I've just joined this forum, and I hope someone will have an answer for this. I had a thalamic stroke in August 2009. At first, I experienced burning and tingling on my entire right side, including the inability to walk (lack of strength) or use my right hand or arm. Gradually, after a lot of strengthening PT and OT, I'm doing much better. What remains is tingling in the fingers of my right hand and a lack of strength, and really troubling, the right side of my mouth - which has gotten worse. I can not whistle (not that I want to, but I'm unable to do that), and I can't pronounce certain sounds unless I hold my mouth to help it. My mouth feels as though I've received a shot from the dentist, my taste buds don't work on the right side, and my inner mouth also reacts to food, toothpaste, etc. When I eat, my mouth feels swollen. It takes rinsing with water to calm down my mouth. Neurontin didn't help. I take a 325mg aspirin once a day, 88 mcg synthroid once a day, and Lyrica 50mg 3x a day. I don't know if the Lyrica is helping. I've been taking it for about a month. Does anyone have any idea of how I can stop this from getting increasingly worse? I've been doing "mouth exercises" to try to use the muscles in the mouth, but I don't know what else to do. By the way, I'm a 76 year old woman stuck in the body and mind of a 45 year old. Please help!