Diagnosed with bells palsy but I'm not sure it is.

[Shaddix29]

A couple of weeks ago, I rang 111 and was advised to go to A&E because I reported symptoms they wanted checking out.

I had felt really tired all of a sudden and my right eyebrow/eyelid dropped and covered my eye a bit and my vision was blurry. I could still move it, so no paralysis, but it was droopy. The rest of my face was fine.

After an almost 7 hour wait and seeing an out of hours doctor at the A&E.. they shone a light in my eyes, moved my eyebrow up and down and said that I had Bells Palsy.

After reading about it a little online.. (im obviously not a doctor) I dont think I have bells palsy.

After a day or so it had gone.. but it also comes back/droops if I get really tired. I had been to the doctors recently because my face has been going numb/tingly but this was my first drooping.

I was just looking for other peoples experiences really. Is it normal for bells palsy to come and go like this? or to go so quickly?

Thank you

[Shaddix29]

Also, I was put on 25mg of prednisolone for 10 days and have now finished it.. and I've got one of the worst headaches I've ever had (I do have migraines but this feels worse).. could this be from finishing the steroids ?

[Aliholth in reply to Shaddix29]

25mg isn't very strong, but it sounds like you got it within 72hrs which is the important part. Were you given antiviral (acyclovir) too? This is very similar to my diagnosis. The pain is the nerves trying to regenerate. I was diagnosed with post herpetic neuralgia and now take gabapentin for the pain. Go back to your gp and ask to be referred to ent . Standard pain killers don't work on nerve pain. It's still very early days for you, make sue you get lots of rest.

[Shaddix29 in reply to Aliholth]

Thankyou for your reply I wasn't given anything other than the steroids to take.

Has it been your experience that the drooping can come and go with tiredness rather than being there constantly ?

[25clai]

From my experience the symptoms of the palsy getting worse when tired is a similar pattern to me. I think rest really helps . The other problem is stress. When I have increased stress ( unfortunately a regular occurrence - teenage children, need I say more....) the symptoms always get worse. For me , this affects my speech, which of course is totally hilarious for the rest of the family , but really frustrating for me. I tend to laugh through it, as otherwise , I wallow in negativity, which I don't recommend . I have a supportive family, which helps, and mentally I'm dealing with the prospect of no full recovery, but just relived it's not as bad as it was.

Good pain relief can help, especially when you have peaks of symptoms. GP or neurologist, would give advice / prescription. I take a variety of pain relief , which is really for other chronic health problems I have, but they are effective for nerve pain.

[Shaddix29 in reply to 25clai]

Thank you for your reply I remember being a difficult teenager so no more needed to be said lol. I shall speak to my GP, thank you. How much rest do you find you need to keep it away as much as possible?

[25clai]

I ideally need 8 hours a night, plus a couple of Times per week, when I get the chance i have a sleep for 1-2 hrs. It all depends what is going on and how well I sleep at night ( often not great)

[Matchj1]

Hi, I’ve just been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, last week it was just affecting my forehead and eyebrow but today my mouth started pulling to the side but after some rest it seems to have gone back. The drs have said it is still Bell’s palsy. Like you I’m not convinced it is as I didn’t think the symptoms come and go. Did you ever find out if there was anything else or was it Bell’s palsy in the end?