As easy as a new keyboard

Face swap with complete feeling:

The French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant has complete feeling in the new tissue five months after the operation, she told a Sunday newspaper.

Isabelle Dinoire, 38, also told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the hardest part of her recovery appears to be getting to know herself again. . . .

She takes out old photos and, shocked at the difference between her former face and her new one, tells herself that she simply has aged, she said.

Dinoire said her speech has improved as she has gained more facial mobility.

. . . Dinoire lost much of her face when she was mauled by her pet Labrador while knocked out from drugs she took to forget a trying week. Her lipless gums and teeth were permanently exposed, and most of her nose was missing.

Dinoire wore a surgical mask in public to avoid frightening people. During 15 hours of surgery, a team of doctors replaced the gaping hole in her face with a donor transplant that included a new nose, mouth and chin.

. . . Dinoire noted that her speech had improved. During the February news conference, her words were difficult to understand because her new mouth was frozen open.

Today, "I still have a little problem of mobility, symmetry as the doctors say."

She said the real difficulty was pronouncing sounds that use the lips, such as the "b" or "p" sounds.

Today, Dinoire still only leaves her apartment if accompanied and has not replaced the mirrors she removed from her home after the accident, she told the newspaper during an interview in a small room at the Amiens teaching hospital.

. . . several times a day she must examine a small patch of skin from the donor on her stomach, a "sentinel ... that should sound the alarm if something goes wrong," she said.

She also has to do the same with her face, examining it in a magnifying mirror - the only mirror now in her home.

As easy as replacing your mouse. Or should it be your screen?