Bell's Palsy

Remember back in December when I said I had some weird health stuff going on?

It was wild and I'm finally ready to talk about it.

December 11 - ugly sweater day at work!  I sent a friend this picture and thanked her for the pretty bow earrings in the morning.

Half way through the day, here's where things got weird.

My lips and tongue went all tingly.

My left side of my whole face was tingling.

My left eye nearly swelled shut.

My heart was racing.

All while I was teaching.  

My students were totally unaware that I wasn't feeling well and I was really thankful to have an assistant who could take over for me.

I tried not to panic, but I was panicking.  

I replayed everything I ate and everything I encountered to see if I was allergic to anything new.  I googled symptoms and tried hard to convince myself that I wasn't having a stroke.  I left the classroom and called Kevin.  My heart was racing and I felt awful.  I couldn't figure out if I was having an allergic reaction or what.  I visited the school nurse where she gave me allergy meds.  Then I decided I had to go home after chatting with my principal.  I zoomed home and went to bed.

Leaving school after making arrangements for the boys to get home.  I texted my team and asked them to pray for me.

Things didn't get worse for the next couple of days.  My eye stayed swollen and then my face was so tingly.  My neck and arms also went tingly.  I would wake up with my arms being numb.  It was just alarming.  My sister has had Bell's Palsy so I kept sending her goofy pictures like this one to check on my face movement.  The only thing that got droopy was my left eye lid and left under eye.  

I kept going to work, swollen eye and taking allergy meds to help.  I kept waking up in a panic expecting my left side of my face to droop.

December 13 - I headed to urgent care on the weekend because my tingling arms were getting worse and my eye was still droopy.  I saw a very kind doctor who consulted a few people there and confirmed she thought I had early onset Bell's Palsy.  She started me on some anti-viral medication and strong steroids for a few weeks.  She said every case of Bell's Palsy is different so she couldn't tell me if I'd get worse, if my symptoms would last 2 weeks or 2 months.  Some people require physical therapy to get better, acupunture for some and then others just have a mild case.  We'd just have to wait and see for me.  She said I made the right call to come in and not ignore my symptoms.  I might have teared up because it had been a stressful few days of googling my symptoms.

Side note: I have a complicated history with Shingles (I've had them 3 or 4 times on the back of my neck on the left side) and I had a fever blister on the left side a couple weeks prior to this tingling started.  She urged me to visit the doctor ASAP in the future should I have any Shingles/Bell's Palsy type symptoms so I can get on an anti viral medication and steroids ASAP.

A week later I followed up with my primary care doctor to do a full panel of blood work, medication check and general well check as a second opinion.  All of my test results came back with great news and she confirmed that I had a mild case of Bell's Palsy - where I just have tingling and very little drooping.  I didn't even know that was possible, but now I do.

My symptoms ended up lasting for about a month.  I had numbness and tingling in my face and arms for about the whole time.  My eye swelling and drooping got better.  I never ended up with major face drooping and was able to work and carry on with life pretty normally.  I'm so thankful I had a mild case.

So all this to say, if you ever have similar symptoms, head to the doctor ASAP to figure out what's going on and get on the right meds for you.  Catching it early will ease the symptoms and shorten the life of your symptoms.