On the first morning after my diagnosis with Bell’s I woke up with a blurry eye. It felt like sandpaper. Despite covering it with an eyepatch, my eyelid had creeped open during the night – leaving my eye dry and irritated.
Breakfast went better than the day before. Am I chewing more normally?
I squirted smaller fountains of water out of my mouth while brushing teeth. I am starting to imagine that I might be getting better. Or hoping, I guess.
On recommendation of my general practitioner I was also evaluated by an “ear nose and throat” specialist to confirm the diagnosis, and my medications were increased accordingly. The eye drops were the best part of my prescription and my eye felt soothed.
The worst part of having Bell’s palsy is people asking “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?”
The best part was getting into rehabilitation – it just felt right to be involved in my own improvement!
My first session of physiotherapy was such a reassuring experience. Even though it is impossible to predict the duration of the paralysis, my physio reassured me (just as my doctor had done) that most patients recover well, and because I had started cortisone withing 24 hours, the odd were in my favor. I started with exercises for motion of my face. Quite a workout.
To relieve the heaviness in my face, my physio applied kinesiotape for support and it felt amazing.
Two days of treatment later and I could start feeling little “twitching jumping” sensations in the muscles. The first movement that returned was wrinkling of the nose. The second motion that I regained was pouting my lips for whistling. My face started feeling lighter. Not bad for three days!
I will continue my cortisone for another 6 days and because I am travelling out of town, my exercises will be my only therapy in the week to come. I hope I can report back with a “normal smile” soon.
I have experienced first hand how my physio is trained to help me REGAIN function and to give patients hope.
Hope heals.
I am so glad that I have a physio on my journey to healing.