Bells Palsy

I woke up Friday a week ago, washed my face, looked in the mirror and noticed there was something not quite right with my face. I thought maybe I just slept funny and it would go away. I went to blow my nose and couldn't keep my lips tight enough to force the air out my nose. Hmmm, something's not quite right.

I went downstairs and Helen was getting ready to leave for work. When she saw me she immediately asked what was wrong with my face. I gave a twisted smile and we laughed and then she started tearing up and said that I needed to go to the emergency room right away. I told her what was done was done and I felt fine otherwise. She left for work and I continued to try to pinpoint what exactly wasn't working.

Helen got to work and told some coworkers about me and they told her to go home and take me to the emergency room. So she called and said she was heading home. I knew she couldn't concentrate and wouldn't be able to work. I told her that I had figured out that I couldn't close my right eye so I probably was going to go to the doctor.

We had a conference setup with Adam's teacher in the morning to address his poor spelling and I insisted that we go to that first since we had to get the kids to school anyway. So we went to the conference and then went to my primary care doctor. Helen was freaking somewhat and I told her if she was going to go with me then she was going to have to calm down. The doctor saw us right away and immediately put us at ease by telling us that I was not having a stroke. He told us I had what is known as Bells Palsy, a viral infection that attacks the facial nerve. 80 to 85 percent recover fully, usually within weeks or months.

As with any medical condition there's so much information out there, a lot of it contradictory. It seems like once you get into the medical system you're screwed one way or another. Take one pill for the condition and another to alleviate the side-effects of the first pill. Then there's the whole alternative medicine side with chiropractic, acupuncture, herbal concoctions, etc. Get me out of here.

It's not terrible. There's no effect on my movements. I've had a little pain behind my ear, but nothing debilitating. The main problem is not being able to close my eye and the blurry vision. My right eye alternately dries out or waters up. I have to manually close it every so often. I tape it shut at night or when it gets tired. My speech is somewhat affected, eating can be messy and requires a napkin at all times, and who knew how many facial contortions are required when shaving.

There are all kinds of stories out there about people's struggles with Bells. I thought this was a good one.