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Bell's Palsy

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sharon1981
sharon1981

My Bell's Palsy started 3 weeks today (Thurs). It started with tingling of my lips which spread to the right side of my face. I thought I was allergic to my new lipstick so didn't worry too much. The next morning my face felt numb and my mouth was a bit droopy and felt like when you go to the dentist and the injection is wearing off. Within half an hour my face had dropped so my daughter took me to a Walk in Clinic who diagnosed Bell's Palsy. I wasn't given advise on how to treat it, just told it would go in time. I brought some eye drops the next day as my eye was hurting but still didn't realise what was going to happen.

By Tues I felt really worried as my face had dropped much more, my speech was slurred, I couldn't pronounce words starting with B, P or F. I kept biting my cheek, couldn't eat or drink properly and had such nerve pain around my ear and in my cheek area that I wanted to cry. I went to the doctors who gave me steriods for 5 days and told me it would be gone in a week and to put eye drops in. Oh and if I got pain in my eye to go to hospital. That was all the advise I got from them. What sort of pain did they mean? My eye hurt so much sometimes and is the most worrying aspect of this whole experience. The wind and sun hurts my eye so I wear sunglasses every time I go out. I went to a supermarket and the air conditioning was so cold and strong that I had to leave as it dryed my eye out and caused much discomfort.

I went to Boots chemist who were very helpful. They advised intensive tear protective eye drops for the day (every hour), Lacri-Lube eye ointment for night time and tape to keep my eye closed. Plus pain killers for the nerve pain. It was a real challenge at night to keep my eye closed as the tape wouldn't stick properly because of the ointment. I even tried swimming goggles which did help but felt uncomfortable round my head.

In the third week the swelling has gone down and my face is nearly back to normal. It only notices when I smile as my mouth is still droopy and my eye still doesn't shut properly. I still get nerve pain around my ear specially at night time. I find I can't sleep on my right side either as this makes me feel a bit dizzy and aches quite a bit.

I'm taking each day at a time and trying to keep positive and hope that it doesn't take too long to go completely. I am very grateful that I haven't got it too bad and that I am healing. I can't wait to be able to sleep properly without waking up to put drops in and put the tape back on.

2 likes, 55 replies

55 Replies

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  • valerie45553
    valerie45553 sharon1981

    Posted

    Thank you for this post, Sharon. I was just diagnosed this week, and reading your story confirms what I suspected all along, that stress had a lot to do with how are viral infection.

    I needed to read your testimony, and know God heals all things... We don't do this alone, and Faith is the center. Apppreciate you! Be blessed always.

  • joy85639
    joy85639 sharon1981

    Posted

    I am new to this forum. My daughter was diagnosed with BP after just getting through 4 rounds of chemo after being diagnosed with AML. As a nurse I went into overdrive when it came to research and friends in the business. I wanted to know the best methods to get her well quickly. Here is a site with a great deal of info that has helped my daughter in her recovery. She's now on Day 10 and finally starting to regain her facial muscle strength back. She did the chiropractor, tens unit, & massaging her facial muscles each night before bed. I say try anything and everything that you find from others that helped them out. Every person is not the same so there is no cookie cutter method to help everybody to get well. Try each of them out until you find the ones that work for you. I hope this has helped.

    • Tinks2009
      Tinks2009 joy85639

      Posted

      My 16 yr old has just been diagnosed with BP for the second time . The first time 2yrs ago and only lasted days and healed completely this time 9 days on she is having a lot of pain in her cheek , head ,ears and eyes .she has a 10 day course of steroids . People have mentioned massaging and facial exercise has help , what exercise should she try. If anyone could give any more advice I would appreciate it
  • phodie_20153
    phodie_20153 sharon1981

    Posted

    Hi Sharon I would like to share my experiences from BP my latest experience with it was about last November of 2016 first I want to to share that this was my third time to have had BP yes you red it right my 3rd time with BP well as with my first encounter with it my doctor told me it is still unexplainable I'm sure your doctor also told you this my 1st experience was almost 8 to 10 yrs ago I'm not quite sure with the exact yr 2nd was about 6 yrs ago both happened without any symptoms Before it happened ,first time it hit right side of my face and 2nd hit left side of my face both times I recovered 100% while the last one was different what I noticed i had twitches of my eyes and then I had pain behind my right ear never thinking it was the start of BP because the 1st and 2nd time it happened there were no pain of the ear or twitching of my eye it just happened and thinking I have a serious problem inside my ear because of the intense pain I visited a EENT but no infection or problem in my ear and the EENT doctor pointed me to a neurologist because of my past BP so it was confirmed BP again for the 3rd time and still I haven't recovered fully from this recent BP I don't know why it's taking long time for me recover this time around it's quite different from the 1st and 2nd BP's. Still hoping to recover fully from this and to mention that I still feel numbness to this time it been 2 1/2 months not like the 1st 2 BP's I recovered much faster

