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Bell's Palsy--anyone ever have it?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by BYH, Feb 8, 2010.

  1. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    You and House exchanging snark would make for some pretty good TV.
     
  2. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    Chances are, it's not lupus
     
  3. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    You just wait til you return to Cracker Barrel. I'm gonna spend hours nursing that last cup of coffee and scanning the "From 1 to 111" invisible ink games. You may as well bring out a cot, you ain't going anywhere!
     
  4. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    If you do have Bell's Palsy, your dog is pound-bound, baby.
     
    Sea Bass likes this.
  5. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Beej, you're kind of scaring me here. [/crossthreading]
     
  6. DocTalk

    DocTalk Active Member

    Bell's Palsy is an irritation of the facial nerve, one of the cranial nerves that runs directly from the brain to the face and neck. The 7th cranial nerve wraps around the ear to control the muscles of the face. It can be irritated by a variety of causes but most often it happens just because. Aside from the weakness of the face, there can also be pain behind the ear or jaw.

    The best way to think of Bell's Palsy is to compare it to hitting your funny bone in your elbow. In reality, you're irritating the ulnar nerve and causing it to stop working for awhile. The same goes fro Bell's Palsy; it stops working for awhile. Most people get better within 3-4 weeks while others never get full function to return. It's a crap shoot who ends up with a lifelong problem, but there are a couple of potential recommended treatments. Most ER docs should be able to take care of this problem but follow up is needed to monitor recovery.

    The first thing to make certain is that the weakness is Bell's Palsy and not a stroke. Because of the way we are cross wired, if you can wrinkle your forehead on the affected side, then it may be stroke. If your forehead doesn't work, then it's probably Bell's Palsy.

    Depending upo nwhere you live, Lyme Disease is a potential cause and many docs will order a blood test (Lyme titer) to try to make the diagnosis. Otherwise the diagnosis is made clinically.

    Treatment includes routine use of eye drops t okeep the eye moist, since blinking is affected. As well, taping the eye shut at night may prevent corneal abrasions while sleeping, again since the eyelid doesn't completely shut. Prednisone ( a steroid) may be helpful in decreasing nerve inflammation and some physicians recommend using antibiotics to treat presumed Lyme disease.

    Hope this helps.
     
    YankeeFan likes this.
  7. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Legendary pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross has Bell's Palsy. He got it once due to stress after his mother died while broadcasting a show and I think he has it again.
     
  8. waterytart

    waterytart Active Member

    I feel really stupid posting after DocTalk but, based strictly on one guy I worked with who had it, yes, see a doctor right away but the ER tonight isn't necessary. Good luck.
     
  9. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    That should be fine -- no reason to hit the ER for this.

    You'll find it affects you in all sorts of ways you probably would never think of. Eating and drinking can be an adventure; a few days in I hit a drive-thru and was all excited to enjoy a milkshake before realizing I couldn't drink through a straw.
     
  10. Madhavok

    Madhavok Well-Known Member

    See a doctor now.

    I had it when I was 23 and it was the seriously the longest two-three months of my life. I had a headache behind my right ear for a few days and it was unbearable. Woke up one morning and I couldn't keep the milk in my mouth and I was getting shampoo in my right eye. My mom thought it was nothing but I knew it was something kind of serious. So after hours of begging, my folks finally drove me to the ER where I sat in pain for four hours waiting for someone with half a fucking brain to tell me what the fuck was wrong with me. The doctor on duty wanted me to stay over night and get a spinal tap the next morning because she had no fucking clue. So there I sat getting morphine pumped into me because the headache was at the point where I wanted to get knocked out. The backwoods hospital decided to ship me up to to the big city where a doctor told me in 30 seconds what I had.

    I so wanted to blame it on work and the crazy deadline I had for my tab as well as working 15 hour days to do that as well as other crap in the newsroom. Taped my eye shut every night, no contacts, using a camera with glasses (not as bad as I thought it would be), talking out of the side of my mouth, half my face drooping down.. yeah good times.

    Please, see a doctor tomorrow. I was on steroids and other sorts of medications for quite some time.

    I will say, at the age of 28 my right side of my face is pretty much normal these days (knock on wood).

    Cliff notes:
    It fucking sucks. See a doctor now, do everything he/she tells you to do help get your face back to normal, and good luck.
     
  11. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Decided to go to the ER...I inherited from my Dad the worst-case scenario gene, so I was pretty freaked out from about the time I posted the original message on. Then I read Doc Talk's post about trying to differentiate between Bells Palsy and a stroke, and I couldn't tell if my forehead was crinkling or not. Then I had some dinner and had a hard time--not impossible, but a hard time--drinking water and chewing my food.

    Called our primary care physician who scolded me for not going to the ER when the first symptom hit at 3 pm. I felt like saying WTF, we're always told, don't go running to the ER or to the doctor anytime you have a weird symptom. She said she thought it was Bells Palsy but I should get to the ER anyway and get a brain scan.

    So we went, to the same ER where the docs saved my future wife's life in 1999. I could barely keep from hyperventilating. Nobody likes hospitals, but I've been in those places with sick loved ones far too often in the last year, which only fuels my aforementioned negativity. Now I'm convinced every little thing is something horrible, so to actually go to the ER...geez.

    Anyway, we get there and every nurse and doc I saw was confident it was Bells Palsy. I had to do a few things to rule out a stroke--squeeze the doc's fingers, push back when they pushed on my hands and feet, stare at a spot on the wall, arch my eyebrows, etc etc--and apparently passed every one with flying colors. I asked about the brain scan and one of the docs said that's just pouring unnecessary radiation into my brain.

    They gave me an anti-viral pill and prednisone and I take the pills for the next 15 days. They recommended I see my regular doc at the end of the week so that she can see how I'm doing after a few days of medication. We were in and out of there in less than two hours and home with my meds less than an hour after that.

    I feel fortunate to have gotten in and out of there so quickly and obviously hope tonight is the extent of things and will feel very fortunate if that's the case. And I feel bad for those who were stuck there far longer than me. I hated seeing family members surrounding someone in a bed and I really hated sharing my temporary room with an older, obviously ill man who had nobody sitting with him. Nobody should have to go thru that alone. Man, how I hate hospitals.

    Anyway, thanks to everyone for your advice and your first-person stories. Without you guys I'd probably have been here the last several hours getting crazier and crazier.
     
  12. bagelchick

    bagelchick Active Member

    I'm glad you went to the ER. I am not one to just run there either, but I think when you have something pretty substantial happen to you like that, you go.
     
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