Significant Improvement

I don't have long to post, but I have noticed significant improvement today from earlier days. I can move my left eyebrow on command. It moves about 1/2 as much as the right side, but any movement is better than before. My mouth hasn't shown the improvement yet, but hopefully this means my eye is blinking better so the days won't be as long.

Valentine's Day

It's been 9 days since the failed emergency room visit. Nothing is different today. I thought my taste might be coming back since a snack I had seemed to be very different. I can't remember what the snack was but I figure it must have been rotten. My taste is still muted and I think it's the same as the past days. I was thankful for the muted taste as it worked marvelous today at Mom and Dad's Mexican restaurant for dinner. I feel bad for Lettie and Jackson since they had full use of their taste buds.

Ben got me the best BP gift I could imagine. Thanks Ben. It's a surrogate mouth. Since I complained about my mouth blowing in the wrong directions, Ben came up with this perfect substitude. I plan to use the router to cut a notch out of a 2x6 tomorrow, so I'll try it out then to keep the notch clear of sawdust. Jackson will also appreciate the never ending bubbles from these duster cans.

I'm actually tired of complaining, so I don't have a new complaint today. I recognize this is highly unusual, but even I get tired of constant complaining.

WAIT. I do have a complaint to share. I'm tired of the forlorn "Hello Alex" greeting that I get in the hallway. People use to ignore me and we both liked it that way. Now people have to say something that sounds pitiful. Surely I'm not that pitiful. Well, I know I don't walk even slower than before so the pitiful scale shouldn't be different. Everyone I work significant time with is way over this left side right side battle. But a few people that I don't talk with very much seem to be the depressed greeting types.

My apologies to Justin, the UT graduate, for my past comments. I am a hater, but you know the comments are true. Those girls are big: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/Aug/28/tenn-fifthin-obesityfor-nation/ I know Alabama isn't the skinniest state (still skinnier than Tennessee), but Huntsville is an island of wealthy professionalism in this fine state.

Haircut

I got my haircut today. That's the first time I looked in the mirror for a long time without making a bunch of weird faces at myself. I looked in the mirror to see if I would notice someone else with these symptoms. I'm pretty sure I would. I noticed my left eye was very relaxed and open, when the other eye is squinty. I noticed my lips curved to the right all the time. Normal lip force only works on one side and it pulls my mouth that direction. I noticed uneven blinks which look like a lazy eye. Even when I don't smile, the signs are there. It's no big deal though. Someone told me today that I had a nice Elvis appeal that is quite sexy. It's not every day that I'm called Elvis or sexy. This haircut must do a nice job of emphasizing the curvature of my right eyebrow. The Chinese lady at MasterCuts did a good job.

I have a little muscle twitching today. The twitches don't feel like normal twitches which give lip or eye quivers. These twitches are very isolated in a pin point size spot. They are also pretty strong for as small as they are. That seems like a good sign. My swelling is barely visible, and I take my last steriod pills tomorrow.

I'm not at Knoxville tonight. The main reason I didn't go is because recruiting engineers from Knoxville doesn't make logical sense. If we win a contract where we need to hire a bunch of heavy cheerleaders I'll agree to recruit there. That's when 1 recruiting visit would be economically efficient.

Tuscaloosa

I went to the doctor and to Tuscaloosa on Monday. It was a new doctor that I was interviewing. He did a good job. He didn't change any medicine and just said let him know what's going on after a few weeks. If I'm better that's good, if I'm not then we can talk again. He didn't think a neurologist would say anything different than Wikipedia and would just waste more time.

The trip to Tuscaloosa was too much. I used all new slides for the recruiting presentation so I wasn't as familiar with the content, then I had trouble talking that much. I ended up getting flustered during the presentation with my jaw and eyes not cooperating. The whole thing erupted into a near disaster when one guy fork flicked his barbeque at me during my Lock-In Amplifier discussion. He missed, but the criticism was noted. The left side of my face really let him have it.

I'm in the process of getting out of the 2nd trip this week. Driving to Knoxville by myself won't work. I can't keep my bad eye closed and good eye open. I have to keep both eyes open, and then closed for a few seconds. I've found that sequence isn't optimal during driving. I've already complained about my eye, so I'm not counting this as my daily complaint. It's next.

My hearing is odd. Loud noises echo on my left side. This is because the same nerve also controls dampening within the ear canal. Normal talking doesn't affect my hearing, but baby cries and recuiting audience boos do.

My face swelling is barely noticeable today. I don't feel any muscle twitches yet, which might signify the nerve healing.

Straight Line Winds

I never knew how often I pucker my lips and blow air out of my mouth. Lettie generally serves molten pasta for dinner, and I have to blow on that to cool it down. Jackson is currently big on bubbles, so he likes me to blow bubbles outside. And then today, I needed to blow sawdust away from the saw while cutting the pencil line. You people with 2 halves to your face might not realize this, but blowing with the just my right side makes the air go to the left. I compensate by turning my head to the right when blowing. This puts my open eye along the wind channel, so bubbles and saw dust get blown into my eye. I can close the eye, but then I can't see since my head is turned to the right. That's the BP annoyance for the day. Thanks for reading it.

I wore my old Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses today. I look like a rock star.

Thanks for the cards, phone calls, and emails this weekend. That was nice. I might have played this up bigger than it is. Lettie keeps telling me that it isn't noticeable. I don't believe her, but it's up to you to decide if you do or not. I can tell you that she generally is honest, and she's pretty.

I travel a little bit for work this next week. Tomorrow I get driven to Tuscaloosa, and then Wednesday I'm supposed to drive myself to Knoxville. I also have 2 doctor's appointments scheduled for next week.

I'm not any better today.