BELL'S PALSY

by Danna Shirley

            I was getting ready for Bible Study in Hario, Japan one morning (1994) when I noticed that my face was slightly numb. As I was putting on my lipstick, something wasn’t quite right but I thought maybe the mirror was fogged or my eyes were not focused clearly. When I watched myself move the lipstick tube across my mouth and then down my cheek, I knew something was definitely wrong. My mouth was sagging, my eye was drooping and I couldn’t shut my eyelid. I thought, “What’s happening to me?”

            I called my friend, Dot, and asked her if I could drive the fifteen minutes to Hario, would she drive me on to Sasebo, which was another forty-five minutes to the main base. My eye was so dry now from not being able to blink that it was really starting to hurt.

            Dot waited for me in the clinic parking lot and I went in to see the doctor. I assumed it would be routine; a few eye drops twice a day and I would be just fine. When I heard him say, “Bell’s Palsy,” all I heard was the word PALSY. I had never heard of this condition but I had heard of Cerebral Palsy. Fear crept in, quickly followed by tears. I told the doctor I had to get my friend out of the car; I couldn’t handle this alone. 

            With Dot now by my side, he went on to explain that Bell’s Palsy is a condition that causes the facial muscles to weaken or become paralyzed. It's usually caused by trauma to the seventh cranial nerve and is not permanent. I told him I hadn’t received any trauma that I knew of; I just woke up with it.

            The treatment was eye drops and something for pain, followed by not driving, taping my eye shut, and wearing an eye patch. The discomfort was intense. I drooled a lot and couldn’t control my eating . . . ugh! Ron was out of town and I knew I had to drive my sons, Russ and Aaron, to meet the school bus every morning and pick them up every afternoon. What was I going to do? Now is when good friends are a Godsend. Dot and her husband, Johnny, insisted that all of us move in with them until I recovered. I hated to impose but was so grateful for their help. 

            I eventually was able to shut my eye and the left side of my face regained feeling. It took a week or so for everything to move back into place. I was fully recovered by the time Ron returned home.

            I have since learned a few facts about Bell’s Palsy:

1.  Approximately 40,000 Americans are afflicted annually.

2.  Approximately 50% of Bells palsy patients will have essentially complete recoveries in a

     short time. Another 35% will have good recoveries in less than a year.

3.  Recurrence hovers at 5 - 9%. The average time span between recurrences is ten years.

            It has been twenty years since I had Bell’s Palsy so I have thankfully passed that recurrence mark. My sweet sister, Nan, however, was afflicted in June 2010 and is still in the process of returning to normal. As of this writing, she continues to drink out of a straw but is slowly improving.