Hell's Bells 2

I finally took a video of my Bell's Palsy. (my previous post)  I have been meaning to take it for some time but just never got around to it.  So this was taken at 3 weeks.  It is better than it was by quite a bit.  My eye is red because I have pink eye again.  Another nice little gift from the Bell's.  I think it is because my eye can't care for itself very well because it doesn't shut! (well, it basically is now... but that is new within the last 24 hrs.) Not to mention I have to tape it shut at night which gives bacteria a nice little breeding ground. This episode I think it a reinfection from the previous one.  Maybe from the eye gel.  It all makes sense in my head.

I think I lost the feeling of stinging from the dry eye in the middle and so I didn't use the gel as much... not because I should have stopped, more because I didn't have the constant stinging reminder.  So I started using the gel again more regularly and I may have gotten some cross contamination.  I thought I threw-out that tube of gel. But maybe I didn't.

My eye is shutting now.  So excited about that.  You can see at the end of the video that my right eye still doesn't close as fast or as well as the lest.

I know the video is a bunch of funny faces, but I know most people have not seen me.  So I wanted them to see it.  Also, I have only made these exaggerated faces for Chris and the doctors.  like I said... it is much better than it was, but I wanted to get some documentation of it.




The hardest part has been eating. I can't open my mouth very well.  So something are more problematic.  I can't manipulate food very well.  I burned my mouth pretty badly because of it.  I never really realized how much of my body just reacted without me thinking.

lip gloss is  hard to put on because I can't rub my lips together. I have trouble holding liquid in my mouth.  I can't close my eye shut tight.  For a while it wouldn't close at all.  My dimple disappeared all together. I stumbled over words a lot.

All of these problems became worse if I carried any tension in my face.  So I had to learn to relax.

The Sunday before this happened I was assigned to give a 20 min talk in church the next Sunday.  I did and it was fine.  Before this happened I needed to have my picture taken for my ID badge fro Chris school.  The one day Chris wanted me to do I wasn't ready too, so I declined.  Wouldn't you know it, I then got Bell's, so now my ID is all crooked!

Just as a general note... when someone is having a problem, don't tell them "oh... that's not so bad." Cuz guess what... they think it is awful.  And for SURE don't tell them your horror story.  This goes for things besides Bell's.  Right before a Woman is going to have a baby.... don't tell them how awful your birthing story was.  If someone just broke their leg and they are in pain... don't tell them an endless supply of stories about pain.  If someone is suffering tell them a funny story off topic.  Or check in with them how they want to be addressed about the "problem."

Maybe I have become more sensitive to this issue as a social worker, but I have experienced this a lot lately.  I already jump to worse case scenario at the drop of a hat, so hearing the story of how your best friends neighbors grandma never recovered mobility in her face DOES NOT help me!