Diagnosed with Bell's Palsy

marketer23

marketer23

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Oct 1, 2008
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Pittsburgh
So I woke up yesterday and I noticed I couldn't move the right side of my face. Went to the ER and I got diagnosed with Bell's Palsy.

Went to see my family doctor today and they gave me the same diagnosis.

Sucks. You take things like your health for granted until something happens. Now I drool. My right eye lid doesn't cover my entire eye so I have to keep pulling it down myself. Basically only the left hand side of my face works.

Doctor told me it usually lasts 1 to several weeks but it could be permanent.

I hope no one else here has had something like this and I hope its just temporary for me.

Anyone else experience something like this?
 
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marketer23 said:
So I woke up yesterday and I noticed I couldn't move the right side of my face. Went to the ER and I got diagnosed with Bell's Palsy.

Went to see my family doctor today and they gave me the same diagnosis.

Sucks. You take things like your health for granted until something happens. Now I drool. My right eye lid doesn't cover my entire eye so I have to keep pulling it down myself. Basically only the left hand side of my face works.

Doctor told me it usually lasts 1 to several weeks but it could be permanent.

I hope no one else here has had something like this and I hope its just temporary for me.

Anyone else experience something like this?
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someone i know got this while they were pregnant. She did go back to normal after the pregnancy.
 
AdHustler said:
someone i know got this while they were pregnant. She did go back to normal after the pregnancy.
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Thanks for letting me know man. I was pretty freaked out about it until I read that.

When I woke up and looked in the mirror I thought I had a stroke in the middle of the night. Makes you really think about what's important in life.
 
I remind myself every single day how lucky I am to be healthy and have healthy kids and to be able to earn a good living etc. I never take anything for granted. Hope that shit is temporary man - without good health nothing else matters.
 
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Wow man. Are they sure that's what it is and not some kind of allergic reaction, bite (spider, tick, etc.) that's messing up your nerves? There's over 50 different conditions that could cause facial paralysis.

I hope it's temporary, but in the meantime, might as well arm yourself with all the info you can.

There's a good series of articles on it here: What to do immediately if you think you may have Bells Palsy | BELL'S PALSY SYMPTOMS INFORMATION AND HELP

One of the things they mention is steroid treatment, but that has to be started really early for it to work.
 
I made sure to see 2 doctors to make sure it his Bell's Palsy. I did have the sharp pain behind me ear.

Good call on the steroid treatment. I am on a steroid treatment and antivirus treatment right now. The steroid treatment is in 500mg doses twice a day.
 
marketer23:

Once and foremost do NOT freak out!!! Stress will only make it worse!

My daughter had the same thing when she was 3 or 4. One morning she woke up and her face on the whole right side drooped. We as parents freaked out 100% and had to really educate ourselves. The worst thing right now is the 'looks' you'll get from others.

Usually or I should say, in 'most' cases - the face goes back to normal after 4-6 weeks from what I remember. It did so for my daughter and she herself didn't really notice it.

We got a lot of weird looks but that's about all. It was worse for us then her.

Met several people that had the same problem. Look at your diet and watch what you eat. Try to eat green/healthy as much as possible and try to rest as much as possible (easy for me to say).

If it's okay, I'll say an extra prayer for you...
 
I remember my aunt was diagnosed the same 10 years ago, she couldn't even close her eye at all. Doctors told her about severe and permanent consequences.
She followed a medical treatment (don't remember what) and lifestyle change (healthy food, sleep) and was quite recovered after 3 months, no signs lasted on her body.
 
Shit man, that sounds fucking frightening, I know the feeling (kinda). It wasn't Bell's Palsy, but one morning I suddenly out of nowhere, got Sleep Paralysis, never had anything like that in my life. My whole body was just completely paralysed, I was aware of my surroundings, etc but my body just wouldn't move and after 15 mins or so, I just managed to unlock my arm and my whole body just snapped out of it and it was fine after that. Scared the shit out of me that did.

Hope you get well soon.
 
Lithium. said:
Shit man, that sounds fucking frightening, I know the feeling (kinda). It wasn't Bell's Palsy, but one morning I suddenly out of nowhere, got Sleep Paralysis, never had anything like that in my life. My whole body was just completely paralysed, I was aware of my surroundings, etc but my body just wouldn't move and after 15 mins or so, I just managed to unlock my arm and my whole body just snapped out of it and it was fine after that. Scared the shit out of me that did.

Hope you get well soon.
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Sleep paralysis sucks.

I have two different spells of it. Both were unpleasant, especially because both times I felt like there was something in the room with me. Once, I thought it was a girl who was holding me down and preventing me from moving. The other time, I thought it was some guy just standing in the corner. Creepy.

