Hi. Miss me? We, (Wifegrit, Calfgrit13, Calfgrit9, and I), just got back from a few days trip to the North Carolina mountains. We had a great time. There was a lot of walking, hiking, and climbing, so we’re all completely exhausted now.

We stayed in Asheville, visited the Biltmore Estate, drove along the Blueridge Parkway, hiked through Craggy Gardens, hiked to Hickory Nut Falls, and climbed Chimney Rock and even further on up to Exclamation Point. Phew! It’s tiring. This was our boys’ first exposure to mountains, and they were surprised and impressed. It was fun to see and hear their reactions to the views and hiking challenges.

We’re home now so everyone can recuperate — although *I* have to go back to work in the morning; the boys are tracked out of school this month. I’m looking forward to writing about our adventures, but for now, I’m off to bed for a well earned night’s rest in my own bed.

Bullgrit

It started May 2nd, and now in the third week, it seems to be ending. The first week, (Friday to Friday), the whole right side of my face was completely paralyzed. Nothing moved no matter how much I tried. No smiling, no blinking, difficulty eating, drinking, and talking. It was very distressing. Because I couldn’t blink my right eye, when it dried out, I had to manually close it with my fingers. This got so bothersome while trying to do my job on a computer, I ended up just taping the eye lid closed for much of the day while at work. I also had to tape it closed over night when I slept. Though my face didn’t droop very bad, it was noticeable if you looked at me straight on.

About mid-way through the second week, I noticed I could make my right cheek twitch a little. By the weekend, I could actually make it move a little. Not much, but enough to make my dimple on that side. My right eye still didn’t blink, but I was happy to be seeing some improvement.

Now, mid-way through the third week, my face is about 80% back to normal. I can blink, and work and sleep without taping. My smile is improving. To casually look at me, you wouldn’t know there was anything wrong with my face. Only someone familiar with my face, (me and Wifegrit, for instance) can find any remaining droop when looking straight on at my face. Although, when I laugh big, I can feel, and others can see, there’s still a little paralysis left. The right side of my face doesn’t yet grin as big as the left side.

At the rate I’m recovering, I expect by this weekend, (beginning of the fourth week), all this will be completely cleared up. I am so extremely happy this turned out to be so short-lived. I was very scared this was going to last for months. Wifegrit is convinced this quick recovery is because I immediately went to the doctor and got prednisone and antiviral meds into me within a few hours of it starting. From what we’ve read up on Bell’s palsy, this may be correct and the best way to deal with it.

When this is all 100% clear, and my face is working at 100% again, I’ll update this post with the date. If anyone finds this post while searching for info on Bell’s palsy, I want them to know it can be relatively short. It’s worrisome to have it suddenly happen, but it isn’t necessarily a terrible, long-term condition. As soon as it happens, go to a doctor, get meds, and start them immediately. Don’t worry too much. It’s annoying and troublesome, but it does go away, sometimes soon.

Update: Three weeks and two days after it started, I can happily say my Bell’s palsy condition has completely resolved. Looking at my face in the mirror, both eyes are normal, my smile is equal on both sides, (including dimples :-) and I seem to have 100% normal functionality with both sides of my face. I am officially fully relieved and happy this thing is gone.

Bullgrit

Calfgrit9 cannot close anything. I don’t think he even has a concept of the idea of “close.” I’m not talking about just the front door when he goes out or comes in, which is the standard/stereotype for almost all children. I mean everything and anything. If a thing has an open and a closed state, he will always leave it in the open version. I think things open for him when he just walks through the house.  It’s like he has a poltergeist following him everywhere he goes.

This is his chest-of-drawers in his bedroom.

If I close the drawers at night when I put him to bed, it’s all open again after he gets dressed in the morning. I’ve told him he’d have more room for playing in his room if he closed the drawers, but it doesn’t matter.

In the mornings, he usually goes downstairs to the kitchen on his own and makes his breakfast — either a bagel, or some microwave pancakes, or a whole bag of Goldfish if he thinks he can get away with it. And every morning when I or Wifegrit goes downstairs, we find the kitchen “open” in every way possible. Saturday morning I took a pic of the usual situation.

For me to get to the refrigerator, I had to move or close several things, or else dodge and weave through it all. The kitchen desk chair was pulled out to the middle of the floor, the desk drawer was pulled open, the pantry door was open, the dishwasher was open, and the microwave door was open, and even the package of frozen pancakes was left open on the counter. I’m sure the only reason the fridge/freezer door was closed is that it self shuts.

Yes, all these open items do drive me crazy. But I’m also concerned about safety. Like with his drawers. With them *all* open, the tall chest could tip over and hurt him. If someone had to move through the kitchen quickly, they’d run into half a dozen things in the way before putting out a fire or catching a falling glass or something. A fire marshal would totally shut down our home as a dangerous environment.

I really am a bit afraid that one day something will happen and someone will get hurt in some way because everything is left open. But aside from following my 9 year old around as he walks through the house, I don’t know how to get him to close stuff behind himself. Maybe we need an exorcist to visit and banish the spirit that seems to open everything in his wake.

Bullgrit

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