Coping With Bell's Palsy

I took my son to basketball practice the night before and felt a stress pain in my left shoulder and neck. The next morning I awoke and thought that I might have had a stroke I went to a family physician who diagnosed Bell’s Palsy and immediately began a regiment of prednisone and an antibiotic. He said most people recover completely in a matter of weeks and to be patient.

I was patient for a few weeks and then went to a neurologist who also told me to be patient. After eight weeks, the neurologist decided to do an MRI All was fine and Bell’s Palsy was still the diagnosis. My left eye only blinked about halfway and my mouth drooped. The eye was the worst. It was so dry that I constantly had and still have to put Lacrilube (over the counter ointment for dry eye) in it. I don’t go anywhere without my Lacrilube.

I taped my eye shut at night and sometimes during the day at first. The only pain I ever have is deep ear pain. It has lessened with time. It has now been 3 years and I know that I am not going to recover anymore than I already have. I have about 85% recovery. However, the dry eye has started to cause damage to my cornea (the opthahmologist [ophthalmologist] said the Lacrilube just wasn’t doing the job anymore) and I just had surgery in January.

I had a tarrsorophy [tarrsoraphy], which is sewing the top and bottom eyelids together a little bit on the outside to lessen the exposure to the cornea. I can’t tell you how upsetting it was to hear I was going to have to have this done, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be and taking care of the eye is important with Bell’s Palsy. My eye blinks now, but not quickly or completely.

I notice the crooked smile when I look in the mirror, but I don’t think other people do. I am a lawyer and I have to be out and among people on a daily basis. I would much rather someone say “what’s wrong with your eye” than just look at me funny. I hope everyone out there with Bell’s Palsy holds their head up high and carries on. I also asked the neurologist about cures and studies. Apparently there aren’t alot of studies because it isn’t deadly. I would hope that someday studies are done on Bell’s and a cure is found. I tried accupuncture, but it didn’t work for me.