Cancer4,

Yes, the swelling does go down. It's been a year now, and the best thing happened the other day. The nurse practitioner that sees and monitors me weekly was feeling my neck and lymph nodes (this was like the second visit to her) She was concerned because I flinched when she touched behind my ear, then she looked and said "I didn't notice that before!!!" She could have given me a hundred dollars and I'm not sure she would have done more for my ego. She didn't notice the scar that I think is the first thing everyone sees.
Yeah!!!
Brian has a good section on trismus, you need not to let it go. It won't resolve on it's own. If you go the physical therapist route phone around for one that is used to dealing with TMJ, I got lucky and found the only one in town that knew what to do with a jaw.

Take care,
Dinah