Coping With Bell's Palsy

About one month ago I was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. It came about at an extremely slow rate and I should have known to do something when I had a chance of deterring it. About three days before it hit, I had an excruciating ear ache. I had never had an ear infection before so I figured it would go away in do time.. Unfortunately, I was very wrong.

The fourth day of the ear ache, I was in an afternoon class and my face would not stop twitching. I felt as though my entire left side - eyes, mouth were moving so much that it could be visible to my professor or someone sitting across the room. After about 3 hours of class, I headed back to my sorority to check myself out. The very first thing I noticed when I looked in the mirror was that my left eye was having difficulty closing and my lips appeared to be chapped and white (which is not usual due to my chapstick addiction). Throughout the next two hours, I literally witnessed my face go through the paralysis.

I rushed home to my parents house- which was not easy due to my eyesight going bad. Once I got home, my parents took me to urgent care where I was diagnosed with Bell’s. The doctor told me “this can be permanent.” The last thing you want to hear when you have no idea what has happened to your FACE.

I would have to say all I could do was think about my life back at school and dealing with the Bell’s. How could I continue cheerleading and living in a house full on 60 girls with my face like this? My professors all understood that I would be at home rehabing for quite sometime, which I greatly appreciate. I do believe that a huge reason that this condition came about was due to my stress level- spring semester senior at a prestigious private university, cheerleader, sorority member, internship and on-campus job were all catching up with me.

Let me tell you what I did that CURED my Bell’s Palsy in 3 1/2 weeks. RELAX, REST, and if you have an opportunity like I did, stay at home. Give yourself time for YOU. Do not rush back to your everyday routine- just that could have been the cause of your problem. Massage the face frequently. Not too hard- you do not want to cause any more damage to the nerve. Move your face, always, always try to make facial expressions as you had before the Bell’s hit. Remember, you have to use your muscle so it does not forget. Think of rehabing your face as you would a part of your body that got surgery or that was out of commission for sometime.

Also, my mother is a HEALTH NUT so I was taking high amounts of VITAMIN B (great, great for nerves) Magnesium for muscles, L-Lysine (just in case the Bell’s was caused by a virus) Fish oil (omega-3’s) and caritine for my eyesight. After about 1 week I was seeing improvements. The second week, I returned to school and started visiting a local acupuncturist- 2 visits in 1 week, thats it. I was a bit scary the first time but it honestly didn’t hurt. Just a pinch here and there. The 3rd week.. hate to say I did it but I did, I went to Cabo for Spring Break. After purchasing and extremely expensive flight and hotel, I just didn’t want to back down. I felt healthy enough to go, so I did. But, SO hard due to all of the cameras around and my friends wanting to take photos every 5 seconds but it happened. I was in the sun relaxing all day and having fun with my girlfriends at night. Not a worry in my mind.

After just 3 1/2 weeks, It was gone.

So for all of you social girls out there, keep your chin up, stick with your family and the people that love you, and remember- if you have good friends, they will accept you as you are, no matter what. If my Bell’s lasted a lifetime, I would be OK with it because I surround myself with people that care, encourage, support and love me. For anyone with Bell’s, you should too : )