I’m glad what I wrote helped you.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too! You’ll have to let us know how your TG smoothie turns out. You could always jump to dessert & just enjoy a yummy pumpkin pie smoothie! 
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So pleased that you’re seeing small improvements, keep focused on that! Love your dog’s therapy they are so helpful! Will keep praying 
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I think you’re on to something Isaiah with the pumpkin pie first lol… Thank you Jules I always welcome prayers 
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Hi everyone… I hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Year. I jst wanted to give a 2 month post op bilateral styloidectomy. At this point my left eye is still not blinking. I can make my eyelid go halfway down if I concentrate. But as far as blinking I can’t. I’ve been going to the eye dr every Friday for him to check on it. He has me doing eye drops every hr and still taping at night. And thank you to CatMd or I probably wouldn’t of reached out to the eye dr. My cornea is dry even with the drops… my swallowing is also stil not that great. Maybe a little better but still having to eat mostly purée. When I do eat soft foods I still have to cough up some food that gets stuck in my throat and turn my head to the left and swallow again and take a drink. Still using straws bc my lips are still numb. Positive side my left cheek is waking up. The corner of my mouth on the left is starting to turn up. Dr. Hackman still thinks I will get most of my functions back but did say probably not till spring. Said it was jst going super slow. My teeth are finally fitting back together and I can open up my mouth. Still have no taste and not so hot smell which doc said is normal with the facial nerve being effected. Both my ears are numb. Drives me nuts not being able to use a q tip. I can bend over to pick something up without it feeling like my head will explode which I couldn’t do before surgery. So yes this is stressful with all the unknown but I truly believe in my Dr and take his word that things will get back to normal with time. Thank you all for posting your experiences, it helps knowing you aren’t the only one going through this… I’m hoping when I post again at the 3 month marker I’ll have encouraging news. Stay safe
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Sounds like a rough recovery for you, so sorry that you’re still having issues with swallowing & your eye…I hope that Dr Hackman is right & it does all heal soon. Members have found they still have healing even up to a year as I’ve probably said before, so there is hope, although obviously will pray for you that it doesn’t take that long!
Thank you for sharing your update- it’s good for everyone to hear honest accounts of recoveries so they can make an informed choice. I do hope that you have better news soon, will be praying for you. Sending you a hug 
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I’m sure @tp12 will probably give you encouragement, I’ll just share a link to another discussions where she’s posted with info about recovery, & @Isaiah_40_31 has given some info about facial exercises:
Random post surgery question - General - Living with Eagle
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I’m so sorry that you’re still having so much trouble.
at two months my eye lid would mostly close, but still wouldn’t close all the time. i took 40 pictures a day of me trying to close my eye and 25 of them would be it closing and 15 would be it acting like it did on day one and being half open even though I thought I had closed it. it took me three full months before it would reliably be closed in all the pictures. then for a few weeks after that I knew it still wasn’t closing right because I still battled dryness. it was four months before I wasn’t using eye drops daily. my blink is still slow and still slowly improving. it was so laggy people talking to me would comment on it for a long while. I’m sure he told you but Dr Hackman told me to take a break as often as I remembered and make weird and funny faces to try and keep my muscles stimulated in my face because I had lost muscle tone during the paralysis.
my jaw was an absolute mess and my mouth didn’t close properly until right at two months I think? the chattering that lead me to getting diagnosed to begin with didn’t actually stop until past three months, but that’s now been gone for weeks.
My ear is still full feeling and Dr Hackman told me it may not return to normal, but to give it a year and it would keep improving.
I tell you all this to say progress continues so so slowly. Dr Hackman told me that if progress started its a good sign that it just needs time to resolve itself.
I hope your nerves just keep chugging along and waking up a little more each day
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Thank you Jules for you kind words. I always appreciate you
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I’m so sorry, Stella, that you’re having a difficult recovery! I also had slow nerve repair to my tongue, half of which was paralyzed when I woke up from my first ES surgery. It took 6 months before I was able to eat more or less normally & 9 months before I could talk & not sound like I was drunk. It was amusing & annoying at the same time.
