Bells Week 3

The shooting pain has mostly gone away. As you can see in the picture my right eye still doesn't match my left, but it doesn't look as bad in real life. I think maybe the camera flash had something to do with it. The eye still waters up and my vision is not all the way back, but I can at least chew normally now without food trying to push out the weak side of my mouth. I'm not all the way back, but most of the way.

I took Friday and Monday off this past weekend since Helen and the kids also had the days off because of the county furloughing teachers. Weeks ago we talked about going on a trip over that weekend and then as the time drew closer we fell back to maybe just doing some day trips. What really happened was that Helen got a sinus infection last week, Adam picked up a nasty cough, and the rains came back so we just stayed home.

We did manage to get out and do some things. We bought Halloween costumes and once again, the boys picked some ninja\crypt master like costumes. We keep trying to get them to be something cute like Batman and Robin, but it looks like that will never happen.

We also got new computers for the boys. Derek originally was leaning toward a netbook, but decided he really wanted a laptop. Adam got a netbook. They both chipped in half the cost. I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend getting the computers configured just so. Derek is really into it and likes to learn so he can do things for himself. Adam and Helen...not so much. It's nice for me that Derek can sometimes solve technical problems that Helen and Adam are having with the tv or the computer so I don't have to.

With all the rain a lot of our soccer and tennis activities have been cancelled, so it's actually been much less hectic than it normally would be. Now everyone just needs to get healthy and stay healthy.

Bells Update

It's been 17 days since I woke up with Bell's Palsy. It seems that I am slowly getting better. In the pictures you can see a slight upturn in my lip on the right side whereas before my entire ride side was drooping. I can blink my right eye more normally now although I still can't close it tightly. As the vision in my right eye has been constantly changing through all this, my brain is still trying to adjust so things seem blurry even when my right eye is not watering or dried out.

The first signs of improvement started after a few days when I started to feel little fluttering twitches in various places on the right side of my face. After a week or so I started to feel more pain. It was kind of like ear ache pain that started in the tender soft spot beneath my ear and traveled down to my neck and up behind my ear to my eye. The pain actually got worse as the days wore on. Now I'm getting shooting knife like pains in my eye and ear.

My right eye is now more open than my normal left eye and it feels like my right is allowing way too much light in. My body is used to having little slits for eyes that barely let any light in. Now it feels like I'm being flooded by light. I'm hoping the pain is all part of the healing.

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.