What Happens:  After Going Home from Surgery?

  1. Your pain relief from trigeminal neuralgia will be immediate (in about 90% of patients undergoing MVD.) About 8% of the patients will experience gradual pain improvement, while the remaining 2% will experience no significant relief.
  1. Your postoperative headache will improve very fast, and this will be at its minimal, or very manageable with an oral pain medication, by the time you go home.
  1. Your trigeminal neuralgia medications will be reduced to half of the preoperative dosage, with a plan of having you gradually further taper your medication(s) until completely being off over a period of 2-4 weeks.
  1. You will be asked to return 10-14 days following your surgery for suture removal.
  1. You will use your common sense as to how much or little you do at home. Doing too much will wear you out and at times cause worsening headaches, while doing too little or being sedentary at home may cause dangerous complications such as pneumonia and deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in your calves.
  1. My recommendation is to be as active as you can tolerate, going for walks and increasing the overall level of activity on a daily basis.
  1. Expect to return to work in 4-6 weeks following surgery in most situations.
  1. You will again return for a routine postoperative follow-up evaluation in 6-8 weeks to see me, at which point you will be completely off of all trigeminal neuralgia medications.

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