Bell's Palsy Support Group
Bell's palsy (facial palsy) is characterised by facial drooping on the affected half, due to malfunction of the facial nerve, which controls the muscles of the face. Bell's palsy is the most common cause of acute facial nerve paralysis and affects about 40,000 people in the United States every year. Additional symptoms that may accompany the condition are pain around the...
Hi all,
First of all, I would like to give a context of my situation. I just graduated from medical school and just started working in a hospital. Obviously, I know everything I've been taught about Bell's palsy - then one day - it happened to me. It started off with an usual pain around my TMJ joint/ SCM muscle and behind my left ear. By this time, I thought that this was the prodromal symptoms of BP - so I was scared, but then said mayble I was over-reacting. 3 days into the pain, I was on call that night, I began feeling that I couldn't keep my cheeks blown up. Before going to bed that on call - at 2 AM - I asked one of residents if they felt my face was a bit off - and they said yes. I slept and woke up with the weakness slowly becoming more obvious. That morning I was diagnosed by my attending neurologist. It wasn't all that bad on D1 of diagnosis - the peak was about D3 into the diagnosis. It has been very stressful, and I found myself in tears when I tried to do physiotherapy because I never thought it would happen to me... Especially since it was something people could notice right on your face. It was a whole different thing being a patient... I realized how frustrating it can be waiting and running around and being reassured by people who've never had the condition. Because I am a doctor, my physicians would speak to me differently like I shouldn't be worried. I was worried sick! I couldn't move half my face! It would take 3 - 6 months for it to go away! The nerve of people telling me it's fine - it could've been a lot worse... I learned SO MANY NEW THINGS ABOUT BELL PALSY THAT DOCTORS DON'T KNOW OR TEACH US STUDENTS.
So, for the interest of me educating my future patients and to educate my fellow physicians - and to be reassure myself as well - I wanted to confirm with all of you some of the symptoms I am getting...
First of all, pain. It's not sharp or acute, but rather dull and tightness. It would come and go and really ruin your day - make you really fatigued and need rest. Responds to simple anagelsics. Same?
Tightening of the affected side's muscles.
Fatiguing of the facial and neck muscles of the unaffected side. Do you guys get this?
Dizziness/mild vertigo - assumingly some function of the inner ear is affected resulting in these symptoms. Do you guys sometimes get mildly dizzy?
Eye focusing problem. This is new to me. My vision is FINE, but being that I work with computers and books all day I noticed that my affected eye is just different. The only way to describe it is that it gets out of tune and I need to refocus it or close my eye. Bright things obscure the focus. From my research, I believe that being that blinking function is affected and Bell phenomenon is activated, there is some discrepency between the normal eye and the affected eye.
Please let me know, and if you have any advice about how to deal with the eye focusing problem, please share it with me.
It's hard NOT to conflate all things that have arisen since BP. Loss of energy, soaking sweats when I attempt to do any work even at night, hearing loss in left ear (I already wear hearing aids in both ears), vision a little fuzzy, sunlight dramatically effects vision (my glasses don't help much any more), generalized headaches during day. Not sure if I am conflating unrelated symptoms of other things going on though. It is kind of a general malaise. I'm 75 years old and all my life have been very active, until now.
The one thing that prevents me blaming BP solely is that in my life I have had 4 major accidents, beginning in 1960-1995 (many broken bones) but have not affected me throughout my life other than a little arthritis. I've found very little about THESE types of after effects of BP described online; Most focuses on facial concerns with after-effects- eye, facial nerves. etc. The one thing that is mentioned online with BP is the exhaustion but most don't say how long it lasts. I go into the VA for my 6 month physical next and will certainly bring all this up. The VA has generally been good about "testing for stuff" to eliminate this or that!
I think it's a WAIT AND SEE how long these after effects persist palsyboy , and the more research I find, BP is all over the map. One thing I was told by the attending ER physician is that "BP is not a specific disease. BP is what's left after ALL others tests eliminate stroke and other things. BUT palsyboy, you have not been alone with your BP as I have experienced all of your developments