Bell Palsy - How long did it last?

Yours never went away?

 

Mine has not gone away.  I had it March 2014.  Can't smile, can't raise eyebrow, smaller eye opening, synkenesis.  I am 72.

Hi Sharon24495  I'm so sorry yours has never gone away.  I had it on the right side in 1992.  It went away, but still droop when fatigued.  Now I have it on the left side of my face.  I'm 64.  I have had it for 7 weeks.  Can't smile, can't raise my eyebrow, difficulty speaking.  My eye is not as bad this time.  Frustrating.  I feel for you my dear.

Have you or anyone out there trouble with eye watering?  I don't use eye drops much because then both eyes water all day.  I have seen some comments about plugs or stents and was wondering if that helped.  Can the palsy cause damage to the muscles affecting drainage?

Hi Sharon,

Yes, I have had lots of trouble with eye watering.  I already have dry eye syndrome, so eye watering has been a persistant problem anyway.  Believe it or not, use of the eye drops reduces the eye watering.  At least it seems to help with comfort.  Sorry, but I do not know anything about use of plugs or stents.  Good luck to you.  I totally relate to annoying drippy eyes!

Wow Sharon you are a wealth of info on Bells I am 68 and have had it for 10weeks and am going through all the various treatments. I was wondering whether you could comment on whether the intake of alcohol slows down the healing process.

I don't think food or drink has any affect on Bells.  I drank through a straw for a long time.

Booze has had NO adverse affects on my BP (which began one year ago today). You could say that a not-insignificant downside was - at least at the beginning - was the difficulty in trying to drink it...I’m still not good with beer from a can.  May I also boldly pronounce (since it’s very soon legal in my country) that smoking a joint is VERY difficult, physically, with BP. A real pain trying to focus one eye as you light it, and then in a few minutes as you try to finish it. On the plus side: when that’s all said and done, you get to forget about the damn Bell’s Palsy for a blissful while...

You don't need anymore medication.  Don't massage, I was told, but facial exercises are alright.  It takes time, maybe weeks, maybe months.  It doesn't go away overnight.

It's been a little over 3 weeks, 24 days to be exact, for me.  I'm about 80% with face muscle recovery.  

If you have been diagnose with Bell's Palsy by your doctor, fell fortunate because there is a high 80-85% chance of full recovery.  You will be fine, even though you don't feel fine right now.  On the other hand, if you do not notice little improvements over 2-3 weeks, or if you notice other symptoms, please make it a priority to contact your doctor for possible other health issues such as diabetes, heart issues, Lyme disease, brain tumor, etc.

Treatments:

1.  Eye: Since you cannot close your eye completely or blink, you need to protect your eye with eye drops every hour, sun glasses when going out, and eye patch at night.

2.  People have mentioned massage, acupuncture, and facial exercises.  My doctor says there is no conclusive data on these but do it if you want to if there seems to be no harm done.  Personally, I do exercises, using my hands to help me move my face.  I also like to feel the sensation of my face moving as I slowly regain control.

3.  Virus:  Like other have mentioned, there is no conclusive data that the herpes simplex virus (cold sore or genital herpes) cause the inflammation somewhere near the facial nerves, damaging them.  High doses of viral medication within 2-3 days of symptom do seem to help recovery, but data is not significantly conclusive.  I take it because it has no noticeable side effect and herpes virus was active when I got BP.

4.  I take high dosage of oral steroid for 4 days to reduce the inflammation, gradually reducing the dosage afterwards so my body can adjust.  I had stomach pains and pimples side effects.

Good luck

I felt fatigued from the illness.  I walked but no strenuous exercises for 2 1/2 weeks.  Personally, I would rest 1-2 week from sports.  Let your body fight against the virus and recover from the inflammation.

Thanks. It's just a huge adjustment for me and I'm getting nervous/anxious.

Thanks. I'm on day 3 of viral and have started to ease down my steroid intake as of yesterday per doc's order. The only frustrating part is that I feel that it's getting worse. I know I'm just being foolish. As part of my job I have to talk to people a lot. It's a small dip but I have become very self conscious. It's only day 4 or so, I just need to accept that it will take time. Thanks for the advice. Got all the stuff to take care of my eye.

I'm a bartender so I'm adjusting to not drinking while on the meds and still being able to do the job (tasting drinks for quality/checking on new Liquors to see if we can sell them). I know I'm more aware of my condition than others are and in turn I'm just really self aware. I'll take it easy and let my body rest as much as humanly possible.

Hello,

I'm sorry that you're going through this I know exactly how you feel because unfortunately this is my second time getting it and I'm 28. The first time I got it I was completely paralyzed on one side of my face but I had little to no pain and I regained movement whithin about a month. This time it's more severe with pain and I'm just starting to see movement on the paralyzed side of my face 3 weeks later. I wrote you because you mentioned that it seems like it's getting worse and that's exactly what happened to me. I was okay the first few days and a week later I started to get really bad pain and my eye was extremely painful. I think my main problem was that I DIDN't take off work when it happened. You need rest even if you don't think so. When I was at work it got really bad and I had to go back to the hospital. My doctor took me off work for a few weeks and I started to see improvemet within a matter of days of being away from my job and resting! I suggest that you take some time off of work to rest it definitely helped for me. The stress from a job and also insecurities about how you sound and look causes stress so taking off work would be beneficial. Hope you get better God bless!