Day 119 - The End Of This Journey

So...after nearly four months, my Bell's Palsy has healed almost completely, but not quite all the way. It's easiest to show those final details in a video, and you can also see how far I've come! This may just be how things stay, since there hasn't been much improvement the last month or so, but who knows, maybe over time it will return completely to normal...but then what's normal? No one's face is perfectly symmetrical (I seem to notice that a whole lot more in others now that I've experienced it so severely with my own face). I'm just thankful for the healing I've been given!

I did make a trip up to Spain to see a neurologist there, just to get a second opinion and make sure there was nothing else that might have caused the paralysis. He was much more thorough, and ordered an MRI of my head, and whole round of blood tests, which all came back normal, thankfully! He said the rest of the recovery will just take time, if it's going to recover, and full energy should return with time as well.

In hindsight, if there was any way I could have, I would have taken off work in those first two months, so that I could completely rest and fully recover... As it was, I couldn't do that, and when we finally pulled out of our busiest season of the year with our artist residency, I just crashed and had to (was finally able to) take a full week of rest. I'm back to work now, but trying to take it easy and I'm slowly regaining my energy.

In those early days, I just wanted to stay home with a bag over my head, but I couldn't, so I had to keep walking to work everyday, past everyone in the community. There were so many people who asked what was wrong, and I had to explain, and listen to their advice, and share about the One who has absolute control and power to heal. I'm actually very thankful that I didn't hide at home with that bag on my head, because now, as I walk past all my friends, they get to see and hear me tell of how He has healed me and His name had been glorified!!

I don't anticipate that I'll be posting here any more ...maybe at the 1 year mark I'll check in. Thank you all who have followed this journey that I've been on, and thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement!

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Days 13-14: DIY Eye Taping

Muscle function continues to improve. I've been able to move my lower lid several more times, and then I can't. It comes in spurts. My face is clearly less droopy, more taut. My upper lid now participates slightly when the other eye is blinking involuntarily. I can slightly tighten my whole cheek, not just the corner of my mouth. Super encouraging and hopeful! I worked a 12 hour day on Saturday...I know I shouldn't have, but we had an exhibition and there was work that had to get done. I was wiped out, and yesterday and today (thankfully days off work, for rest) I've been laying low, not feeling so great... The virus that created the conditions for the suffocated facial nerve is running it's course (just like it has with others around me who had the virus, though not with my same complications). It's moved from bad headaches and fatigue to include head and chest congestion. I slept 13 hrs last night! The spot of nerve damage behind my ear is still painful. M

Day 50 - Prednisone Was The Culprit!

Oh My! What a week! I'm so thankful that none of this has landed me in the hospital here, because I just got to see what those are like, and what they are lacking! One of our artists almost had a heart attack and I had to take her to the emergency clinic and spent the next couple long days with her there, trying to advocate for her. I'm exhausted, needless to say, and thankfully she was stabilized and able to return home to better care. While I was at the hospital, my neurologist came by to check on our artist, and he recognized me and asked how I was doing. When I told him how exhausted I've been, with super low energy, he said that was because I stopped the Prednisone too quickly and so my adrenal glands were struggling to function! But he had specifically told me NOT to taper them, that there was no need, and he didn't prescribe a dose that included tapering! AGH!! Sure enough, I checked my notes here, and the dates (so thankful I had this record!) and right when

Days 15-16: Glorious & Underated...smiling and blinking

Not much to report - still feeling tired, sick and congested (that's the most discouraging part) - still improving in facial muscle strength and obedience to my brain's commands, a tiny bit more each day! Hearing and sight and taste impairment still the same. I can almost make a sort of smile - or at least a pleasant look instead of a grimace - if I don't smile on my good side, except a tiny bit in that eye...that helps it match the weak side and gives me an expression that doesn't shout that something's wrong! Until people realize I'm not blinking! I know that many others with Bell's Palsy have a much slower recovery, and there's no guarantee mine will continue to progress at this pace or fully recover (though from prognosis stats for early progress, I'm hopeful). Hang in there! Rest! Do everything you should, as early as possible, and that should really help! The quote above is from an article by BBC reporter, John Sudworth , who himself had

Rachel's Bell's Palsy Journal

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