Sunday 16th December
I wake up today and peel the tape off my eye, along with an eyelash. I am taking my girlfriend to Edinburgh to see the Pandas. It's a 4 1/2 hour drive. I want to drive, otherwise I will be sat thinking about my face. After 2 hours or so, I notice lots of twitching in my face, the eyelid and the lip keep vibrating involuntarily. I do not know if this is a positive thing, but I have noticed one thing I am not too happy about. I can no longer show any teeth on the paralysed side of my face. I could only show a little before, so if things have got worse it is only slightly, but it is noticeably worse. I remember two things the Doctor in A and E said to me. she said the condition will not get worse, once it has happened it has happened. She also said that there is no correlation between how bad the condition is and the likelihood of recovery. I try to put it to the back of my mind but the vibrations keep occurring I quite like it though, at least something is happening, maybe the nerve is repairing.
We stop for lunch at a pub just before Scotland, my ulcers no longer hurt and I enjoy a meal for the first time in days. I have started manually blinking by pulling my right eyelid shut every so often. The vision in my right eye is a little cloudy, but I think that is to be expected considering I am not really blinking. When eating, any food that falls into the right side of my mouth gets stuck, I cannot use my right cheek to move the food back to the middle. I figure out I can apply pressure to the outside if my cheek with my hand and it does the job. I got to the bathroom in the pub and look at my face for a while. Things are definitely worse. I am not going to let it ruin this weekend. I'll see how I am when we return.
I go to the cinema in Edinburgh and watch a 3D film without any trouble. When we go back to the hotel I do some more Googling on my phone. I find out the two things the Doctor told me in A and E may not be true. There is a correlation between how severe the problem is and the likelihood of recovery. I find a very in depth research paper with a scale of severity from 1 to 6, 6 being the worst. I think I may be a 4, to be a level 5 the my face should not look normal when stationary at rest, and it looks very normal. I check in the bathroom again, I have the ability to twitch the right side of my face ever so slightly, it is most noticeable on the upper cheek. The right corner of my mouth can turn upwards a tiny amount if I seriously concentrate, but it hurts to do so. Level 5 would involve no voluntary movement. More Googling suggests it is very common for the condition to deteriorate before getting better. I find about 6 or 7 different diaries written by people with Bell's Palsy. Almost all of them experienced a deterioration in movement after a few days. This does make me feel better and I feel confident about recovery once again. I stopped at a shop on the way back to the hotel and bought some multi vitamins that contain some B vitamins. I take one before going to sleep, and decide to find a Holland and Barret in the norming to get a proper B vitamin complex.
Today i took 8 x 5mg Prednisolone and 5 x 800mg Avyclovir throughout the day. I used eyedrops every so often, and used Lacri Lube and taped my eye closed to sleep.
I wake up today and peel the tape off my eye, along with an eyelash. I am taking my girlfriend to Edinburgh to see the Pandas. It's a 4 1/2 hour drive. I want to drive, otherwise I will be sat thinking about my face. After 2 hours or so, I notice lots of twitching in my face, the eyelid and the lip keep vibrating involuntarily. I do not know if this is a positive thing, but I have noticed one thing I am not too happy about. I can no longer show any teeth on the paralysed side of my face. I could only show a little before, so if things have got worse it is only slightly, but it is noticeably worse. I remember two things the Doctor in A and E said to me. she said the condition will not get worse, once it has happened it has happened. She also said that there is no correlation between how bad the condition is and the likelihood of recovery. I try to put it to the back of my mind but the vibrations keep occurring I quite like it though, at least something is happening, maybe the nerve is repairing.
We stop for lunch at a pub just before Scotland, my ulcers no longer hurt and I enjoy a meal for the first time in days. I have started manually blinking by pulling my right eyelid shut every so often. The vision in my right eye is a little cloudy, but I think that is to be expected considering I am not really blinking. When eating, any food that falls into the right side of my mouth gets stuck, I cannot use my right cheek to move the food back to the middle. I figure out I can apply pressure to the outside if my cheek with my hand and it does the job. I got to the bathroom in the pub and look at my face for a while. Things are definitely worse. I am not going to let it ruin this weekend. I'll see how I am when we return.
I go to the cinema in Edinburgh and watch a 3D film without any trouble. When we go back to the hotel I do some more Googling on my phone. I find out the two things the Doctor told me in A and E may not be true. There is a correlation between how severe the problem is and the likelihood of recovery. I find a very in depth research paper with a scale of severity from 1 to 6, 6 being the worst. I think I may be a 4, to be a level 5 the my face should not look normal when stationary at rest, and it looks very normal. I check in the bathroom again, I have the ability to twitch the right side of my face ever so slightly, it is most noticeable on the upper cheek. The right corner of my mouth can turn upwards a tiny amount if I seriously concentrate, but it hurts to do so. Level 5 would involve no voluntary movement. More Googling suggests it is very common for the condition to deteriorate before getting better. I find about 6 or 7 different diaries written by people with Bell's Palsy. Almost all of them experienced a deterioration in movement after a few days. This does make me feel better and I feel confident about recovery once again. I stopped at a shop on the way back to the hotel and bought some multi vitamins that contain some B vitamins. I take one before going to sleep, and decide to find a Holland and Barret in the norming to get a proper B vitamin complex.
Today i took 8 x 5mg Prednisolone and 5 x 800mg Avyclovir throughout the day. I used eyedrops every so often, and used Lacri Lube and taped my eye closed to sleep.
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