[Leica] OT: Bell's Palsy

[Charlie Chan]

Douglas,

Most people with a facial nerve palsy recover with time. Often it takes several months. One can give steroids within the first 72 hours.

http://cks.nice.org.uk/bells-palsy#!scenariorecommendation:1

Best wishes,

Charlie

On 20 Aug 2014, at 21:41, Philip Leeson <leesonpj at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _
> 
> 
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