MVD surgery at UCL for TN - recovery time

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I am scheduled for MVD surgery at UCL for Trigeminal Neuralgia next month and am seriously scared. My husband of 57 had a stroke 7 months ago, my 35 year old marriage is collapsing and it is likely that I shall be facing separation and start of divorce proceedings at the time of the surgery. Can anyone tell me how long their reasonable recovery time was in order to return to work? I am self emplyed and contracted overseas with my husband so in one fell swoop will lose my income, my home and my husband. What is a reasonable recovery time to be fit enough to return to an Executive Level Administrator/PA/Office Manager role (assuming I can get one)?

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  • Posted

    I'm 45, and two weeks was enough for me to be able to return to a desk job. About a month to feel near 100%

    Seeing the compression in an MRI is a VERY good sign. The surgeon knows exactly what he's going to do before the procedure.

    My MVD was 6 months ago, and I've had absolutely no pain and no TN meds since the moment I came out of surgery.

    • Posted

      Thanks for that info and glad things went smoothly for you. Nobody should go though the horrible suffering of TN pain.  I do want to remind people reading though that it is not smooth for everybody and they should know all the possible side effects as a trade off for TN pain releif when doing the MVD.   As in my case that i have described before so i will just list out the symptoms that people should ask their surgeons about prior to the procedure.  10 months post MVD, no TN pain of meds but burning pain on the TN side, crawling / ithcy sensations,  no touch sensation on that side of the face (totally numb), severe sinus issues on the TN side, micro brain stroke 6 weeks post TN, can't chew or feel food on one side and weakness in the chewing/ jaw muscle on the TN side.

    • Posted

      That is a lot of negative side effects. Wow. I should add that finding a surgeon with extensive experience with MVD surgery is important. In my case, the surgeon had performed about 500 procedures before mine.
    • Posted

      Hi

      I have to say these side affects are worrying to me.  I've had a lot of bad luck in the last 5 years, I also have CFS, hypothyroidism that hasn't been stable for about 4 years and wear a hearing aid in my right side among other things.  I feel like things do keep going wrong but also the neuragia is getting worse all the time and I can't take the pain and the medications anymore.  My guy is in Edinburgh and specailises in TN but I don't know how often he's done the MVD, I will definately ask but how do you know how experienced someone is other than asking them?  

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