Facing Up To Bell’s Palsy (My Experience with Bell's Palsy)

Member Name: Mad_Wicca

Product:	My Experience with Bell's Palsy
Date:	15/09/01 (1748 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: I think the op says it all

Just for a minute I want you to remove the head of the person nearest to you. It goes without saying that you should ask their permission first, and you are going to put it back on later, I just want to show you something. If there’s no one around go and ask your neighbour if you can borrow theirs, it’s ok, this won’t take long. Right, everyone got a head? Great, now let’s go have a look inside.

Yeah I know it’s all a bit icky but take deep breaths and I’ll try and be as quick as I can. You see that big grey lumpy thing right at the top? It’s roundish and looks a bit like old, cold spaghetti. That’s it you found it! Well that’s the brain and if you look closely you’ll see it’s attached to the spinal cord. The brain and the spinal cord, when put together, make up the central nervous system. The nerves in the central nervous system are spread out all over the body, and their job is to relay back information to the brain about the state that the body is in; the brain then initiates the appropriate response to this information. It sounds so slow doesn’t it? Yet these impulses travel at over 250 miles per hour, reaching the brain in milliseconds.

So that’s the brain and central nervous system. Now what I really want to show you is one of these tiny, tiny nerves, you may have to put your glasses on to find it. I’ll give you a hand. The nerve you’re looking for comes from the brain, travels through a bony canal, which is situated just behind the ear, and ends in the face muscles. It can be found on the left and the right side of the face, so you’ve got two chances of finding it! Everyone got it? Ooo you do all have good eyesight. Well, that tiny nerve is the facial nerve and if a virus infects it your face becomes paralysed.

Ok, the practical is over, you can return your head to its owner. Now where was I? Ah yes, facial paralysis. The facial nerve is
the nerve that carries all the messages to your brain about the face. The brain then tells the nerve to move the muscles in your face to make you smile, frown, open your mouth or raise your eyebrows. This nerve also tells your brain about what’s going on at the front of the tongue. Don’t worry, it doesn’t tell the brain where you’re sticking it, that’s your business; but it does tell the brain what your tongue is tasting, so be careful where you’re sticking it!

When a virus, thought to be herpes simplex (the virus that causes cold sores), infects this nerve it swells, and because of the narrow bony canal it has to travel through there is no room for this swelling. This causes the nerve fibres to become crushed and stop working, so you lose all of these messages being sent to the brain. They just stop. You can’t smile, frown, open your mouth, raise your eyebrows, taste or hear properly. This is Bell’s Palsy.

In normal cases this happens on only one side of the face, but in very extreme examples it can affect both sides. The effects can come on in a matter of two or so days, in both men and women of any age, but more commonly in those aged 20-50. It happened to me when I was 24. But you see, I hadn’t had a guided tour inside a head, I hadn’t had the facial nerve pointed out to me, I didn’t know what Bell’s Palsy was. I didn’t know what was happening to me.

It started one cold winters night whilst I was at work on a late shift. I had noticed an annoying little pain behind my left ear for most of the day. I am prone to ear infections during the colder months and so I thought that it was just the start of another one. So I popped a couple of painkillers and didn’t really pay it any more attention. Then, during my dinner break, I found that I couldn’t really taste the cheese sandwich that I was eating. My mouth felt as though it were covered in a thin, smo
oth film that just wasn’t letting the taste get through. I mentioned this to my boyfriend (now husband), who I was working with at the time, but what with my ear playing up we both agreed I was probably coming down with a cold.

We finished work a couple of hours later and decide to call in on my sister for a quick cuppa. We sat talking for an hour or two, and it was whilst I was laughing at something someone had just said my sister suddenly gasped, ‘God what’s wrong with your face? When you laughed the left side didn’t move!’ My face had been feeling a bit stiff as the night went on but I thought the ear infection might just be causing that. But when my sister told me it wasn’t moving my hand flew to my face and I started opening and closing my mouth, then trying to smile.

