Thursday, January 13, 2011

Confessions of a Bell's palsy sufferer

It has been 20 days already since I got this sickness...

I am making a slow healing progress... normally, a young person like me would heal in 10 days. I don't know why, but of course I am worried with my slow progress. It must be due to my unbalanced food consumption or lack of nutritious food intake. Yep, it's kinda hard to control what I'm eating since I'm out-stationed. Ya, lor..everything I want to try..and most of the foods are .

However, I am getting better. My cheek muscle has shown some improvement. Only that I have to do some facial exercise on my own more frequently. Certain cases of Bell's palsy require physio therapy treatment. I guess in my case, I don't need one since I don't get any recommendation from the doctor.

My steroid intake has been gradually reduced by doctor. From 12 tablets of prednisolone every morning for the first 10days of treatment and now reduced to 6 tablet only(yippie)... haa..It's almost 3weeks and I'm still learning how to eat medicine (Hey, I'm getting better) err..I mean just the smaller one :p.

Some difficulties I have faced throughout my sickness. Physically:
  • Unable to eat and drink properly
  • Drooling when washing teeth
  • Eye gets dry and tired easily
  • Eye exposed to external elements (I hurt my own eye many times already; especially during bath)
  • jaw get tired easily (cannot eat/chew much)
  • unusual blury vision on left eye
  • headache on left side
  • sense of taste reduced
Also emotionally:
  • Extreme self-confidence drop
  • depression
  • become emotionally sensitive (especially a cry-baby like me :p)
I said to myself - enough with Bell's palsy... I don't want another sickness... Just as most people said, you won't appreciate your life until something bad happen to yourself. My situation might not worse than other sickness that some other people has/had/having right now, but this only has made me realize the importance of health and appreciate my life and also those people around me.

I'm still young...and there's a lot of things I wanna do... I don't want to grow old with medicine. I might not know where comes the virus that had infected my cranical nerves.  But hey, that's the importance of cleanliness. Be careful of what you do, touch or share with others okay?


~xoxo~
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3 comments:

Tiq said...

I totally feel you sis. I'm so sorry that you have to go through this, but never let anything brings you down. Stay strong, take your meds, and God willing, you'll be back on your feet.

Jo Ann said...

Hi,
While searching for Bell's Palsy Sufferers I happened to come upon your blog. My name is Jo Ann and I too have been diagnosed with Bell's palsy. I am going on my fourth week and I have now suddenly developed constant tearing in both eyes and an inabilllity to focus my eyes. I am trying to find people who have or have had Bell’s palsy. I would like to find out if anyone has had the same symptoms, the tearing and non-focusing, has I have. Can you please tell me if this has this happen to you? Thank You and I hope your recovery comes fast!

Unknown said...

hi Jo Ann,

I had Bell's palsy a month ago. It takes me about 4 weeks to fully recovered. I had the tearing and swelling feeling in my eye on the 2nd week. It's probably because your eyes gets dry and tired. I hope your doctor gives you artificial tears or eye gel to keep your eyes moisturize. I know you have the difficulty to close your eye completely, just use your hand to manually close your eye lids and hold it for a while. Rest a lot. Avoid stress. For Bell's palsy sufferer, it's the eyes that requires intensive care. If you still feel uncomfortable, consult your doctor. Wish you a quick recovery. Take care.