My day by day account of Bells Palsy

Day 3

Last night I really tried to see if I could improve things by passing grapes from one side of my mouth to the other. Mentally it did seem to help but phsically I dout if it had done anything to help.

Problems encountered today

1. When I sneeze I am unable to keep the left of my mouth closed so it is a shock to loose control like that.

2. I find it hard when I sniff, I think that the muscle in the side of your nose plays an important part in this.

3. I tried to go to the gym but because of the air conditioning I was in a lot of pain with my streaming eye.

4. Eating and drinking is difficult as I cant really open my mouth properly and the food get stuck by my cheek.

I do have taste on the left side of my tongue (and never lost it) and I dont think this is getting any worse now, I do think things got a little worse yesterday despite taking the steroids. So I just need to keep an eye on things and plot the progress. This condition is truely horrible you have to try very hard to form all your words and you look like crap. But I really look forward to the day I can blink again this eye thing is a real issue as you cant really read, or watch tv etc with it, even covered up I then just get bad headaches.

General Observations

I have felt periods of tingling around my Jaw line and across my forehead, I am hoping that this is a good sign that feeling and movement will start to return in the next few days. :lol: apart from that no change for the better at all yet!

Day 4

My experiences today have been mixed, I do think that the tingling proceeds a return of some function. I now feel that I can move my eyebrows a bit and my mouth has picked up a little. These minor steps are pleasing as no one wants to end up like this forever!. I do at least now think that things are getting no worse.

Still cant close my eye even partly, am struggling chewing and eating and still a bit dribly dispite some improvement.

My jaw has a dull ache and tingling today, I am pleased as I think this could be good news in the next few days and might be a sign that the swelling is going down and some feeling is coming back (like after the dentist). I soooooo want to be able to blink and I bet that will be the last thing to return.

A very possitive thing to do if you get low

Go on youtube and watch some videos from other people that have got/or had this. Some are really funny and it helps you to stop worrying so much about it. I was surprised at quite how long it seemed to take people to start recovering though but most people do seem to make a good recovery.

A weird experience when I was out

Everytime I speak to people like a waitress to get a drink etc they think I am winking at them. This is quite embarrising if they are attractive :D .

Day 5

Great improvements today, I have an almost constant tingling across my jaw and cheek. It kind of feels like the dentist anasthetic is wearing off if you know what I mean. I am sure that this is a sign that the swelling on the nerves is subsiding. Earlier I had a really sharp nervous pain that was near my nose and im possitive I have more movement there now. I think it is the nerves starting to communicate again.

I do feel that complete recovery might still be quite slow though, but I am sure that I am making good progress now. I cant blink still but I am confident that my eyelid comes down a little further today as well. The thing is your eye rolls up with this when you blink, so you think you are closing your eye but you are not.

If you really want to see how far you are blinking then make sure you concentrate at looking at the floor when you do it.

I have to say that this thing really really sucks, I dont know how people cope day to day that have this for months or years on end. As soon as I can blink again I will be happy.. the rest of the symptoms can improve over time as they are not so debilitating.

Day 6 Great news today :shock:

I can blink again.... yipeeeeeeee. Its not by any means back to normal but its a lovely feeling that your eye lid is coming like 85% of the way down :lol: .

I now feel that I am going to be one of the lucky ones that gets over this quite quickly. I did have it badly to start with as well so it all seems to be happening now. I have the feelings of pins and needles all over my forehead and my face, my jaw feels numb as well.

I am sure that it will take many many weeks or months to get back to being completely normal with strong facial muscles etc. But I am optimistic of a relatively normal life again hopefully within the next week or two at this rate (maybe even sooner).

I feel like the luckiest man alive today knowing that this horrid thing is now rapidly seeming to get better :wink: . I really take my hat off to people who have had this debilitating condition for months or even years.

By the way I forgot to mention since this came on I have been taking multi vitamins and b vitamins every day with the steroids. I do think that this has helped as well.

Day 7

Almost completely gone now :lol: I might follow up with a post in another week or so but im 90+% cured now.

So this seems to have cleared very fast! :D

Good luck with your BP and I hope it clears as fast as mine did.

Started with a headache 7 days ago that was constant but varied in intensity. Two days ago My partner and I were walking our puppy along the river bank when I felt my right eye flickering as if something had got in it as it had hot a little windy. My eye just kept twitching and I couldn't wait to get home and bathe it in case there was something in it. A couple of hours later my daughter asked me what was wrong with my eye as I looked like cyclops! I looked in mirror and could see that it was not working along with my left eye. A couple of hours later I felt a flickering feeling along my lower right jaw towards my ear and started to be concerned. I ate my dinner with no problems but about an hour later when we decided to have some dessert I found that the right side of my mouth was allowing food to seep out as it was not closing properly. I then noticed that I was dribbling slightly when drinking. This really upset me and I looked in mirror and could see that the right side of my face was slightly different in appearance to the left side. Got quite upset and went to bed with a banging headache and really bad pressure pain in right ear.

Woke up the next day and for a few minutes thought that I felt better but tried blinking and right eye did not close. I then realised that the right side of my mouth had dropped slightly. Made a cup of tea but tried to drink it and take my morning pain medication for my back condition but broke down in tears because the tea was just running out of my mouth an found it very difficult to wash down the tablets. Looked up symptoms on Internet and decided to call 111. After answering a lot of questions about my symptoms they said that they were sending an ambulance. The paramedic dud various tests and then advised that he thought I had probably had a stroke but it could possibly be Bell's palsy. He took me to hospital where they did more tests and then diagnosed Bell's Palsy! I had never heard of it until that morning. They prescribed 1 week course of high dose of Prednisolone together with antiviral medication and viscotears. I was devastated and cried uncontrollably. I was discharged and went home and started taking medication. I had great difficulty as couldn't drink from cup without dribbling and could not even use a straw! I had a Dreadful Day with terrible pressure pain in my right ear and headache in addition to the facial problems. Found it hard to eat and drink all day and went to bed but took ages to get to sleep. Taped eye closed but this made things more uncomfortable so removed tape and added more viscotears. Finally got to sleep after taking some morphine.

Woke up today and headache was not as bad and pressure pain in ear had almost gone. Tried to drink with a straw and was very relieved when I could do this, although with difficulty! Made a cup if tea and once I had checked it was cool enough I tried drinking it with a straw and was able to swallow my tablets with less difficulty. Looked in mirror and mouth seems to have dropped even more when I pull an expression especially when I speak or try to smile. Rang GP as have another chest infection ( I've had about 10 or 12 of these in the past year! And told her about the BP diagnosis. Day was much better today in that the headache has almost disappeared. I practised trying to open my mouth keeping both dudes symmetrical and succeeded but when speaking or smiling this is impossible. Right eyebrow remains lower than left and eyes seem level but right eye will not close with the other when blinking. Massaged face gently hoping that this will help. Had a bit if a headache this evening by not as bad as over previous week, hope when I wake in morning my symptoms won't be any worse.