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I have been following the thread https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,216156.0.html before about nerve damage in FFS - numbness an such. I also read a lot of reports of people who did get nerve damage. I want now to know the contrast to that.
So my question is, who did fully regain sensation in all parts of the face after FFS? I guess getting back 80% or 110% is also ok, but having numb spots or having oly less than 50% sensation, I would count as a loss. Of course I am aware that full recovery are probably only happening after a year or two. So maybe you vould also write what you had done and how long it took to recover.

Maybe some people can give some hope on this - presently I get the impression that almost everyone has some changed sensation after FFS.

Would be nice to know indeed!

From what I've read in Dr. Ousterhouts book, (from memory) he says that most will regain full sensitivity where some spots remain insensitive, but that it did not bother them. He performed 800+ FFS surgeries. Full recovery was said to be 6 months to 2+ years. In a few cases it was permanent nerve damage.

The supraorbital nerve is cut with many forehead procedures. This nerve starts around the brow and spreads upward into the hairline. So a cut along the hairline renders everything behind it numb. Slowly these smaller branches of the supraorbital nerve will regenerate and grow back into the hairline, which takes 6 months at a minimum. Years in the worst case. Mean is around 12 months for full regeneration.

From what I've read, is that in a small area around the scar, sensation might not come back completely. The closer to the scar, the less sensitivity there should be. So the chance of 100% sensitivity is too optimistic. 50% is too pessimistic. But, we have to appreciate that the brain is good at adapting. Once it doesn't get signals anymore, it can simply ignore it. Or when there is an overload of signals it can clamp down on it. Happens a lot on nerves that continuously keep sending wonky pain signals. After a while, the brain learns that it's a false positive signal and puts a clamp on it. And thereby ignores it further.

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FzzEFqMH.jpg%3F1&hash=bf9f7f215b388f8644f6951af4b87da3758c035d)

I'd say my sensitivity is about 90% of what it used to be.  I had the supraorbital cut a second time, by the way, for scar revision.  I know I've written about this elsewhere -- I think it was about 50% a year out, and got to where it is now about 2 years out.  All the loss was behind the incision, up to the crown; I never lost sensation on the forehead proper.

It's the same for my chin, about 90%, but that recuperated much faster, about 3 months.

This is something I've been wondering about as well. It's probably the biggest reason I'm undecided on getting FFS.

Hello party people [hi Anjaq, my old chat friend :)],
I had FFS with Dr. O. in 2008 and I never regained all of my sensation. The best way to describe it is that in that diagram of where the nerves are cut and where you can lose sensation, it's kind of like you feel sensation, but not full. Like when you are coming out of dental anesthesia you know how it gets less and less numb? It's kind of stuck in that place.

I will say this though, I would take that a million times over again if it was a choice between what I got from having surgery and where I'd be without it. A little bit of numbness, in my opinion, is a very small price to pay for a lifetime of not having issues, even if they are ones you tell yourself. Choosing any type of surgery is super personal, right? So the reasons we do it and what we will and won't accept are personal too, but sign me up again, I'd do it in a heartbeat :)

Good luck, Anjaq! Hello everyone else, hope your lives are going well :)

Ok, I must say, I expected a bit more positive feedback - are there not so many people writing here anymore after a long time enough to know if the recovery is good or is the rate of recovery just not as high?

I think part of the problem is that people who have gotten FFS have no interest in the FFS message board anymore.

Let me share my experience. I had my FFS in January 2010. I had 100% sensation loss. I was not able to feel any pain just maybe pressure in the forehead area. It was numbish until I guess 1 year ago. I believe I have regained about 100% of the sensation by now. I now feel all the sensations in my forehead area. I believe that one to two years is not enough for sensation regain. But several years is usually enough. I hope this helps.

reborn - does this also apply to the scalp area? I think this is where most people have numbness a lot.

Daisy Jane - yes, I guess it is the usual problems of people disapperaing once they are not needing information anymore - I see a lot of people share their immediate post OP experiences but after some months they go away, still not fully healed, so it is hard to know if they ever fully recovered - for most it does not seem to matter anyways - since they already did the surgery, so it is not something to worry about anymore - and for most it is worth it anyways, no matterhow much is regained. So yeah - I guess many just go away from the subforums after a while. I rarely check the voice forum nowadays as well, being almost 2 years post OP there... but I do occasionally check and comment.

Quote from: Daisy Jane on December 15, 2016, 07:50:46 AM
I think part of the problem is that people who have gotten FFS have no interest in the FFS message board anymore.

There comes a time to leave the world of transition behind, and head off to grab the brass ring.

Yes, that is for the scalp/ forehead area. I lost sensations in the chin also but i regained it in a year or so. It took nearly 5 years for the forehead/ scalp for full nerves and sensations recovery. Judging by my experience the nerves regenerate but the time needed is sometimes up to several years.

