[Leica] OT: Bell's Palsy

[Douglas Barry]

Anybody ever had this and if so how long did it last? Sorry to fill the list
with yet another OT email. I got a fright on Sunday morning at breakfast
when part of one side of my tongue went numbish along with part of my cheek.
That combined with a couple of headaches earlier in the week eventually
prompted a TIA scare. As it was Sunday and all doctors in Ireland are on
golf courses that day, a visit to the A&E was urged by SWMBO. I should have
just driven to a golf course and hailed a man in plaid...

Went to the public hospital at 9.00pm just in time to meet the early drunk.
Nearly had a fight in the waiting room with one who was being aggressive to
some poor woman - in pain - who also was queuing. What a hell hole! Drunk
was removed by the Gardai. Never brought a camera.... After a lot of
waiting, probing, and tests, it was determined that a TIA was not likely but
it probably related to dental work last month, so I was discharged and hit
my bed at 3.15am.

The following day - Monday, my mouth still felt like someone else's, so I
went to the dental surgeon who had removed the two awkward teeth for me last
month, but he said jaw now fine, but it may be caused by me grinding my jaws
at night. I have to get a guard from my ordinary dentist and speed up
getting a cobalt denture. It also might be the sinal passages, as the root
cavity was very messy on one of the removed teeth at the time.

To eliminate the sinuses, I went to the doc that afternoon who put me on
double strength penicillin and gave me a referral for a brain & sinuses MRI
scan which is due tomorrow afternoon. Yesterday (Tues) the muscles on the
left side of my face went partially on strike along with my left lower
eyelid - a bit worrying. Ironically, I was dropping my wife in for her
chemo - she has stage 4 cancer - at the adjoining private hospital and
noticed my eye tearing up heavily on the drive in, and was tempted to try
and see a specialist. I didn't.

Today when I woke, my face was worse again so back to A&E in the public
hospital again - no drunks this time - and got a different doctor. More
tests, a paper review by a specialist, and the prognosis that it was most
likely to be Bell's Palsy, but I'm also to have the MRI tomorrow to
eliminate more terrifying possibilities.

So, off list, please let me know if any of you have had any experience of
it. I'd only heard of it from warnings from my father and mother never to go
to bed with my hair wet!

Douglas