Bell's Palsy Update - Day 42

I got super excited when I started to see improvement in the muscles in my face. Now... 2 weeks later and the changes are subtle. I just want my smile back :(

The good news is I feel "normal" again (kind of). I guess that's the most important thing. 

My eyes are no longer bothering me.

I can control the water while gargling and not spit all over the place.

I am eating normally again.

The only thing is my physical appearance. My smile isn't completely normal. I don't look at myself or see myself as others do but when I do see myself in the mirror, I still don't see me (before Bell's Palsy).

Bell's Palsy Update - Day 28

The muscles have been moving more each day. 
I can actually make a smile now (a little one).
Strangely I'm starting to feel the same numbness and pain I did when I first started having symptoms. It's almost like I'm going backwards in my symptoms. So, hopefully that means that it will be completely healed... soon.
My eyes are getting better too. It almost shuts completely when I close my eyes. I noticed my eyes are less dry and I use less of my artificial tears drops. I continue to use the ointment at night while sleeping. I've been able to close enough that I don't use it in the shower and I have no problems with shampoo in my eyes! whew! That was painful.
My lips still doesn't function 100%. It feels like it's the last muscles to come back. Everything else seems to come back sooner and healing faster. I still need to pinch the corners of my lips when I gargle after brushing my teeth. I do notice if I carefully gargle (very gently) I can keep the water in my mouth but of course, the point of gargling is to vigorously gargle. Then the water starts squirting out as usual.


My husband always got a kick out of my creepy eye that didn't close in the beginning!

Bell's Palsy Update - Day 22

There's exciting changes! Over the weekend (It's Thursday today), I started to see slight improvement in my facial movements! I do my exercises in front of a mirror including trying to blink my right eye (good eye) and then the left. When I tried to move the left side, it often just stares back at me with no movement. 

5 days ago... While doing the exercises, my left eye moved a little when I tried to blink it. It was really more of a twitch but I kept doing it and it would move. My eyebrows and lips still didn't move and my "nose wiggle" had no affect on my left side on Saturday. 

Over the next couple of days, the muscles started to move more while doing my exercises... 

Today, I can raise my left eyebrow to where my husband notices the movement (he didn't on the first day it started moving). 

I can blink my left eye halfway. That's pretty good improvement in 5 days.

There's movement when I wiggle my nose.

The corner of my lips tries to go up while smiling. Even that, is an improvement!

My face is no longer sore, a big plus!

Eating has also improved although I still can't eat things I love like a giant burger! I still chew carefully and on the working side of my mouth. Drinking is also still a little challenging...

Even though i'm using my eye drops less and my eyes close half way, my eyes are still very dry and it's hard to see when driving. I try not to drive unless I absolutely have to.

I still apply ointment to my eyes at night. I no longer use the Palsy Patch because it just doesn't hold my eyelids down well. I make an effort to tape my eye closed but it's never a success. My husband helps me while i'm already laying down. This seems to help my eyes stay shut. I think when I wake in the middle of the night to tend to my 15 month baby, my left eye would open because it does have more muscle control now. I get so irritated that I end up ripping it off. Okay, I don't actually rip it off. I carefully remove it without taking any layers of skin, eyebrow or eye lashes off!

I don't know if this is the beginning of a speedy recovery or just the beginning of a slow recovery. After reading all the stories online, I really thought this would last at least 6 months if not longer... So i'm grateful that i see some improvements.

I probably shouldn't have worn my glasses in the pics on left side. As you can see though, my eye brows go up in the below pic when I widen my eyes! It's hard to tell in the smile photo but there's a crease near my nose and my lips do actually go slightly up....

Pucker up!

Excited about a smirk

From my 20 week maternity photo