Coping With Bell's Palsy

It was 1978, when I woke up to go to school, my freshman year. I went into the bathroom, and as I looked into the mirror, I saw that the right side of my mouth would not move and my eye wouldn’t close. I went to my mother and being of Puerto Rican decent, she said, Tu tiene pasma. In english , you have paralysis.

In Puerto Rico, old Puerto Rico, they believed that you would get this when after ironing, and then opening the refridgerator,it would paralyize your face. I tried to drink my orange juice and it just ran down the side of my mouth and I showed her that my eye wouldn’t close. She said it would go away. Well I went to school and everyone kept looking at me and it made me feel uncomfortable.

I went to the nurses office and she thought it was a stroke She called my mother and recommended that I go to the Dr.s. He didn’t know what it was and said it wasnt a stroke He consulted other Dr.s and came up with Bells Pasley.

Here it is 2009, and I still have the paralysis. The watering right eye is constant. The right side of my mouth doesnt go up when I smile, and is noticable. The nerves in my neck on the right side were affected also. So I don’t chew gum around anyone because it is very noticeable and when I eat it is noticeable. I hate to smile because of the crooked smile. And like I said before, I was 15 and now 45. I have livedall of my life with this and have gotten used to it. If it hasn’t gotten better by now, it’s here to stay.