[QUOTE=I just wanted to respond to you in regards to the mvd surgery. I had mine on June 16th of this year. So far it has been the best thing that I have done. I had the gamma knife radiation surgery first in May. I felt great for 2 weeks and then the pain came back. It changed a little after the gamma knife because now I also had the burning searing pain in my cheek that I never had before. By June I was so miserable that I was in bed every day afraid to even get up and walk for fear of making the pain worse. I felt out of options and was faced with having the mvd surgery or living like this the rest of my life. I was on 4 different medications and swallowing 30 pills a day. I was truly depressed and felt like a prisoner from this disease. I decided to have the surgery and hoped for the best outcome possible. My surgery was difficult according to my surgeon. I had large veins that were pushing on my nerve and he had to remove them. I was in surgery for about 5 hours and lost a lot of blood. From the moment I woke up from the surgery my tn pain was gone, however. Of course it was difficult to recover from the surgery itself, but my surgeon told me exactly what to expect. The incision in the back of my head only really hurt the first few days. I was bothered by the loss of hearing in my ear for the first few weeks. I could hear out of it but it sounded very muffled. I was ecstatic that I could finally eat whatever I wanted again, as I had lost almost 20 pounds and was thin to begin with. I started weaning myself off of my medication a little too quickly and at week 8 I started to experience some pain but nothing like it was pre-surgery. So I increased my medication until it stopped and I haven't had any pain since. I am now at week 14 since my surgery and very happy with the results. No numbness or residual effects. I know this surgery is not for everyone but I just wanted to share my experience with you. Best wishes to you and to everyone suffering with this horrible ailment.