I had my MVD at the beginning of July and when I woke up from the surgery I could tell the difference iimmediately. Apparently, I was having a low grade pain that I had gotten used to and didn't consciously feel it until after the surgery took it away. When I was off the pain pills my face kind of hurt and I was so disappointed until I realized that it was because I haven't used my facial muscles for years. It was just muscle pain which has since gone away. It took me awhile to get used to smiling with both sides of my face. I have one side effect from the surgery. When I stick out my tongue it points to my right side. Weird. Now that the cold has hit I noticed that the TN side feels the cold more than the other side of my face. No pain. I don't know if it's I trained myself to notice my left side of my face or it really does feel the cold more.
I thought that the following might have some use for someone who has been on these "stupid drugs". You'll have to retrain and work your brain. It takes time but things get clearer all the time.
I have gotten of Topiramate and I realized I have to retrain my brain. I make myself wait until I can think of the word I need. I talk slower because of that but I need to make new neural pathways to get to that word. I am getting better. The same way with tasks and memory. Of course topiramate messed up my memory, ect. But thankfully as I go through process, things are slowly changing. I am thinking faster too. On topiramate if I had to do something A to Z. I would be like A B and never even to get to C. Right now I am at AtoM in less than a second.. I used to have a very quick brain and go A to Z in a flash. So thinking is getting faster and better. I no longer have every symptom of dementia.
Only 1 vein was pressing against the trigeminal nerve. Which I have read that is the type most likely to fail within a year. My neurosurgeon said "come back and see me and we'll do it again". Well it's not like I'm going into his brain. On a good note I have excellent insurance. I paid $2000.00 for a $110,000.00 surgery. I have a hole in my skull, teflon in my brain, and titanium on my skull but I feel like a new person.
Tina