Originally Posted by ella138

By posting this diary here, I hope it will continue to help as many people in this forum as it did in the old one.

MVD July 22/2005
Days 1,2 & 3
I go in and they do a cat scan and put these little electro tapes on my head in different spots..something about lining things up in the surgery. I speak to the anesthesiologist and he puts in an IV and makes me good and stoned. So far it's nice. I wake up in recovery with a small pressure bandage behind my ear covering the wound. They start grilling me on my name, the date, where I am etc. In the meantime the dr went out to speak to my husband and sister and told them there were 2 arteries on my trigeminal nerve and he put in several teflon pads to separate them from the nerve. As I wake up they put me in a step down unit which is like an ICU. I was no nauseous or dizzy at all. Maybe because the anesthesiologist gave me gravol in the anesthesic cocktail. The dr forgot to order pain meds for me and I really really needed them. Finally he called and they gave me morphine. It didnt really take away the pain but it took the edge off. The pain subsided within a few hours and I cut down the morphine. After 24 hrs they put me in my own room and I chose to cut down the morphine to tylenol #3 (codine). I stayed on that only through the next night and then went on 2 extra strength tylenol every 4 hours. My lower lip and half my tounge are numb and I have had 2 TN twinges since the surgery. They told me that was normal and it would take time for the nerve to heal as I have had TN for 13 years and they manipulated the nerve. It's interesting that the numb spot is exactly where the trigger point was. So I've cut down my tegretol form 1200mg to 800mg and will cut out a further 200mg every week until it's gone (hopefully). Sometimes I think I'm about to have a twinge but it doesnt happen. I never vomited as I read many others have. I was not dizzy except for the medications they had me on. I'm reletively pain free from the surgery except for a bit of soreness. Now I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that this surgery worked. It was a ***** to make the decision to finally have it and I went through **** up until the day of surgery but it was not that bad...so far. Obviously it has only been 3 days so I'm sure much can still happen but I'll take 1 day at a time and I'll keep you posted on my progress. Tomorrow I will try to wash my hair. They took the dressing off before I left the hospital.

Day 4 after MVD surgery.
I woke up and my eyes were swollen shut. I freaked when I looked in the mirror. I went to my family Doc this morning and she said that when ever someone has surgery and is intubated (as I was) they have to keep your eyeballs from drying out so they put gel, pads and tape over your eyes to keep them shut. It seems I had an allergic reaction to one of those products. I look like one of those people who you see on TV after they come out of face lift surgery!. Anyway the doc said cold compresses and antihistamine meds for 3 days or so and it will be gone. As far as the rest goes, I had a shower and washed my hair today. No problem there. No twinges so far today, not even a headache. I finally went to the bathroom (#2) today after 5 days. It was like giving birth. Enough said. As a matter of fact I'm rather bored. I guess that's a good thing. I'll keep you all posted as the days go on so anyone else thinking of having an MVD will know what to expect.