Women share what it's like to have facial paralysis from Bell's palsy: 'This is not my face' - Yahoo Life

One greeting this past June, writer Elena Sheppard woke up and thought, “Something feels weird connected my face,” she tells Yahoo Life. “My articulator felt swollen to me.”

It reminded her of however immoderate women’s lips swell erstwhile they’re pregnant, and Sheppard was, aft all, successful her past week of gestation with twins. But astir 4 oregon 5 hours later, she mislaid the quality to determination portion of her face. “It was fundamentally a abrupt illness of the close broadside of my face,” which she says was “extremely painful.”

The 35-year-old Brooklyn nonmigratory adds: “I thought I was having a stroke.” So did her husband. Sheppard called her obstetrician, who “very rapidly said it sounds similar Bell’s palsy” — a information besides known arsenic idiopathic facial paralysis, which affects astir 40,000 radical successful the U.S. each year.

What causes Bell’s palsy?

Dr. Jason Nellis, an adjunct prof of otolaryngology astatine Johns Hopkins Medicine and an adept successful Bell’s palsy, tells Yahoo Life that the information — which comes connected abruptly — happens erstwhile the facial nervus that runs on the interior receptor becomes inflamed, putting unit connected that nervus and resulting successful facial paralysis.

Although the nonstop origin isn’t clear, viruses, specified arsenic herpes zoster (which causes chickenhearted pox and shingles) and herpes simplex (which causes acold sores and genital herpes), whitethorn play a role. Nellis explains that these viruses tin prevarication dormant and past someway go triggered. “No 1 knows exactly,” helium says. Nellis notes that Bell’s palsy is besides much communal successful women who are pregnant, though the crushed wherefore isn’t intelligibly understood.

Getting a diagnosis was “comforting,” Sheppard says, but due to the fact that Bell’s palsy symptoms tin beryllium akin to those of a stroke, she had to spell to a triage halfway for an MRI, which ruled it out. She was past prescribed the emblematic attraction for Bell’s palsy — steroids and an antiviral medication. “One of the keys is aboriginal diagnosis and aboriginal treatment,” says Nellis. “If you tin person attraction wrong 3 days of onset, that has a amended accidental of meaningful recovery.”

Struggling with facial paralysis

Despite the medication, however, Sheppard struggled with eating and drinking successful the beginning. “Drinking h2o — it dribbles retired of your mouth,” she says. “While eating, I wound my lingua and cheeks a lot. It’s conscionable similar everything is successful the incorrect spot.”

But the biggest situation has been dealing with her close eye, which inactive doesn’t adjacent each the way. “I’ve had my oculus unfastened present since June,” she says, sharing that elemental things similar taking a ablution and washing your look are tricky and uncomfortable erstwhile your oculus doesn’t afloat close. “Or erstwhile it’s windy out, your eyes squint to support yourself but your oculus doesn’t” with Bell’s palsy.

“It doesn’t consciousness normal,” says Sheppard, who uses oculus drops during the time and an ointment successful her oculus astatine nighttime to support it moist.

Beyond the carnal struggles, Sheppard wrestled with the information that she couldn’t grin successful immoderate of the photos with her newborns. But, she says, being a caller ma has besides helped her header with having Bell’s palsy. “In a weird mode it’s benignant of a blessing astatine this infinitesimal successful clip — I’m truthful engaged with different things,” she says. “I deliberation if I didn’t person 2 humans to support live close now, I’d beryllium wholly fixated connected this and destroyed. But due to the fact that I’m truthful busy, I bash deliberation astir it but it’s not a preoccupation.”

When she does person clip to deliberation astir it, though, “it gets maine truly sad,” she shares. At home, Sheppard says she’s successful “this bubble,” but erstwhile she leaves the location to conscionable up with friends oregon tally errands, “I spot radical looking astatine maine and it’s, ‘Right, this is not my face.’”

Sheppard describes herself arsenic “generally a precise smiley person,” truthful it’s been “weird to effort to fig retired however to convey that without my face. I conscionable can’t smile.”

Like Sheppard, registered dietitian Holley Grainger besides experienced Bell’s palsy astir her pregnancy. During the past six weeks of her 2nd gestation successful 2014, the Alabama nonmigratory was deed with “tremendous headaches” astatine the basal of her skull connected the close side.

“Six days aft delivering my daughter, I went to whistle for the dogs and realized the close broadside of my lips couldn’t pucker to marque a whistling noise,” Grainger tells Yahoo Life. “My oculus was besides droopy, and I had an aggravated symptom wherever my cheekbone and receptor conscionable connected the close side. Throughout the day, my look had tingles, my oculus was twitching and I had a headache.”

Within little than an hr of her symptoms starting, “the full close broadside of my look was motionless, and I had an aggravated ringing successful my ear.” Just similar Sheppard, Grainger thought she was having a stroke. “We rushed to the exigency country for tests and I was told that I had Bell’s palsy,” she says, sharing that the full acquisition was “extremely scary.”

Grainger says the receptor symptom and symptom on her cheekbone wherever her facial nervus is located was “excruciating,” adding: “I had unspeakable headaches and my eyes were highly adust due to the fact that I couldn’t blink.”

She was enactment connected “high doses” of steroids and antivirals and was told “to support my oculus by utilizing heavy oculus drops and taping it unopen astatine night,” she says. Along with the pain, Grainger had to travel to presumption with having her look look antithetic from what she was utilized to. “Mentally, I had an utmost magnitude of guilt due to the fact that I felt vain each clip I looked successful the mirror,” she says.

Coping with the unknown

But some Grainger and Sheppard accidental the “unknown” — not knowing however agelong symptoms would past — was and is 1 of the astir challenging parts of having Bell’s palsy.

Nellis acknowledges that “the hard portion is waiting.” He stresses that aboriginal attraction is indispensable for meaningful recovery. “As soon arsenic you cognize you person facial weakness, get successful to spot a doc and get high-dose steroids and get a bully people of attraction arsenic soon arsenic possible,” helium says. “If you privation to person the champion accidental of recovery, getting aboriginal attraction is going to springiness you the champion bet.”

Grainger yet recovered and says she was near with “very fewer broadside effects” that lone she notices. Her proposal for anyone who experiences Bell’s palsy? Find a specializer instantly — adjacent if you person to question to spot them — “to beryllium definite that you are taking the close dosage of medicines due to the fact that they are important during the archetypal fewer days.”

Also, she says, find a enactment system. “Over the past 7 years, I person had implicit 1,000 radical email, telephone and remark with questions astir Bell’s palsy,” Grainger shares. “However, the main remark I person is however lonely and frustrating it tin be. Not lone does Bell’s palsy origin you to look antithetic — which for galore is devastating — but it is highly achy and frustrating.”

Nellis agrees that seeking enactment is “really important,” pointing to his ain probe that shows radical with Bell’s palsy person “higher rates of slump and anxiety and decreased prime of life.” That’s partially due to the fact that radical with the information tin go socially isolated. “They’re little apt to spell retired for meal due to the fact that they’re drooling,” helium says, adding: “A batch of it is learning however to header with a caller normal. ... It’s truly tough.”

As for Sheppard, her facial paralysis has started to improve, but she’s inactive experiencing symptoms. She says that she’s learned to instrumentality things 1 time astatine a time. “I person to instrumentality it time by time due to the fact that there’s truly nary option,” she says.

Sheppard shares that she was “so worried” astir photographs with her babies and not being capable to grin successful them. “But I’m blessed for the moments I person now,” she says. “It’s not the representation I imagined, but it’s pictures of what really happened, and that’s conscionable arsenic important.”

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