MVD Diary - Rob Schenck
I had my MVD for HFS on the left side with Drs. Jannetta and Casey on March 24, 2005 at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA (USA). When I woke up in the recovery area, the nurses seemed concerned about my tongue. No one told me why, but I later learned it was due to a deviation to the right. In other words, when my brain told me that my tongue was sticking straight out, it was actually veering significantly to the right side. Again, I didn’t know it then, but I am sure that there was some concern that I may have had a “neurovascular accident” (stroke) during surgery. That turned out not to be the case, but no one knew what it was at that point.
As the anesthesia wore off, I became aware that I was having difficulty speaking and swallowing. The problem was on the right side of my tongue and throat. This was a mystery to everyone, including Drs. Jannetta and Casey, because it was the opposite side to my surgery. Five days after my surgery, I would attend the weekly “Morbidity and Mortality Conference” at the hospital when a number of neurosurgeons discuss the various (and mostly negative) outcomes of recent surgeries. I was their show-and-tell for this highly unusual complication. Unusual not because paresis (or partial paralysis) of the tongue is unheard of, but because it appeared on the opposite side from surgery. The mystery was that they were not on that side of my brainstem, so how could there be injury to a nerve (in this case, likely the 12th or hypoglossal) on that side? Their hypothesis was that somehow the 12th nerve on the right side was “stretched” during the surgery, but no one still knows exactly how that could have happened. (This hypothesis has now been supported by a second neurosurgeon from which I sought a second opinion.)
In any case, while this was initially of great concern since I am a public speaker by profession, six weeks later it has almost completely resolved and no longer significantly affects my speech. And, while at first it greatly affected what I could eat, I have almost no problems managing the food while chewing or with swallowing. After seeing an ENT near my home, it appears that it is well on its way towards returning to normalcy.
Just to prove that I should never gamble though, I not only hit snake eyes with this complication, I also got zapped with facial paralysis approximately two weeks post op. I think it was the twelfth day after surgery that the left side of my face suddenly “dropped.” All I could think of was Ralph Nader when he was traversing the country with Bell’s Palsy. But it, too, gradually resolved and has returned to almost normal.
My own sometimes overreaction to these symptoms was mainly because I didn’t get the normal post op lecture because everyone at the hospital was distracted by the curious opposite-side tongue paralysis. Now that both complications have eased and the prognosis is for a full recovery, I can concentrate on the most important thing: I’m "SPASM FREE"! Thank God and thank Drs. Jannetta and Casey!!
Permission granted the HFSA to post MVD Diary on website.
Rob Schenck, May 25, 2005