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The night before last, I developed a moderate earache in my right ear. Strange for me, because I've never had ear problems. Yesterday the earache persisted and I figured I'd give it 24 hours to see if it resolved, and if not I'd hit up an Urgent Care for some antibiotics. Then during lunch, I started feeling slightly feverish. I also noticed that I had lost taste in part of my tongue. "Weird," I thought. I figured maybe I had been putting on too much Chapstick and part of my tongue was covered in petroleum jelly or something. Sure, looking back that seems like a poor explanation, but I have never been a hypochondriac or medical alarmist. Having worked in the field I knew that sometimes the body just goes a little nutso for no reason at all and then corrects itself just as suddenly. Besides I wasn't having any truly alarming symptoms...
Until 11:00 that night. I had prepared some tomato soup and was attempting to eat it, but to my consternation it kept dribbling out of the right corner of my mouth. My lips were also making an uncharacteristic smaking sound in an attempt to keep the soup in. It dawned on me that the entire right side of my face had gone somewhat numb, as if I'd just gotten back from an appointment with a novocaine-happy dentist. I looked in the mirror, and, to my horror, observed that the right side of my face was drooping downwards as if the muscles had gone a bit slack. Crap.
Cue the freakout. I was 99% sure that I was having a stroke, because I know a lot about medicine, and I didn't know of anything else that could cause these symptoms to come on so suddenly. Daniel drove me to the ER. As I sat in the waiting room, I noticed that the vision in my right eye was going a bit blurry. I tried to keep a mental sountrack of "Everything's okay, you're going to be fine" going, but every so often it would turn into "I'm going to die!!! Holy fuck!"
Luckily, the staff got me back super soon (in ER time, anyway) and the triage nurse examined me and came up with a preliminary diagnosis of Bell's Palsy. I had no idea what that was, but she seemed pretty cheerful about it, so my heart rate started to slow down. The doctor confirmed her diagnosis and explained what the heck Bells Palsy means. Cranial Nerve VII, (a.k.a. the facial nerve) becomes inflamed (probably due to some virus) and is unable to innervate the muscles on the effected side of the face. Therefore, the muscles lose sensation and motor functioning. It is a perfectly harmless idiopathy, albiet annoying as hell. The doc said it would probably last between 7 and 10 days and gave me a script for some oral steroids on the off chance that they would help relieve the inflammation of the offending nerve.
I did some reasearch on the internet, and aparantly this Bell's Palsy thing is pretty common. The 7 to 10 day prognosis was probably a bit optimistic though, as many people end up dealing with some degree of symptoms for at least a couple of months and as long as a year. A few unfortunates end up with it for the rest of their lives. It seems that starting the steroids early speeds up the course of it, so that's good.
Also, I learned a neat trick for figuring out if you've really had a stroke. For one thing, a whole side of your body would become weak, not just half your face. Also, people who have had a stroke can still wrinkle their foreheads, whereas half the forehead is Botox-still in Bell's Palsy. So remember that, kiddies, the next time tomato soup comes dripping out of your mouth.
Until 11:00 that night. I had prepared some tomato soup and was attempting to eat it, but to my consternation it kept dribbling out of the right corner of my mouth. My lips were also making an uncharacteristic smaking sound in an attempt to keep the soup in. It dawned on me that the entire right side of my face had gone somewhat numb, as if I'd just gotten back from an appointment with a novocaine-happy dentist. I looked in the mirror, and, to my horror, observed that the right side of my face was drooping downwards as if the muscles had gone a bit slack. Crap.
Cue the freakout. I was 99% sure that I was having a stroke, because I know a lot about medicine, and I didn't know of anything else that could cause these symptoms to come on so suddenly. Daniel drove me to the ER. As I sat in the waiting room, I noticed that the vision in my right eye was going a bit blurry. I tried to keep a mental sountrack of "Everything's okay, you're going to be fine" going, but every so often it would turn into "I'm going to die!!! Holy fuck!"
Luckily, the staff got me back super soon (in ER time, anyway) and the triage nurse examined me and came up with a preliminary diagnosis of Bell's Palsy. I had no idea what that was, but she seemed pretty cheerful about it, so my heart rate started to slow down. The doctor confirmed her diagnosis and explained what the heck Bells Palsy means. Cranial Nerve VII, (a.k.a. the facial nerve) becomes inflamed (probably due to some virus) and is unable to innervate the muscles on the effected side of the face. Therefore, the muscles lose sensation and motor functioning. It is a perfectly harmless idiopathy, albiet annoying as hell. The doc said it would probably last between 7 and 10 days and gave me a script for some oral steroids on the off chance that they would help relieve the inflammation of the offending nerve.
I did some reasearch on the internet, and aparantly this Bell's Palsy thing is pretty common. The 7 to 10 day prognosis was probably a bit optimistic though, as many people end up dealing with some degree of symptoms for at least a couple of months and as long as a year. A few unfortunates end up with it for the rest of their lives. It seems that starting the steroids early speeds up the course of it, so that's good.
Also, I learned a neat trick for figuring out if you've really had a stroke. For one thing, a whole side of your body would become weak, not just half your face. Also, people who have had a stroke can still wrinkle their foreheads, whereas half the forehead is Botox-still in Bell's Palsy. So remember that, kiddies, the next time tomato soup comes dripping out of your mouth.
my ear has been numb for like 3 days. maybe i was having sympathy numbness! ;)
anyway, i hope it goes away in the shortest time possible!