I'm still not better

I took my face out to the public today. I like this picture because it shows my goal of keeping my open eyeball out of the sun. I have found that the sun is brighter when my eyelids don't work as well. I went with the Burns family to the Botanical Gardens so Mom's dog could have her date with Socrates the Standard Poodle. Lucy didn't attend Dog Days at the Gardens because of her undesirable habits of biting young children and other dogs which are uglier than her.

I have a new favorite thing about Huntsville. Since 1 out of 12.7 people in this town is an engineer, no one really cares how much drink I spill on myself when attempting to stay hydrated. I thought drinking from a straw would be better, but that isn't comfortable on my jaw. My jaw is sore either from swelling, or from trying too hard to move my muscles. It's also a little tiring to talk a lot. Since I'm not too pleasant to be around, I bet it's tiring on everyone else when I do talk.

Chik-Fil-A took me for a ride today when they charged me $5 for a wedge of lettuce that looked like chicken. That's also the first glass of sweet tea I've had that tasted like mayonnaise.

I finished screening the deck today. That is awesome. I really like how it's turned out so far. Here's a link to the deck:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.lettie/Deck/photo#5165121978767450290

I thought I would have started getting better by now. I'm not.

3 Days

I started putting eye drops in my eye this morning. It turns out that they help. I didn't know how much I needed them until I started. Now that's something else I'm addicted to. I dreaded putting the drops in because I have an enormous fear of things touching my eyeball. Without a blink reflex, these drops are a piece of cake. I'll keep using them.

I wanted a good lunch today, so I splurged and went to Jersey Mike's for my Regular #9. The experience wasn't what I hoped. I couldn't open my mouth wide enough to eat the sandwich without getting my left lip in the way. Since I still have feeling, I knew I was about to bite my lip but it wouldn't move out of the way. I have to use 1 hand to hold the #9, and the other hand to pull my bottom lip out of the way. Once I figured that out, I remembered that I can't taste. The whole sandwich tastes like a wedge of lettuce with mayonnaise.

I don't think the symptoms got any worse today. I know they aren't better, but not worse is also good.

Here's me and little Patrick after a full day of work:

48 Hours

From what I've read, symptoms seem to increase for 48 hours after muscle twitching. This is what I've seen today. My swelling has come back a little on the left jaw and my eye blinks are a little worse. My jaw is sore from the swelling. The symptoms are still more annoying than anything else.

I took 1/2 day off from work and took a nap. That was nice. I'm tearing through my vacation hours. I would never have considered Bell's Palsy to be a vacation, but so far it's been 8 hours worth.

Mom got me an eye patch. Thanks Mom. I don't quite have it figured out yet because it cuts the blood circulation off to the rest of my head. I'll make some shoestring improvements and maybe that will help. I also need something to keep my eye closed so I don't have to remember to blink it when I'm not using it.

Also a special thanks to Andy for modifying the wiki page on my behalf. Notice the new update in the Famous People section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_palsy

Here are a few pictures from today. I know I need a haircut. I plan to get the right side of my hair trimmed up and leave the left side as is. I should quit shaving on that side too. I think you can view a bigger version of the picture by clicking it.

Eyes shut REALLY hard:


Pucker up:


Today's smile:

Bell's Palsy Diagnosis

Today I was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. If you aren't familiar with it (why would you be at 23/100000 odds of getting it) you can find some information here: http://www.bellspalsy.ws/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_palsy. In looking for information, I found a few diaries of other people's recovery and thought that was a good idea. Hopefully my recovery is quick and I don't have to update this blog for the rest of my years.

I just realized why I got Bell's Palsy. Although doctor's don't know how to treat it or how you get it, I do. It's because I didn't fast on Ash Wednesday or attend church on the Holy Day. I didn't realize BP was used as a penance, but that seems reasonable. UPDATE: Jackson's Godparents informed me that Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day. Who knows that, and why would anyone argue with a 1/2 faced man about Holy Days? I'm as clueless as the doctors again, and I'm not playing the Mauters in religious trivia anytime soon.

