Jeffrey A. Brown, M.D.
Neurological Surgery, P.C.
600 Northern Blvd., Suite 118
Great Neck, NY 11021
516-478-0008
http://www.neurosurgeryli.com/dr.brown.html
Transcript: Balloon compression expectations
You can go home from balloon compression the same afternoon that you came into the hospital for. Now some patients, about twenty percent at least, will have some jaw weakness. Now what’s that mean? It doesn’t mean that your face droops. It means that when you try to chew something on the side of the operation, it’s a little uncomfortable and it hurts in your jaw joint and that’s because the operation makes one of the muscles that you use to chew temporarily and I saw temporarily weak. It recovers. It may take a week or a month or several months but it recovers. So don’t go home and say “Hey, I feel great. Give me a steak.” You’re not ready for that. And you’ll know when you’re ready as your strength returns, you’ll feel it.
Now in terms of medications, if you’re taking an anti-convulsant for trigeminal neuralgia, my protocol is if you’re taking six pills a day then you’ll go home on five pills a day. And a week later, on four pills a day. And a week later, on three pills a day. And gradually you’ll wean yourself off it. You won’t stop it all at once because these pills are kind of like alcohol. If you’ve been doing it a long time and you suddenly stop it, you’ll get sick and you could get very sick. So, you’ve got to go off it slowly.