[Leica] OT: Bell's Palsy

[Philip Leeson]

Good info here:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/bells/detail_bells.htm

Phil

On Aug 20, 2014, at 2:39 PM, Sonny Carter <sonc.hegr at gmail.com> wrote:

> Kathy had it for a few months.  In her case it was not permanent, and that
> is the case for many people, as I understand it.
> 
> We had a neighbor who had had it for many years, however.
> 
> There's really no treatment for it, the saddest thing is that it takes away
> your smile, and as you know in Kathy's case that was a blow.
> 
> It also makes for a dry eye on the side affected, so you need to care for
> the eye with drops and eye protection in the wind.
> 
> I don't know if they really know for sure what causes it,  virus is
> suspected, or injury.
> 
> She had some jaw surgery a year or so before; that could have had something
> to do with it, but no one would admit to that!
> 
> Remember, most  get over it with time, I understand.  Kathy fully recovered
> in about six months.  She was really scared though until it started
> improving.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
> 
>> 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
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _