not hard as a rock too.
and for anyone key word searching post op smile or post op paralysis like I have been doing in the last two weeks here is my progress. 2 weeks vs day 1
WOW! What a difference, tp12 ~ You look so good compared to right after surgery!! I’m really happy to read about your healing progress & know it will continue as your swelling keeps reducing. I hope your eye recovers most quickly so it’s easier to cope w/ the other symptoms as they slowly disappear.
so, week three update for key word searchers
post op eye
post op smile
post op facial paralysis
(note the above pictures are selfies so flipped, my surgery was on my right side)
my smile really hasn’t changed since the above picture, I don’t think it will get better until I have the ability to scrunch my nose. when I laugh or cry my left side over scrunches and closes my left eye, so movement there is significantly more connected to your mouth movement than I’ve ever realized before.
my eye brows have just started to lift a little bit.
so, when this started my eye poured tears non stop, then it went to I was dabbing my eye with a tissue non stop because they were pooling in the creases and that had to be cleared before my vision would focus. the eye dabbing has probably decreased by half at this point. my eye sporadically doesn’t shut but mostly does. it has been within the last two days that I have had the movement and strength to hold my right eye shut and open my left eye at the same time. the left only partially opens right now, but I have not been able to do that at all since surgery, so progress. I have been putting in preservative free eye drops every time my eye got uncomfortable, this was originally about hourly all day. I think I used drops twice yesterday. The amount of time my eye stays in focus has increased, but I feel like my left eyelid is now trying to over compensate all the time, so if I go out of focus it’s a little harder to get back in.
ear still pretty hard and numb, but softer than a week ago.
my jaw is going in and out of letting my mouth actually open. things like yawning have absolutely killed me because I haven’t been able to fully open up. right now it’s like 20% of the time it’ll open correctly. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last week with my bite off and unable to open or close properly, but I did find my ES because of existing jaw/chattering issues. I feel like the jaw is probably slowing down all of my healing, but I don’t know for certain.
I’m so glad to read that you’re recovery is progressing & especially that your eye problem is improving. Your mouth will follow. The jaw stiffness & lip droop can take longer to recover. I had the jaw problem & think it was about a month before I could open wide. As your jaw loosens up, your bite will hopefully get back to normal, too.
For some of our lip droop members, I think it was 3-4 months before things were pretty much back to normal, but for others it was quicker. Your ear numbness may never go away fully. I have numbness along my jawline on my left side. I don’t notice it unless I rub the area w/ my hand. It has no negative impact on my life so it’s just a reminder of how much surgery did help me.
I’m excited that your body is continuing to heal. Hearing your progress is very encouraging!
Slow & steady…as long as things are moving in the right direction that’s good! Will keep praying that you continue improving, it’s hard but keep on being patient!
Thank you for keeping us updated on your progress.
I had a stiff jaw also, I recommend stretching and amazingly it does loosen up. I had a disc in my TMJ displaced a few years that never went back into place. After surgery, I was convinced the other side had been displaced during surgery because I couldn’t open my mouth.
I remember the hard numb ear also. I massaged them alot.
Ask Dr. Hackman if you can do those things.
Be patient you are on your way!
@tp12 Hi, I was reading about your surgery as I am going to have surgery with Dr. Hackman as well. Just wanted to send well wishes and I hope you continue to heal!
Hi Krista
So glad you got the opportunity to meet him and have him perform the surgery.
I feel like you’re in great hands. I have no regrets. If you have any questions feel free to reach out.
week four update:
post op eye
post op smile
post op facial paralysis
my eye is very very close to closing, but not quite there. I still can’t scrunch up my nose so I think it’s preventing a seal. it has progressed this week to annoying me half the day vs all day. so that is good anyway.
my smile now has a teny tiny hint of a turn up.
my facial hardness/swelling around the ear and temple has finally went down enough that the right side of my face is only slightly bigger than the left vs significantly bigger than the left that it had been. I am having more pain in my ear and jaw than I’ve honestly had this whole time. yesterday, closing my mouth at all was causing extreme pain in my ear, but it’s not as bad today as it was yesterday.
so, slowly continuing to prod along.
progress picture attached:
I’m really happy to read about your healing progress & know it will continue as your swelling keeps reducing. I hope your eye recovers most quickly so it’s easier to cope w/ the other symptoms as they slowly disappear.
I also have surgery upcoming with Dr. Hackman, we need to throw an awareness party!!
