Chronology

April 2002

Acoustic neuroma diagnosis

June 2002

Acoustic neuroma surgery

Post surgery condition, after balance rehab.

Face

Left side facial paralysis, wooden gums feeling. I can close my mouth, drink with a glass but now whistle.
No frowning on forehead (no wrinkles to expect)

Face is slightly less sensitive than on the right side.
Twisted nose and mouth.

Eye

Lagophtalmy, the eye doesn’t close.
Dry-eye syndrome, requires eye moisturising gels/drops, limited tolerance.
Thick ointment before sleep (paraffine/lanoline), with sticky tape patch.

Diplopia (double vision) from 4 to 6 feet range (depends on fatigue)

Other

Deaf on left side.
Dizzyness in case of fatigue.

September 2003

Appointment with Pr VanWijk – UCL. Temporalis myoplasty surgery suggested, mentioned a planning for january 2004

Juillet 2004

Gold weight placed on left upper eyelid, to improve closing and protection of cornea. Functionally satisfactory.
Here are some before/after photos.


Before, eyes open
Before, eyes closed

After, eyes open
After eyes closed.

January 2005

- Trying out a plastic prism put on glasses to correct double vision.
- Correction surgery to put the gold weight back in place.

The face muscle start to be really painfull due to their atrophy.
- Appointment with Pr Van Wijck pour study the opportunity of temporalis myoplasty, got Dr Labbé’s contact.

October 2005

Gathering new information, opening the blog

November 2005

- Appointment with Dr Labbé. Suggests to complement the myoplasty with a cross-facial nerve graft.
- ordered glasses with integrated prism

April 2006

Gave up integrated prism glasses, stick to plastic prism.

During 2006

Contacts with temporalis surgery patients. Thanks to them.

June 2006

Temporalis lengthening myoplasty surgery with cross facial nerve graft. Gold weight gone (very uncomfortable), lengthening of the upper eyelid raising muscle, external blepharorraphy to tighten the lower eyelid.

June 2007

Corrective intervention on the face scar. Fossal temple fix by lipostructure.

Results

Face

Straightened the mouth, better audible voice, speaking skill improved. Mouth doesn’t close on the left corner. Visible scar from the lower nose to below the mouth. Slight hollow on the left temple due to temporalis muscle lengthening.
Forehead symmetrized by injection of botulic toxin.
Temporalis muscle rehab in progress.

Eye

Comfort and look of upper eyelid restored. Functional result comparable to gold weight. Eye better protected thanks to blepharorraphy, requires less eyegel.

Misc.

Sural nerve (right leg) harvested, leaving a small numbness area on the top of the foot. Nerve growth in progress, results to be seen 9 to 10 months after surgery, in fact longer due to side-to-end graft type.

Update 2011: no luck on nerve graft, still no effect, maybe will never come