As many of you know, I experienced what's referred to as delayed facial weakness. This weakness is common in many acoustic neuroma patients. The facial nerve experiences some trauma that causes the nerve to swell on the side of the face during the tumors removal. That causes the facial nerve that controls the movement on that side of the face to temporally stop working until the nerve swelling goes away.
Quick recap;
My face worked fine until I got home 5 days after surgery. By the 6th day after surgery I had almost no use of the right side of my face, it went numb.. I also lost my ability to taste on the right side of my tongue. Since my right eye could not blink my eye would get dried out often especially at night while trying to sleep.
Little by little I noticed some improvement every day. I'm not back to 100% yet but getting close. Today I noticed enough improvement that I thought it would be worth posting an update. Today is the 28th day since surgery, or 23rd day since my delayed facial weakness started.
Here is somthing I couldn't imagine doing one week ago. Close right eye only.
This has been my indicator for improvement. My smile. It's getting close to normal, you can see more teeth, but you can still see a difference from one side to the other, especially around the eye.
The scar seems to be looking better. The only time I can get a good look at it is when I take a picture of it like this. The fact that I decided to start shaving my head a number of years back really makes it a challenging look. Imagine having to shave around a speed bump shaped like a backwards question mark. It aint easy!
As the rest of my recovery goes, stamina and balance remain the biggest obstacles for me. I'm sure that the lack of balance subconsciously is what causes my being fatigued so easily. You have to consciously balance yourself, one of the things you take for granted along with blinking, smiling and other things. I'm looking forward to getting back to work. Being dizzy and not being able to drive, run, ride my skateboard, hike to a nice fishing hole and have a beer sucks.
One last thing before I go. Today is Lynette (AKA lawmama on ANA forum) from Florida's surgery to remove her acoustic neuroma tumor. She's someone I've met through the ANA forum. I'm wishing her a uneventful surgery and speedy recovery free of complications.
Hopefully I'll update soon.
Mike
