Thank you all for your kind words!! It’s so greatly appreciated!!! It’s so interesting to see the parallels of MVD surgery along with Eagle’s surgery, especially in terms of cranial nerve manipulation during surgery. I had my 2 week post-op appointment today (virtual). I got to ask a lot of questions!
My doc said he thinks I was born with the nerve compressions, which was interesting to me. His stance is that “the body can tolerate nerve compressions until it doesn’t”. As compared to the MRI, he said once they got inside “there was much more work to be done” especially on cranial nerves 9, 10, and 11. He said when there’s a lot of nerve manipulation, it’s all but expected to have post-op nerve irritation symptoms for up to 18 months. He also said…because I had no long-term nerve damage…he expects a full recovery of nerve function within 18 months. Or at least there’s a better than 90% chance of things returning to fully functional. So this was great news. My doc explained the 18 month healing process of nerves post-surgery. It was quite interesting.
There’s a lot of controversy when it comes to doing MVD surgery. I had a consult with a prominent physician in the USA. This doc was only going to fix the glossopharyngeal nerve bundle and not address the trigeminal nerve during surgery. My doctor said his team surveyed cranial nerves 5-12 during surgery in order to fix all identified compressions. He also said what is seen on an MRI isn’t always predictive of what is seen during surgery. I learned a lot today.
So far my glossopharyngeal throat pain is gone. I’m still having twinges of trigeminal pain but honestly it’s hard to tell if it’s that or incisional/neck pain (which can be significant with MVD).
Stage 1: swelling (from post-op)
The nerves become swollen from surgery. There’s too much fluid post-op and it short-circuits the nerve signals. As the swelling starts settling down, the nerves fire better. This period lasts about 2-3 weeks.
Stage 2: “Schwan cells that wrap around each of the nerves” (I have no idea of Schwan is spelled correctly!!). The Schwan cells around the nerve will die back when the nerve has been injured or manipulated, but then the Schwan cells will resprout and grow back around the nerve again. This phase takes 3-6 months. The nerves start firing more efficiently once they have efficient Schwan cells. (my doctor referenced this as being part of the myelin sheath regeneration
Stage 3: The nerve cable has to resprout all the way to the end of the axon. This is about a one year process.
This was the layman’s version my doctor explained to me. It’s pretty basic but at least it helped me to understand the healing timelines better. Basically anything that improves initially is only due to swelling. The real nerve regeneration begins to improve within 6 months of surgery but can continue for up to 18 months after surgery (and sometimes a little longer).
Honestly, I’m happy w/ the layman’s version! Sounds complicated & amazing the way our bodies do a thorough recovery even when it’s a complicated process. You almost got Schwann right. It just needed another n at the end.
I’m really glad to know your surgeon communicated so well & was very encouraging. That means so much when we’re struggling w/ a slow post op recovery.
@Isaiah_40_31
I knew I had probably spelled it wrong. :). Thanks for the proper spelling. Our bodies are truly amazing. This whole process has been a learning journey for me!!! It’s incredible that 6 weeks ago I had no idea what was wrong and had surgery 2 weeks ago.
Been thinking about @boogs99 and wondering how they are feeling after surgery. Hopefully better!
@1speechpick I’m doing well thanks. I’ve been following your progress and I’m glad your surgery went well and without complications! I hope your vagus nerve will regain those schwann cells fast and you can be back to normal soon.
That’s really interesting, thanks for the info on nerve healing, it’ll be really useful to share with those who are feeling down after not getting good results from surgery. We’ve certainly noticed on here that healing can continue for up to a year, good to know it’ll still carry on for longer than that!
I hope that you notice more improvements soon- it sounds like you made the right decision with your surgeon & the surgery
