Update March 2016

Hi

I still get comments coming to this blog, and I'm glad to see that it's helping people.

People often ask how I'm doing now. I would say I'm still 99% recovered. No pain, no numbness, but some furry feeling on the side of my tongue and sometimes a nasty taste in my mouth, but otherwise fine. Mostly I don't notice, in fact the main time I notice is when someone comments and it reminds me! Right now, I was totally fine, but then read a comment someone had sent, and now I'm feeling weird sensations grow on my tongue. This, I think, supports my view that the more you think about it, the worse it is. You hyper-focus and it feels worse. The best thing I ever did (and still do), is refuse to let it get to me, and and just stay busy and ignore it. Then it became like white noise until either it healed or I stopped noticing it. I know that seems impossible early on, but honestly to anyone visitng this site, do try not to obsess. Try not to spend all your time looking for a cure (we've all tried, there's really nothing to be done), and just try to distract yourself if you can. It's the only thing that helped me.

good luck!

January 2012

Well, I think things have levelled off. Not much to report. Basically feel 98% fine all of the time, with more and more days when it's barely there. No burning, no pain, just some furriness that barely bothers me.

If you're reading this and scared, take heart - I know they say it's about 2 months to recovery, but for me I've had constant (slow!) progress over two years. It gets better and better. Don't lose heart if you're still in pain at 2 months, 6 months, whatever. My experience shows that all is not lost. The main thing is stay calm, don't fixate on it and keep yourself well and rested.

June 2011

Small update. Still feeling pretty good, i'd say 95%. Tiny burns but mostly comes when I'm tired still (which is most of the time). I generally don't notice it and even when i do, it's fine really. It will never been entirely gone, I think, but that's ok. It's completely livable and I've made my peace with that.

January 2011 - update

Well, it's been a while, which is a good sign.

My tongue pretty much stayed as it was while I was pregnant. After the birth, my tongue returned almost to normal. Since then I've had a few minor relapses, but nothing major and it's almost always close to normal now. It doesn't feel the way it did before the injury - there's a slightly greasy feel sometimes - but I rarely think about it at all. I figure it's like having a scar - never going to be the same, but the wound that was once there has healed. It's worse when I'm tired (which with a baby in the house, is most of the time).

If you're reading this blog and haven't healed early on, take heart. My injury still changes even now, more than a year later. I know the research says these things heal early or not at all, but that's not my experience. It's grown gradually better and better over a long period of time. Maybe I just don't notice it, maybe my brain has compensated, but whatever the reason it's absolutely tolerable now.

Good luck. Stay well.

July 2010

Well, things are looking pretty good. I've had a few days where tongue was completely normal - really, truly completely normal. I still have days where it's a bit weird feeling (today being one of them) but it's extremely mild.

This suggests to me that it's still changing, still healing. So even though some doctors say you have 3 months or 6 months or whatever to heal, that's not my experience. I'm 10 months in and still experiencing change that is generally moving towards improvement.

I'm still not taking any supplements apart from pregnancy vitamins so this is all natural. If it's still not perfect once I've had the baby and finished feeding, then I might revisit them. But it's now completely livable. I really do forget about it 90% of the time.

I'll keep checking in, but take the lack of posts as a sign that things are close to completely healed as it indicates that I rarely think about it.

Monday 7 June 2010

Long time, no post which means things are going well.

Still some weird sensations on the tip of my tongue, but not pain - mostly horrible tastes but I think (as does doctor) that this is due to the pregnancy, not the nerve injury. I won't be able to tell which until the baby is out, of course, and that's still 4 1/2 months away...

Best tip to get rid of the nasty taste = TicTacs because they're little and last without being too sugary.

hope you're all doing well.

Good luck with the treatments Kev - let me know how they go.

Getting better

Went to the doctor and he said there's no reason if the nerve was virtually healed that it should go backwards. Much more likely is I have that odd symptom of pregnancy... a metallic taste in the mouth! Great! But it's so much better today that I think it was partly to do with the vitamins I was taking as well (which I've changed). But he said I'm probably just reading the pregnancy symptom as a LN injury symptom, but it probably isn't.

Hurrah! And today it's hugely better, nearly normal, just a smidge of rugburn feeling.

Thanks to all of you for your comments - nice to know you're out there!

i