I really don’t have much to add beyond what Jules & tp12 said. Just want to encourage you that, in time, those sleepy nerves will most likely get back to work.
I’m glad Jules sent the exercises link & there are likely more if you ask Dr. Google 
. There are probably YouTube videos as well. This is a good time to start exercises.
I will be praying for you, too!
Thank you so much tp12 for your info. Greatly appreciate you ! I’m so glad to hear you’re doing well now. Seems like you’ve been through a rough road as well. I will start with some exercises with my mouth. And I’ll try with the eye as well I jst can’t do much with it. It gives me encouragement when I read your time line. Good hearing from you
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Thank you Isaiah ! I appreciate every bit of info you have. I truly don’t know where I would be without you all . You all are angels 
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been thinking of you Stella, I hope you’ve seen some improvement since your last post. 
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Hi Stella. I haven’t posted much but I read a LOT in this forum getting great information and learning from it! Everyone in this forum are awesome intelligent people that have been through challenging times. I’ve read all your posts. Thinking about you and hoping you are continuing to heal and doing well! 
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Medrudumme,
Please forgive my forgetfulness, but have you had your ES surgery yet? I’m guessing not based on your most recent post. How are you doing? I hope your symptoms are under control. Can you please remind me if you’ve seen Dr. Hackman, & if so, what did you learn from him?
It was kind of @MandS to remind us about your situation. Please let us know how you’re doing & if your post op challenges have resolved at all. I hope you’re doing well & your eyelid & lip are back to normal.
Thank you Medrudumme and Isaiah for checking in on me. I still can’t blink but so much better. The eye looks a lot more normal. I can shut it with ease now. My swallowing is a lot better as well. I can eat pretty much everything but meat. Just a little bit of lip droop but can whistle, not great but can hear a little bit of sound. Which is awesome because I love to whistle lol. I have bee wanting to ask if anyone on the group have had trouble with their BP dropping after nerves started coming alive. Before surgery I was on BP meds and in the last 2 weeks when swallowing and face symmetry started changing so did my BP. It has dropped so much. Off my BP meds. I wandered if my BP was staying up right after surgery bc I’ve been on steroids a few tx’s since surgery and they tend to raise mine or if it has something to due with the nerves. I know I’ve read about some on here about the vagus but I think that was before the surgery.The left ear still wakes me up in the morning with pain but hoping that will ease as time goes on. It’s weird because my neck hurt before surgery so much that I couldn’t go side to side and now I can and can bend over without my head feeling like it’s going to explode. That said my neck hurts and almost feels like it’s loose if that makes any sense at all but more like things jst aren’t healed at the skull base. The feeling of a stick in my throat are gone as well. So I can say it was a successful surgery jst a difficult healing process for me. And I know I still have a long way to go. I talk to Dr.Hackman on Wednesday so I’ll be curious what he has to say. Thanks again for being so kind and checking in. If anyone has any info on BP going down after surgery I would love to hear about it. 
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I forgot to mention I also have military neck … I’m not sure what post mentioned that but maybe a connection between eagles and military neck. And if it’s possible to get the curve back . Dr. Hackman hasn’t released me to do therapy yet but hopefully that will help when released. Ty
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Hi Isaiah! Thank you so much for asking and caring! No surgery, I’m ok and managing my symptoms, and haven’t seen Dr Hackman. I’ll explain in a detailed reply I’m working on to send to the group in the website. Beware It’s gonna be lengthy 
. Thank you ever so kindly.
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So pleased that things are improving for you, albeit slowly! It’ll be interesting to see what Dr Hackman says about your BP- @BrooklynGirl had lots of issues with the vagus nerve after surgery, not sure if it affected her BP though. @vdm has posted alot about military neck, if you’re up to it you could have a search…
Thank you Jules ! Always good to hear from you. 