Luckily, I work at a hospital, so I knew if something was going terribly wrong, I'd already be in the right place. I got to work and somehow let it slip that my face felt numb, and my coworkers tried coaxing me to go to the ER to get it checked out. We tried thinking of things that may cause face numbness. Stroke was the first scary thing, but I wasn't really showing any other signs of stroke. We thought of Bell's palsy, but I always associated it with facial droop and well, I don't have facial droop. In the back of my mind I'm thinking the worst...brain tumor. My dad was just telling me earlier that week of someone he knew that passed away from a brain tumor and he was only 34 years old! So that was definitely hot on my mind. I finally talked myself into thinking it was some sort of allergic reaction to a new shampoo and it would be gone in a day.
After getting off work that next morning, I went home and slept for a few hours. Woke up (hoping and praying that numbness went away) and for a minute or two there I really believed it went away. Then I started talking and realized that the numbness was still there. It wasn't until I made a funny face at Ben and he saw that only half of my face moved that we started thinking maybe it was something more serious that we should get checked out.
I finally decided to go to a walk-in clinic first. It was Saturday around 5 pm, so fortunately I was the only one there to be seen. Got in the exam room, she had me do a test with my eye where she had me close my eyes and tried to pull my eyelids up and the only one she could pull up was the one I had no control over. She pretty much knew from that one simple test that it was Bell's palsy. She did a couple other things just to cover all bases and then prescribed me a steroid and antiviral medicine.
It felt so nice to have a diagnosis and know that it wasn't my worst fear. The bad part about Bell's palsy is that it does take a while to go away, at least 3 weeks. It's been a little over a week now and I'm showing very little progress. I can barely move my right cheek and it is uncomfortable to try. I can rub my tongue across my teeth on my right side, which is not something I could do a week ago. I still have issues eating and drinking. Small bites, eat it slow, and use a straw in my drink, that's my new mealtime motto. My right eye will blink if I concentrate and blink both eyes together, but I cannot close my right eye and keep my left eye open at the same time. I sleep with an eye mask just to protect it and keep it closed. At first I tried taping my eye shut. I think even though the tape said "ultrasensitive", it may not have been the right tape for that job, so I decided not to do that again.
Then I tried taping a piece of gauze over my eye with the tape going around my eye, but that didn't really work out because I could still open my eye under the gauze and I couldn't be sure it was closed while I was sleeping. Now I'm just using the eye mask and I think my eye is staying closed, so that is a little improvement.
Thought this was appropriate ;)
All the little things we take for granted. We don't even realize we're doing it until we can't anymore. Getting sick, for me, definitely humbles me and gives me a minute to reflect on the people who deal with illnesses or ailments on a daily basis, not just a temporary basis. Whatever you're going through, there's usually someone who's got it worse. When we get these opportunities to see the other side, it's a good idea to be thankful for what you've got.
The End.
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