Another question about side effects. How bad was the pins and needles feel for you folks? This is worse than the TORS BOT procedure to me

I feel like I have a noose around my neck from time to time that gets tightened, and then my nerves go crazy on occasion, so it feels tingly. It's extremely uncomfortable. My ears feel extremely sensitive too. No touching allowed! The worst is when I lie down to attempt to sleep. I have to lie on my back, and I still sleep at a considerable incline, but the feeling around my neck gets so bad that it prevents me from falling asleep unless I'm totally exhausted. I'm good about doing my PT, and I have pretty darn good mobility in both my neck and shoulders. I feel little to no loss of strength or movement in my arms.

My surgeon is out this week. I've got an appt with him next tuesday, but I was wondering what other people's experiences were like. TORS was easy compared to this, IMO. There's a peak of maybe 5 days of bad pain for TORS. The ND is lingering discomfort.

After my neck dissection I had the pins and needles and little sharp pains that felt kind of like electric shocks. It was very unpleasant when my husband or baby touched certain spots on my neck. I also had terrible itching in my right ear. The ear was totally numb so I could never scratch the itch.

I don't remember exactly when that all got better, but I know that by the time I started radiation (six weeks later) I was not having those sensations anymore and some of the numbness had gone away. Some areas will be numb forever.

I think the noose sensation from the scar is due to swelling because I had it for a few weeks after surgery but it came back when I had swelling fromyhe radiation.

Thanks for the info Tracy! If I could just sleep. The on-call doc recommended I take a little benadryl to help til this passes. I'll talk to my surgeon about it next week when I go in to see him.

FYI - In case someone runs into this thread in a search. They intentionally close it up so that it protrudes. This is so that when the scar tissue forms, it lies flat. If they close it flat, it will heal indented. Thought that was interesting (and good!)

yep, yep, yep! That is true...and it works beautifully. I know from experience...not ND experience...but sumpin else.