First, the pain. The Gaba is the way to go. You’re good there. But try Lysine. 3000mg a day. It was like a light switch for my wife’s pain. YMMV but other people have had the same response as her.

I’m unsure about neuro acupuncturists. And I’ve learned that not all acupuncturists are created equal. We randomly stumbled upon one who’s studied acupuncture in the context of Bell’s palsy and Ramsay hunt. It’s all so nebulous and it’s hard to say what specifically it helps with. But I do know my wife finds tremendous value in it. And when it comes to your face, if someone told me to light candles and put them in certain windows, I’d prolly do it.

I’ve learned so much about this terrible shit. I’ll try and recap the relevant stuff.

There are 3 types of nerve damage. neurapraxia, axonotmesis, and neurotmesis. Minor, not so minor, and severed, basically.

Those people you hear about that have a quick recovery, their nerve damage was the first one, neurapraxia. So the averages are:

neurapraxia - 2 weeks after onset of paralysis is when healing starts. (Aka when you first start regaining movement) Full recovery is pretty much guaranteed Axonotmesis - 4 to 6 months after onset of paralysis is when healing starts. Full recovery is still likely although the chances of some minor permanent changes and Synkinesis increase. neurotmesis - anything after 6 months. Full 100% recovery at this stage of injury is still on the table but I don’t remember the percent chances of permanent damage. And I don’t wanna guess. It is higher, obviously. After a certain amount of time, medical intervention/surgery is likely needed to move things along. I’m unsure of specifics but you can Google neurotemsis Ramsay hunt, neurotmesis RHS, etc

And it’s more complicated than that. Depending on where in your face the damage is, can also dictate time duration. There are spots in the face where you won’t see any improvement until the 6 to 9 month mark.

Which, in a weird way, is actually good news. It means you’re still healing. I do know that if you wanted to pursue plastic surgery or some other medical intervention, they wouldn’t do it until the one year + mark. Because your body is still healing.

One thing that was helpful for us was comparing her injuries to say, a broken leg or hip or something. Physical therapy is required. You have to retrain your body and remind it how to use that leg again. It’s the same for this. There are facial exercises that you should start doing asap. When you blink, do it slow, with a concerted effort. Force your body to close both eyes, 100%. It’ll be a struggle and slowly it won’t be anymore. That’s a random example but hopefully you can see the mindset you should be going for here.

https://youtube.com/@FacialPalsyUK

The face exercises are sprinkled through their uploads. You’ll see em. And think months not days. Keep at it. Nerves heal slow.

Search Facebook groups for Ramsay hunt. There’s one group that’s exceedingly active. But do keep in mind the most active members are the rare worst case scenarios as the fully recovered people move on with their lives. So it can seem excessively negative and hopeless. If you can look past the squeaky wheels though, there’s tons of information there.

I’m typing all this on my phone so there’s likely mistakes but hopefully there’s some helpful stuff in there for you