She was right, my face under my hand wasn’t moving very much at all. Strangely enough I didn’t panic, I just though, ‘Oh my face isn’t moving.’ Now if you know me, which you don’t so I’ll tell you, then you’d know that I’m a bit of a panicker when it comes to health and ailments. If I nick my finger on a knife I want overnight hospitalisation for observation, with full medical backup. What? A common cold you say doctor? I think you’ll find it’s double pneumonia with ‘complications’.

The next morning my face was just as bad, hardly any movement at all on the left side and now I was having a problem closing my eye. Yet still I wasn’t panicking! When I went downstairs for breakfast Mummy Mad Wicca took one look at me and said, ‘You’ve got Bell’s Palsy’. Ah. Right. Bell’s whatsy? So Mummy Mad Wicca bundled me off to the doctors, where the receptionist informed me, ‘You’ve got Bell’s Palsy.’ Ah. Right.

When I eventually got in to see the doctor he took one look at me and said, ‘You’
ve got Bell’s Palsy’. I know - I’ve been diagnosed three times now! But what is it? The doctor then explained to me all about Bell’s Palsy, and made me go through a bit of facial gymnastics to show me how my face had been affected. When I tried to screw my eyes shut, only the right side of my face reacted. If I tried to lift my eyebrows only the right disappeared beneath my fringe, the left not budging an inch. Although my speech was fine at that point I could only really open the right side of my mouth.

It then suddenly dawned on me; I was getting married in six weeks time, how on earth was I going to smile for the photos! Now I started to panic. How long would it last? What could be done? What medication could I take? The doctor calmed me down and told me that in almost 90% of cases Bell’s Palsy is temporary, but it’s difficult to tell how long it will last. There was no medication for it but he would send me to the physiotherapy department at the hospital to have a course of ultra-violet light treatment, which could help loosen up the muscles. He suggested I used an eye drop to lubricate my eye if it felt a bit dry and to stay out of any drafts. Wrapping a scarf around my neck and chin would help keep the ear warm and might help the swelling to go down.

And that was it. I went home with visions of me in my bridal gown, Dr. Who type scarf wrapped around my head as I grinned lop-sidedly at the camera. As I worked with computers I was advised to take time off, as it would be too much of a strain on my eyes. I didn’t feel much like seeing people anyway. On that first day the paralysis became much worse. I had to concentrate very hard on making my left eye blink, sometimes having to force the eyelid down with my hand. My speech became a little slurred as the left side of my mouth was refusing to open, which also made eating and drinking a nightmare. The first time I dribbled coffee down my chin we all laughe
d, but after the one hundred and first time it just became irritating.

Also my hearing was getting very bad in my left ear, my own voice was booming around inside my head when I spoke but I found it hard to make out what other people were saying. I had a lot of headaches during all this and sometimes I wondered what the point was of getting out of bed in a morning I felt so bad. Continuing to plan the wedding with Mummy Mad Wicca became hard for me; I just didn’t want to think about how strange my face was going to look on the day. How would I be able to say my vows without slurring? What if people laughed at me?

I only ever had one real huge sob about it all. I had been standing in front of the bathroom mirror trying to make my face move. Now if you’ve never had to think really hard about raising your eyebrow, or making one side of your mouth turn up into a smile, then you will never understand how difficult this simple sounding thing can be. I kept sending the message from my brain to move my mouth. ‘Move mouth up into smile,’ I kept repeating in my head, then straining to move my mouth. Nothing happened.

It felt so strange to look in the mirror and just see one side of my face working without seemingly putting any thought into it. Then to see the other side and realise I had no control over it, couldn’t feel it or move it. I felt as though that side of my face wasn’t me anymore, as if I was carrying round half a face that didn’t belong to me. The left-hand corner of my mouth had begun to droop a little by now, and sometimes I dribbled a bit without noticing.