I doubt your bout lasted fifteen minutes. Time stretches out like crazy. I know for a fact one of my sleep paralysis episodes lasted less than 20 seconds, but, at the time, it felt like 5 or 10 minutes.
 
Exactly that, many people have told me that you don't have a true sense of time when in SP but it feels like ages. And yeah, about the things in the room, my cousin used to get it, and told me that there was a dark figure at the end of the bed when he was in SP but thank fuck that didn't happen to me otherwise I would've probably had a heart attack and shit myself simultaneously, that shit really freaks me out.

It's never happened again, thank god. Only that one time, and that was probably a trigger because that day I didn't get much sleep, woke up early and THEN WENT BACK TO SLEEP AGAIN midday which really fucked me up and that's what caused the SP most likely.

Mightier said:
Sleep paralysis sucks.

I have two different spells of it. Both were unpleasant, especially because both times I felt like there was something in the room with me. Once, I thought it was a girl who was holding me down and preventing me from moving. The other time, I thought it was some guy just standing in the corner. Creepy.

I doubt your bout lasted fifteen minutes. Time stretches out like crazy. I know for a fact one of my sleep paralysis episodes lasted less than 20 seconds, but, at the time, it felt like 5 or 10 minutes.
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Hopefully you recover soon. I don't know much about it but if it helps at all I did have a friend who had the same thing happen. TBH I don't much remember what caused it - I think he was sick with something else and it came on just after. It lasted about a month for him and he is fine now. He wasn't too worried about it and at the time we were cracking jokes about it :) Get well soon.

Also, here is an encouraging quote from wikipedia:

Even without any treatment, Bell's palsy tends to carry a good prognosis. In a 1982 study, when no treatment was available, of 1,011 patients, 85% showed first signs of recovery within 3 weeks after onset. For the other 15%, recovery occurred 3–6 months later. After a follow-up of at least 1 year or until restoration, complete recovery had occurred in more than two thirds (71%) of all patients. Recovery was judged moderate in 12% and poor in only 4% of patients.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_palsy#cite_note-13
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i remember a buddy coming up to me one time at a party, he wasnt really the drinking type but was smashed and the whole one side of his face was all droopy, he came up to me and he told me about it and i was like haha man youre just drunk

but it was bells palsy, saw him later at school but it went away after like a week
 
Stay positive man! Like guerilla said, let us know if we can do anything!

Now let's talk about the sexier side of Bell's Palsy.

What? You didn't think there was a sexier side to this illness? That's the problem with you Non-Belle's (sic), (That's what we Belle's call you people behind your back who have yet to experience the touch of Bell.)

So as I was saying, that's the problem with you Non-Belles, you guys can be so naive sometimes. It makes us Belles wonder how you people even manage to get dressed in the morning. Life must be really hard for you non-Belles.

Well anyways, getting back; according to Wikipedia and many other sources online, some of the most sexy people alive have had Bell's Palsy. In fact, some have had said, it was only after they were touched by the power of Bell that they got their unique beautiful look which really set them off to fame and fortune. Among the most famous are George Clooney, Pierce Brosnan and Katie Holmes.

- http://abdusalaam.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-palsy-walsy-lets-talk-about-bells.html
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Hey man, sorry to hear what happened. And I know your pain but in a different form.

I actually currently have Reiter's Syndrome also known as Reactive Arthritis. I got Salmonella poisoning when I went to TX for the holidays in Dec (I should have gone to the doctor), but I really only got sick for 8 hours as I've always considered myself extremely healthy as I barely ever get sick. So I thought it was over and never really thought anything about it with exception of never going to that restaurant ever again. Salmonella can trigger Reiter's in males only... go figure.

On the drive home to FL about a week later, ALL my joints hurt. Ankles, knees, tendons behind knees, hips, wrists, elbows everything. And then from then on the pain goes in and out. At times it's extremely painful to walk especially when I get up from sitting or out of the car. And especially in the mornings when I get out of the bed the pain is extremely unbearable.

So I've been popping 1000mg of Tylenol when the pain is super bad or when I feel like doing physical activity like baseball and such. I can stand the pain just enough then to play. The doc said that this can last from 3 months to 12 months or it can even be permanent, but I am gradually starting to feel better everyday without the medicine (I think the physical activity actually helps as well as working out). So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The best thing you can do is have a positive attitude and give yourself the mindset that this is a minor hiccup and that you'll get better in no time. A positive mind can have an extremely healthy effect on the body more than one knows. People say there's a will to live, well there's always the will to get better and healthy if you believe enough.
 
Hope you get better. I can't imagine how awful I would feel if I just woke up with that. Any way to prevent getting Bell's Palsy? Sounds like some people just get it randomly.
 
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