So the doctor told me yesterday that I have bell’s palsy and I was curious if anybody here has had it before and how long until you started to feel better? I’m constantly dizzy and can barely eat. I haven’t worked out in weeks and I’m sure I have lost over ten pounds easily
half of your face is paralyzed?
Have you been tested for Lyme disease? My mom has some Lyme problems and it appears there is some correlation between the two.
[quote]Standard Donkey wrote:
half of your face is paralyzed?[/quote]
Exactly. Waiting on response.
I work with a lady who has it, it’s been 6 months since her face was paralyzed and it’s just now starting to function correctly again. She said there is alway a chance it’ll never be right again. To my knowledge she had no other side effects.
I had it last year. I saw some improvement after two weeks and was back to normal in three. I had none of the dizziness you’re describing though, and although it made eating a pain in the ass (because you can’t move your mouth properly), I had no actual problem with my appetite or with keeping food down. So it sounds like yours is more severe than mine. From what I understand it usually goes away pretty quick, assuming you are young and in decent physical condition. How long have you had it?
When I first got it, the doctor put me on a 5 day course of prednisone and an antiviral, which seemed to help. Have you been given any medication for it? The fact that it’s apparently been hanging around for a while (since you say you’ve lost 10 pounds) and is causing these other side effects makes me wonder if you should go back to the doctor and get yourself checked in case it’s linked to some other health problem.
My son-in-law had it. One side of his face paralyzed. It took about a year before he was back to normal.
My husband had that a few years ago. It scared the crap out of us because he woke up one day with 1/2 his face paralyzed. We thought he might of had a stroke in his sleep. He immediately got tested for Lyme Disease which came back positive. Docs put him on meds and his face went back to normal after a few weeks. He had a bit of trouble talking at first too, which for him, was really awful. Fortunately, it cleared up fairly painlessly.
My brother had it about 8 months ago, the doctor gave him a corticosteroid prescription and it probably took about a month for him to be back to normal.
I know someone that had it. It took about 2-3 months, but now he is completeyly fine.
Had it a long time ago. After a few months I recovered maybe 60% of the use of my face, but I seemed not to be making any more progress. I had some acupuncture done, and after that I recovered probably 95%. YMMV, even if you do believe it’s real, you gotta acknowledge that acupuncture’s a pretty dodgy thing, practiced by all sorts of folks who may or may not know what they’re doing.
I have what is the Ramsay hunt variation which is caused by lesions in the ear. Its basically chickenpox or a type of herpes that stays dormant in your body and gets released by a virus. Vertigo is a main side affect which means I can’t even walk yet move my head around without feeling dizzy. I went to the er and had an mri and my brain is fine thankfully. I also saw a neurologist who thouroughly inspected me. I guess the best thing I can do is take my medication and hope the dizziness goes away soon because this sucks. Man I just want to feel normal again and be able to do stuff.
Make sure you get physical therapy or something to ensure the proper re-learning of motor patterns that you will not use for the duration of the paralysis. I recovered to about 90% of my previous capacity, and I contracted it 7 years ago. I really wish that I had utilized proper physical therapy instead of just winging it myself.
BTW good luck
[quote]voodoo chile wrote:
Make sure you get physical therapy or something to ensure the proper re-learning of motor patterns that you will not use for the duration of the paralysis. I recovered to about 90% of my previous capacity, and I contracted it 7 years ago. I really wish that I had utilized proper physical therapy instead of just winging it myself.[/quote]
QFT
I will look into the physical therapy once I get better. I do have to see the neurologist again. Thanks for the info.
My mom had it twice. Each time took about 2-3 weeks to return to normal. A friend’s mom never recovered from her from over 20 years ago. She recovered very slowly over years, but her lower lip is paralyzed.