After trying to make my face work I went upstairs to soon-to-be Mr. Mad Wicca and said, ‘I’ve lost my smile’. Then I burst into tears, which lubricated my now staring left eye and made me feel a whole lot better afterwards. Soon-to-be Mr. Mad Wicca told me that he loved me however I looked and that the wedding wa
s about us and how we felt about each other, not how we looked. Soppy old fool. But he was right. After that I started to feel a lot better about things, got on with the wedding planning and had my ultra-violet light sessions.

I’m not too sure what exactly the ultra-violet light did for me. I spent half an hour stretched out on a rather hard bed, shaded swimming goggles threatening to cut off any blood circulation above my ears, with a strange purplish light pointed at my cheek. I told the nurse of my concerns as regards my slightly drooping mouth and she took some surgical tape, pulled my mouth up and taped it to my cheek! Oh yes; now I felt a whole lot better. Problem solved! I kept it on until I got out of the hospital and to the car, showed Mummy Mad Wicca this ingenious new medical aid and then removed it. Droopy mouth or not I refused to walk around with half a foot of white tape on my face highlighting the fact to everyone.

A week before the wedding, I went back to see the doctor and once again went through my facial gymnastic routine for him. He declared me much better and, truth be told, I had noticed that my face had regained a little movement. My eye was blinking almost normally; the ear pains and headaches were gone and the corner of my mouth was slowly making its way back up my face. I thanked him and went out into the waiting room. As I was leaving the receptionist who had informed me of my condition when I had first visited the doctor stopped me and said, ‘I’m so glad you’re better for your wedding. I didn’t want to say anything when you first came in but I’ve had Bells’ Palsy, that’s why I knew what was wrong with you. I had it for six years.’

I was stunned. Six years. Mine had almost disappeared in five weeks. But that’s the thing about Bell’s Palsy, it comes out of nowhere and lasts anything from two weeks to… well, six years? Ten years? The rest of y
our life? It’s hard to say, it affects each individual differently and there’s just no way of knowing when, or if, it will ever clear up. Only 10% of cases do not recover and in the most severe cases, when all other treatments have been explored and failed, surgery is a last option. A different nerve can be linked to the facial muscle and a drooping mouth or unblinking eyelid corrected. As I say, it has to be quite a severe case before a doctor will even contemplate this. What Bell’s Palsy seems to need is time, wait as long as need be and it will probably go away by itself. The only thing is, Bell’s Palsy doesn’t ask you how long you want it around, it’s doing what it likes and you’re just along for the ride.

I’m not a vain person by any stretch of the imagination, I never wear make up, I’ve had the same hairstyle for the last 7 years (well it suits me!), and I’m not interested in the latest beauty products. Most days I get up, put my hair in a ponytail, get some clothes on and go about my day. You could say I’m not a very girly-girl. But for all that, even I was horrendously affected by Bell’s Palsy. Your looks are suddenly thrust to the forefront of your mind. You wonder all the time about your appearance and how people perceive you. And even if, like me, you are not particularly concerned about your looks, nothing changes the fact that once they have been altered by Bell’s Palsy all you do is whish you could have them back.

If you, or someone you know, are suffering from Bell’s Palsy then there is a support group that can help you through it, the address for which you can find at the bottom of this op. I didn’t know about it when I had Bell’s Palsy, but if I had I would certainly have given them a call. It’s difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t have a paralysed face exactly what it is you’re going through and how you feel. Yo
u may love and share everything with your partner, family and friends, but sometimes we need the help of those who have also experienced the same ailment. I hope the support group can provide you with that help.

Let’s Face It.
14 Fallowfield,
Yateley,
Surrey.
GU17 7LW
Tel: 01252 879630

P.S. If you’re wondering about the wedding it went wonderfully, and my grin is wide, cheesy and straight in every one of the photos! And no, I didn’t have to wear my Dr. Who scarf.

Summary: