Let me tell you, I would rather have gone through another MVD than the Balloon Compression purely because the pain and the numbness in my face of recovery sucks. The MVD pain was similar, but I could deal with it because it was on the back of the skull. Face pain, swelling and the tingling numbness is something I can't stand. Sure, it helped my V2 nerve, but the V1 is actually more sensetive more now and hurts more than is ever did.
Here's the kicker, too! Due to the trauma of the nerve, I got Shingles!! Two days post-op, I notice a small red bump on my right cheek near the incision site but passed it off as a pimple. However, a couple hours later I developed a temperature and began to vomit throughout the day. I thought I had taken my percocet to close together and also hadn't really eaten anything and that caused it (similar situation happened when I had my gallbladder out) and wanted it to run its course. I woke up at 5:30am the following morning and saw that the single red bump had turned into a huge patch . It didn't hurt or itch (mainly because I was still numb from the surgery) and I thought it was an allergic reaction to the steri-strips. Thank the Lord, though, that that neuro's nurse called me and I told her about the bumps. She wiggled an appointment to see my seuro ASAP. When I saw him, he had no real idea what it was. He wanted me to see a dermatologist, but seeing how ill I was and my money situation, he pulled out his phone, snapped a picture then texted it to the derm Dr. Ten mins later, I got my answer and was diagnosed with Shingles. I was written a script for an anti-viral and sent home to recoup and get better. Four days later, the blisters are gone and I'm on the mend from the Shingles. My husband now calls me the "1 in 3" since we have commercials running about shingles and they say that 1 in 3 adults will get shingles in their lifetime. All in good fun. lol.
Back to the surgery. The V2 nerve is currently numb (Had the surgery June18th),but then I never really had an issue with it. The V1, however, is worse than ever. Dr. Valerio tried to get it with the balloon, but didn't and he expected as much. He thinks the next step is the gamma knife radiation, but won't do anything until the Shingles is healed over. Hate this recovery, but will continue to remember that God has a reason for everything. He will not fail me and I thank Him for allowing the Shingles to appear on the side of my face where I can't feel the horrific pain that is associated with it.
Don't lose hope!