Thanks for the update!
I’m glad that Dr Kamran was able to reassure you (I hope!) that this will be a long term recovery, & not to panic that the vascular symptoms haven’t resolved yet…It sounds as if an awful lot was done, having bilateral surgery is hard, but with the addition of cutting the digastric muscle and the occipital artery it’s not surprising that JC has felt rough. I didn’t have any muscles cut, but my mouth was hard to open for a week to 10 days, it is normal & many members have this, so might not be related to the digastric muscle JC had cut…
Those styloids are huge, better out than in!
I hope that JC does see improvements soon and that he can get comfortable where you’re staying, praying for him 
1 Like
WOW! Huge styloids. No wonder JC had such awful symptoms! I’m really glad Dr Kamran gave a realistic recovery timeframe. Some doctors say recovery only takes a couple of weeks. 
I had terrible first bite syndrome. It’s caused by the glossopharyngeal nerve overstimulating the parotid gland (largest of the salivary glands) when one first starts to eat or drink. I had a roaring case of it, & the one thing that helped me most was drinking a lot of water/fluids so my saliva stayed pretty dilute. I know that’s likely hard for JC at the moment, but he might try drinking 8-16 oz 15-30 min before eating to see if that helps reduce the FBS pain.
We will look forward to your future updates. I am praying for full recovery for him.
1 Like
Its early days but on Trimus I recommend you try to use finger tips to gently ease the muscle tension that will be limiting jaw opening. You will soon feel the hard lumps and can do gentle massage to ease the tension. It will take time to recover jaw opening but you can start now.
By holding the lower jaw bone with your hands on each side try to gently move the jaw down to encourage muscles to stretch again.
Look online for image of main jaw muscles to help you understand which muscles you need to focus on relaxing/improving.
At a later stage using a therabite device each day to increase jaw opening will help snd seeing a jaw physio to get exercises to do will help.
Using ice to reduce swelling helps, Inused ice cubes inside plastic bag and put inside thin pillowcase againstvskin.melting small amounts of ice in mouth helps reduce internal swelling.
Take care.D
2 Likes
Once you get back to Canada do visit a Vodder trained lymph therapist to help reduce swelling & scars.
Turkey lymph seems to be cosmetic only, but if you look online you can find guides on how to do MLD to reduce swelling Yourself now.
Also look for Tripudio guide for upper body lymph drainage. Its very gentle exercise & helps move fluid stuck in head & neck post surgery. We get simular problems to head & neck cancer patients, even if lymph nodes in neck are intact the incisions & swelling cause lymph fluid build up. Lymph system has no pump so relies on us moving.
Take care.d
2 Likes
Thanks @PatientD! I always appreciate your insights and will take some time to explore them. I looked into Vodder at home and the closest practitioner is ~1.5 hours away. He knows someone else who does lymphatic drain, but a different style, so he might opt to try that when he gets home.
I was reading about the digastric and it is the main muscle to help open the lower jaw. Because his was 600% larger than average, his surrounding muscles are probably quite weak. He might have to train the smaller muscles to assist, which will take time. He’s doing some self-massage to help promote blood flow and prevent the muscles from seizing up (and I’ll have him look at upper body lymph). As everyone keeps reminding us, it’s early days.
2 Likes
I had a grade 4 tongue tie that wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my 50’s. I had to do something called myofunctional therapy to teach my tongue how to work. During my second IJV decompression surgery, Dr. Nakaji had to resect the digastric and myo and hyo styloid muscles which initially left me with some deficits. I used the exercise I learned from the myofunctional therapist and now everything is working fine. I think a speech therapist could also help teach your husband how to strengthen those muscles.
3 Likes
That’s great advice, thank you! If this continues then I do have someone in mind who might be able to help. Since having the muscle cut he’s found his tongue actually feels looser, but it is underneath the chin that’s preventing him from opening his mouth; which is why I think it’s the severed digastric. I have to admit, I only knew tongue tied as a colloquialism, not as an actual condition. I had to look it up.
2 Likes