Progress Report

I just got back from my 2-day follow up with Jackie Diels in Madison, WI. If you don't remember, I went to see Jackie for 3 days this past February to start the rather arduous process of neuromuscular facial retraining. Which is doc-speak for facial physical therapy. I have spent many, many hours doing very specific exercises and stretches to help manage the synkinesis that resulted from damage to my facial nerve. Synkinesis, if you don't know, is when the nerves heal wrong and send the wrong message to muscles in the affected area. For example, when I smile, my right eye tries to close and my right lip pulls up. Weird stuff like that.

Rather than try to write about the improvements, I am just going to post a couple of pictures that will illustrate the progress more than any 1,000 words. So, take a look...

First picture was taken in February, when I first went to see Jackie. This is my face at rest with eyes closed. The second picture was taken this week after working with Jackie for 2 days. Notice how my lip pulls up in the first picture, and then look at how symetrical it looks in the second picture. It is a little hard to see, but also notice that my right eye does not fully close in the first picture.

Okay, so here is another before/after with me compressing my lips. In the first picture, you can see that my right eye is half closed and the chin is all dimpled (also synkinesis) whereas in the second picture my eyes are symmetrical and there is minimal chin movement.

I am sure that the photos do not do this process complete justice since part of the improvement has to do with sensation and lack of pain which, of course, you can't see. However, I think these pictures do give a good depiction of the visible changes that have occurred. Stay tuned...