Bell’s Palsy

I was planning to work from home last Friday morning. I got out of bed like normal, showered, brushed, dressed, and grabbed a bagel from the pantry downstairs. As I sat at my desk eating my bagel, I noticed my mouth wasn’t working normal. The right side of my lips wouldn’t part wide enough to fit the bagel into my mouth. It was subtle at first. Before I finished eating, I noticed a slight numbness on the right side of my face. That’s weird, I thought.

I tore the bagel apart along the pre-cut slice so I could fit it into my mouth. Once I finished eating, (maybe 5 minutes after noticing the strangeness), I started wondering about what was going on with my face. The numbness was still subtle, but feeling my lips and cheek with my fingers revealed that the muscles weren’t working properly. I wondered if this is what a stroke starts like.

I’m a healthy man. I don’t have any medical or physical problems. I shouldn’t be at risk for a stroke. Wifegrit is a nurse, so I thought I should at least tell her something weird was happenig with me. I went downstairs to the kitchen where she and the boys were having their own breakfast before school. I told her about the numbness and the difficulty with my lips. She pointed out that my right eye was not blinking, and I was talking out the left side of my mouth. Basically, nothing on the right side of my face was moving. I quickly went to a mirror and watched my face. Holy crap! The right side of my face didn’t move no matter what contortions I tried. Smiling, blinking, opening my mouth, everything just moved my left side but not my right.

Wifegrit had the thought of a stroke, too, but she also remembered something called Bell’s palsy that caused paralysis to one side of a person’s face. It was something she vaguely remembered from nursing school, and she also had a coworker who once had the condition. We both decided I needed to immediately go to my doctor and have this checked out.

At the doctor’s office, in the waiting room, I felt physically normal. The numbness had subsided, and my face felt fine. But touching it with my fingers proved that there was still no movement on the right side. My right eye would start to dry, and I’d have to use my fingers to close it for a few moments to relieve the discomfort.

Once in the examination room, with the doctor, the first thing he had me do was raise my eyebrows. My left eyebrow went up, but the right eyebrow didn’t. The doc said that was good. In a stroke, I would still be able to raise both eyebrows. His immediate diagnosis was Bell’s palsy, but he continued to test me to rule out other possibilities. In the end, the BP diagnosis was right. It’s a relief to know you’re not having a stroke, but knowing that your face will be paralyzed for weeks isn’t a relief. It’s hella distressing, in fact.

It’s not a really rare condition, (1 in 60 people will experience it during their life), but I had never heard of it before this. Now, though, I’ve heard of four other stories from people around me: my wife’s coworker, my mom’s friend, a friend’s coworker, and a pharmacist’s roommate. Their conditions all lasted from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

From the Mayo Clinic:

Bell’s palsy causes sudden weakness in your facial muscles. This makes half of your face appear to droop. Your smile is one-sided, and your eye on that side resists closing.

Bell’s palsy, also known as facial palsy, can occur at any age. The exact cause is unknown, but it’s believed to be the result of swelling and inflammation of the nerve that controls the muscles on one side of your face. It may be a reaction that occurs after a viral infection.

For most people, Bell’s palsy is temporary. Symptoms usually start to improve within a few weeks, with complete recovery in about six months.

The doc prescribed steroids and anti-viral drugs for me to start, and sent me off with the assurance that I would probably make a full recovery with low chance of any long-term problems. I picked up the meds on my way home, and I started the regimen first thing upon walking in the door. I looked at my face in the mirror again.

My face looks normal — there’s no noticeable facial drooping or distortion. Just my right eye is wide open compared to my left eye which adjusts normally to the lighting conditions. In bright light, my left eye squints and blinks, but the right eye just does nothing. This makes my left eye try to compensate by squinting and blinking more. The right side of my mouth doesn’t move, so I look like I’m snarling when I smile or laugh. My left face is animated like normal, but my right face is just “flat” and motionless.

The doctor, and all the online research I’ve done in the past few days, says this paralysis will last for weeks. Maybe 3-4, maybe 12+. And when the condition ends, my face should be right back to normal. Most people have no long-term problems or differences with their face. This fact is what helps me keep relatively calm about this thing. Knowing this isn’t permanent is the biggest relief. But months of this won’t be fun.

Talking, eating, and drinking are a little challenging, though not difficult. The biggest problem is my right eye not blinking. My eye dries out frequently, and it’s troublesome to have to close it manually while wearing reading glasses and using a computer keyboard and mouse. The first couple of days back at worked showed how really difficult maintaining my eye was going to be.

Now I’ve started taping down my eyelid with medical tape, and strapping on a patch over top of that. This keeps my eye moist and protected while working during the day and while sleeping at night. I take it all off every once in a while to let my eye breathe and to let my good eye get a rest from having to do the work of two. My reading speed is slowed considerably without binocular vision.

Fortunately I have a job where I sit in an office all day with minimal face-to-face interaction. Just today, my third day back at my work office, I emailed my immediate coworkers, (my team), what was going on, so when they see me, (and a few have), they know why I’m wearing an eye patch and sneering at them instead of smiling and laughing. I avoid going out in public because I’m embarrassed of my half-dead face.

So now I’m just hoping and hoping this condition ends sooner rather than later. But now I have an idea and a first prop for a pirate costume for Halloween. Arrr!

EDIT: Here is the post on my condition coming to an end.

Bullgrit