I'll add a few back dated posts with my symptoms of each day. I'll try to add more posts as symptoms change so you can track my progress.

Real Symptoms Appear

This morning I knew something was different. I still had the same dull tongue, and it had not gotten better or worse in smoothness, and maybe a little worse in taste discrimination. I can tell food temperature, but not taste. Maybe this is a evolutionary effect to my wife's cooking (just kidding...I grew up on my Mom's cooking so I clearly have evolved before today) I didn't have any meetings at work in the morning, so I took my time and got there at 8:30. Once there, I felt that my smile was crooked. I was a little self conscious about it, so I kept my hand near the left side of my face when co-workers stopped by. I went about my business with no problems. I didn't go to the mirror to look, because it would be ridiculous if what I felt was the case. Now my eye has been shedding tears for at least a day and it is very tired. I attributed this to the 2nd night of reduced sleep since we had tornadoes at 3AM.

I took lunch at 12:00 and ate in the break room. Someone asked if I had dental work done today because the left side of my face was swollen. I said no, and mentioned that although it isn't numb or tingly, it does have significant reduced muscle control. I know it isn't working right when I smile. The left side of my mouth won't pucker up. I can't hold air pressure in my mouth since it leaks out the left side. These guys convinced me I was crazy for sitting there, and one guy told me I had Bell's Palsy (thanks Joe) and needed to "get my butt" to the doctor.

These symptoms get more pronounced for the next few hours while I sit in the emergency room since my doctor works 3.5 days a week and my sick days are not his work days. They ask my current pain on the pain scale of 1-10. I say 0, so chances are that I will never make it to the doctor in the ER. Now my ear feels pressure, most likely from further swelling of that side of my face. My eye is very tired and watery, and I have to concentrate to blink it occasionally. I can blink, but under full force my left eye still lets light through. I can't wrinkle half my forehead, and my left side eyebrow and nose can't move. I can still feel everything, so I know my muscles aren't responding correctly.

At 3:30, my wife gets me into the on-call doctor and I drive over there after cussing at the person in front of me in the parking deck. They couldn't figure out how to pay and liked yelling at me at the same time. This person was having a very bad day, but the right side of my face was well behaved the whole time. I can't speak for my left side.

The on-call doctor agreed with the prognosis without any prodding by me. He gave me a shot of Cortisone, and a prescription for steroids and Acyclovir for an antiviral. I don't have shingles or genital herpes but he thought the medicine could help since some believe Bell's Palsy is related to the Herpes virus. He mentioned the only negatives are potential eye damage since my blinking is greatly reduced, and also that this could be permanent (but highly doubtful).

Now I'm awake for my 3rd night in a row. This time it's due to the Barry Bonds steroid dosage. I thought this blog would be a good idea after reading this: http://home.hccnet.nl/rde.bruin/diary.htm

Here's a picture of today's smile.

Face Twitches

I stayed up most of the night for some reason and was very tired today at work. I wasn't thinking at my best, but made it through the day without any brain catastrophes. I did notice consistent twitching on the left side of my face; mostly above my left lip and at my left eye. Since everyone gets this I didn't think much of it, but it is more noticeable than normal. I covered that side of my face when people were talking with me because it didn't feel quite right. (Looking back, I also had beginnings of reduced muscle control around my mouth which was most noticeable when laughing at other people's misfortune) I also knew my eye was tired, but I contributed that to the lack of sleep as well. I skipped a class at work at the end of the day and went home and had no new symptoms, and didn't mention anything other than noticing weird face syndrome to Lettie.

My tongue feels weird

Late in the day I noticed my tongue has started to feel weird. It feels very smooth in my mouth. I didn't notice it right away, but can now tell this feeling also comes with diminished taste. I ate a sandwich with jalapeños and had plenty of heartburn to show for it, but no taste. I'm not a conosiour of food, so I really didn't think much of this. I had some terrible chewing gum that Lettie force fed me over the weekend, so I thought my tongue was gapped up from gum that was never tested on animals. Her tongue felt weird too.