5 years is long! I thought after 2 years what is lost is lost... ? I did not know it can continue to heal after that

Quote from: Sophia Sage on December 15, 2016, 09:35:21 AM
There comes a time to leave the world of transition behind, and head off to grab the brass ring.

    This...as I think my signature professes. Were only going to get a smattering of what we want here. The women who have completed the process, have moved on. Before I started transitioning, I lurked on the 4 major sites for years. I watched many women transition and move on, never to be heard from again. Not everyone wants to carry the torch for the rest of their lives. Many of us just want to live as the women we believe ourselves to be.

I was just as worried as you about this.  I would say that as of recent, I have regained most of my feeling after ffs. 
It's been 6 months, and I had a Mid Lift so that didn't help any in regards to feeling anything until a couple of weeks ago.  I was really worried about my left ear and cheeks...I had no feeling at all.  The top of my head took a while too but it's come back mostly.  And there is the skin in front of my ear that is tingling and I'm slowly regaining sensation.  My forehead is fine (it was the first thing to come back). So I guess around 95%-ish percent back?
I'm not sure if my constant massaging helped in any way.
Hugs

I totally understand moving on. i want to do that as well, but its not like there is just one procedure to be done. I am still sticking around here even though my VFS is done for a while now, because of that consideration of getting FFS - and I know for many, GRS is still following after FFS... so I would think the time to leave is when its all done...

Quote from: KarmaGirl on December 15, 2016, 05:08:53 PM
I was just as worried as you about this.  I would say that as of recent, I have regained most of my feeling after ffs. 
It's been 6 months, and I had a Mid Lift so that didn't help any in regards to feeling anything until a couple of weeks ago.  I was really worried about my left ear and cheeks...I had no feeling at all.  The top of my head took a while too but it's come back mostly.  And there is the skin in front of my ear that is tingling and I'm slowly regaining sensation.  My forehead is fine (it was the first thing to come back). So I guess around 95%-ish percent back?

I hope you will get it back - I take it the feeling is back in most areas but some places are still numb ? Or did it come back in all places just not to 100% yet (feeling like there is a sheet of paper over it or something like that - this is what I have in some spots from GRS)

Admittedly I am worried about this so much that I do not plan FFS for now, and I hope to get some positive stories here after hearing from so many that they had numb spots that lasted forver or permanently...

Quote from: MeghanAndrews on December 10, 2016, 10:37:32 AM
Hello party people [hi Anjaq, my old chat friend :)],
I had FFS with Dr. O. in 2008 and I never regained all of my sensation. The best way to describe it is that in that diagram of where the nerves are cut and where you can lose sensation, it's kind of like you feel sensation, but not full. Like when you are coming out of dental anesthesia you know how it gets less and less numb? It's kind of stuck in that place.

I will say this though, I would take that a million times over again if it was a choice between what I got from having surgery and where I'd be without it. A little bit of numbness, in my opinion, is a very small price to pay for a lifetime of not having issues, even if they are ones you tell yourself. Choosing any type of surgery is super personal, right? So the reasons we do it and what we will and won't accept are personal too, but sign me up again, I'd do it in a heartbeat :)

Good luck, Anjaq! Hello everyone else, hope your lives are going well :)

I'm inclined to agree with this, even after other complications I had out of surgery. A little numbness on top, if feeling never returns, will be a small price to pay as far as I'm concerned. Feeling on top of my head isn't a huge priority for me. I'd probably be more concerned about the face itself.

i had pretty much all FFS and BA  and i havent lost any sensations.   The one it took the longer to have it recovered was the forehead . The scalp felt weird for a long time

Hi anjaq!

I had FFS 8 months ago with work on forehead, orbits, nose, further a complete midface lift and also chin and jaw work. Heavy surgery with cutting and stretching nerves all over the place. Cutting is inevitable in the scalp region as you mentioned before. After a few months or so the feeling came back in steps, now I'm near 90% I suppose, the feeling might be reduced a little but it's enough that it doesn't bother. Midface is a different story. Inevitable cutting in the ear region normalized about 5 months post-op, I had nerve irritation in the cheek area causing partial facial paralysis. It took around 2 months for the nerve to calm down and regain control, but since this nerve is controlling movement, no sensitivity loss was experienced. In the lower third chin was numb for two months.

Nerves recover fully most of the time if they are just irritated (like stretched or similar), if they are separated chances might be better in zones were the nerve tissue is dense (like face). Nerves are growing slowly and they have to connect with the other side which can be tricky. Sometimes a "neighbour" nerve can do the work for the damaged one.

To make the long story short - I feel fully recovered after 8 months, like >90%, but for sure I'm still in the healing process. The benefit of FFS in my case exceeds by far the potential risk of permanent nerve damage, even if my case is a difficult one because of adverse skull preconditions.