We returned from our Fall Break on Friday. On Saturday morning, Christian had the MRI on his knee and we had a wedding to go to. Matthew did the ceremony and I was asked at the last minute to help with coordinating where people went, so it was a long day for us. That evening, I had a funny feeling in my mouth and we thought it might have been a side effect of a medicine I was taking.
On Sunday morning before church, I was doing some studying and my chin kept twitching. Then before we left, I looked at Rebecca and asked her if my face looked a little funny. Seemed something just wasn't right. We laughed about it on the way to church, but by the time I got there, I mentioned it to a couple of our friends (who are both pharmacists) and they very quickly said that would not be a side effect of the medicine. They both were very adamant about my going to the ER to check it out.
So Marjorie & I drove there (we are the nursery workers at 9am so we had to quickly get someone to fill in) and they got us back pretty quickly. After doing some initial tests with me (checking my ability), the thought it was Bell's Palsy but just wanted to rule out a mini stroke. I had a CAT scan and a chest X-ray and they did determine it was only Bell's Palsy.
If you are not familiar with it, here's a quick explanation -
Bell's palsy is a form of facial paralysis resulting from a dysfunction of the cranial nerve VII (the facial nerve) causing an inability to control facial muscles on the affected side. Several conditions can cause facial paralysis, e.g., brain tumor, stroke, and Lyme disease. However, if no specific cause can be identified, the condition is known as Bell's palsy
So there you have it. I was there a couple of hours and made it back to the lunch and meeting following church. Although by then, i was beginning to find it hard to talk. I don't want to go into all the details other than saying it got worse before it got better for me. It lasted a minium of 4 weeks before most of it was gone and then it was probably another 3 weeks before I felt 100%. I am very thankful that I did return to 100% - some don't. They say that there is very little chance of having it again if you've had it once. I hope so!!!
These were tough to post (and I didn't do the videos) but I did post a couple of pictures.
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| In the ER - this was just the beginning of how I looked! |
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| This was taken on Tuesday - this is when it had gotten worse. This is just how I looked without smiling or anything |
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| This is my attempt to smile. Notice my eyebrows. That was what was amazing to me..... |
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| Here I was actually feeling a little better (on the inside). This was taken 5 days after I was in the hospital |
1 comment:
Sad to see the pictures again but glad you got your pretty smile back.
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