Spent Saturday out on the farm… my Dad was doin’ some fencing for some cows we’re fixin’ to put on the farm. I also spent a lot of time with Cosmo and just enjoyed the day with my husband and kids.
Then, suddenly something happened. I went to whistle at Cosmo and couldn’t… I noticed my eye was not “normal”… My left side of my face went numb and stopped ‘working’… my first thought was stoke.
I went inside my brother’s (nearest home to me) and he thought maybe I was too hot and needed to cool off… my left eye stopped blinking and my left side of my mouth wouldn’t work – I was just limp on one side of my face. In his house, I was freezing and had chills. I was so nervous, too. So, my SIL called the 24-hour nurse line on my insurance and the nurse was quick to advise me to call 911 for an ambulance. I denied that and told my husband to take me to the ER instead… we quickly arrived at the hospital. I had to rule out the stoke.
Praise Him, I wasn’t having a stoke but I am suffering from facial paralysis. They said it’s Bells Palsy (damage to the nerve that controls movement of the muscles in the face) and I should recover. There is no 100% way to tell but 75% of all cases of facial paralysis in adults are due to Bells Palsy. I had a CT scan of my brain and a blood panel last night at the ER – both came back good for me. Whew. Time frame for my recovery is unknown – he said could be 2/3 weeks or up to 3/6 months. Approximately 60 – 80% of cases go away completely. I follow up with my doc end of the week.. but for now I’m just waiting.
I’m in no phyiscal pain but my face feels so abnormal to me. This is so weird and having this happen so suddenly has had me so scared. The doc was mainly concerned with my eye recovering. If I force it to blink, it will… but it’s not workin’ and it’s the one area that may have trouble recovering… he didn’t seem to think the other parts of my face were an issue with recovery. So, pray for a full recovery… and a fast one, would ya? It’s not fun having half my face out of order. *cry*
If something happens, I’ll post or have my husband do so… otherwise I’ll be back around by the weekend for the PhotoHunt.
P.S. I have a lot of folks to add to the PhotoHunt… and emails to reply to – please understand and be patient when requesting info/help or to be added to the hunt this week. Thanks!
Hope you have a fast, full recovery. I was just diagnosed with this two days ago and I know how you feel, it’s truly scary but God will give us the gace to endure it until He’s healed us. Keep in contact with me if you want encouragemnent and God bless you.
Dun worry, it’ll usually come back to normal after it’s run its course. In the meantime, hang in there!
Oh my I can’t even begin to imagine how scary that was. I will pray for you girlie… for full recovery …and a FAST one.
* hugs*
I had a friend who had that happen when she was pregnant. She made a full recovery but I think it lasted her whole pregnancy. Praying for you!
Sorry to read about your scare. Re Bell’s Palsy: My father had it years ago and he’s pretty close to 100% recovered. The only time one notices anything different from before is when he’s had too much to drink — something I hope you don’t do in any case! Take care and best wishes.
My brother-in-law went through this last year. Happened out of the blue – just as you described. Very, very scary indeed!
My thoughts are with you – it was a long haul for him, but he made a full recovery