    • shelley_51147
      shelley_51147 phodie_20153

      Posted

      Hi phodie 20153. Thanks for your story. The same has happened to me 1x 18years ago. 2X one year later other side of face. Both healed pretty good. Then 8 days ago I started having bad headaches. Real bad left ear pain then two days ago I woke up with bells on left side. I go to Dr. Monday. Only thing I've found to help relief some is real lack of stress if i get stressed at all it hurts lots. Its very hard, as us all, I have a very stressed life but I'm trying. Please if you would, keep me up to date. Your the only other person I've found whom has also had 3x. Sincerely, get well.Shelley

    • phodie_20153
      phodie_20153 shelley_51147

      Posted

      Hi Shelley sorry to hear that, sorry you have to go through to it for the 3rd time like me , my doctor told me that he has a patient who already had a 4th attack so im just praying that it wont happen again to me . Since the last time the 3rd ( nov of 2016 ) attack sometimes i feel numbness in my face I dont know if it is connected to the BP and there is still facial paralysis right side very minimal i only notice it  when i smile and in some other instance but those People who dont know me I feel they dont notice it ,since they are not famillar with my face. I Come to accept what had happened with me well I guess may be im not a vain person and im a man , But in Your case i hope you can recover 100 % ill pray for your fast recovery and for you to fully recover.
    • phodie_20153
      phodie_20153

      Posted

      Sorry I got confused so its Your 4h BP 
  • latoya65888
    latoya65888 sharon1981

    Posted

    Hi I'm 30 years old and the day before yesterday I woke up and realized the left side of my face wasn't moving I went to the hospital and they told me I have BELLS PALSY they put me on an antivirus and a steriod but I still have this pain going down my neck like a pintched nerve I tried a heating pad but it seems to get worse do you have any advice 4 me? And how long will my face be like this?

    • joy85639
      joy85639 latoya65888

      Posted

      Hi LaToya, my daughter had the same exact pain. However, her pain was behind her ear. They gave her the same meds but me being a nurse I’ve seen where many patients end up with permanent paralysis due to BP. I feel that if you don’t want it to be permanent that you should do everything possible to prevent that from taking place. The one thing that I had my daughter to do was to use a tens unit. If you can go out and purchase one of those units and try to use it on your face twice a day, you will see a big improvement within a week. At least that’s how my daughters responded. If you have any other questions feel free to hit me up. I do hope that everything gets better quickly for you. I know it’s a difficult time. Joy 
  • elizabeth05082
    elizabeth05082 sharon1981

    Posted

    Hi I had a spell off bells palsy Xmas last year 2016 docters for a whole week told me I had sinus infection even though my face did not look right . Finally one off the docters told me what was wrong with me gave me tablets and eye drops for my eye it's been a year now when I eat my eye closes when I drink or yawn it closes if I am out and it's cold my face tenses up u can see it in my eye area . I have had mri they found a shadow on my brain they though there was a small clot on the brain I am waiting for a neurologist for some sort off BOTOX.

    Lately I have been having these really Bad pains down my next goes into my face and side off head . Was wondering if u have anything still like this .

    Thank u

  • joy85639
    joy85639 sharon1981

    Posted

    Hi Sharon, I am so sorry to hear about what you went through and are currently still going through. I’m not sure if you’ve tried the tens unit or not but it’s a great thing to use on your face twice a day for 15 mins at a time. Also if you have not tried what’s called a pressure patch you might want to try that out for the eye that still doesn’t close all of the way. You can find it at the link below. This patch forces the eye shut and allows you to sleep better. Not to mention it will give you peace of mind on worrying about whether something is getting into your eye or it drying out too much. I hope this helps you. Let me know how it works out. I hope your holidays are wonderful....Joy 

    https://www.dryeyeshop.com/mobile/pressure-patch-p415.aspx

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