2nd bout of Bell’s palsy

[Shani_Steel]

I had my first bout of Bell’s palsy 2 years ago after only realizing I had a pain in my left ear after my left eye and left side of my mouth both started to droop. At first my daughter and I thought I was having a stroke but realised as I had no weakness in my arms or legs that it wasn’t. I didn’t actually do anything about it until the next day as my symptoms had got worse so I went to A/E where they were very good and actually did treat me as though I had had some sort of stroke even having a CT scan of my brain. All blood tests and CT normal so I was given steroids of 30mgs for 5 days , thankfully my face did start to get better after a few days, but as my left eye was not closing when I went to bed I had to put eye ointment in it and tape my eye lid down, I think I did this for about 2 weeks when my eyelid had started to close . I think my smile came back to normal at about 3 months. I didn’t know you could get it again until a year ago I was on holiday in The Gambia and 3 days in when I was drinking my morning cup of tea I noticed I was dribbling out of the left side of my mouth 😢 went to the mirror and to my horror noticed my eye open and not closing, luckily as I knew what it was I went to the pharmacy and as I was on holiday got double dose 60mgs a day of prednisolone for 10 days which started to work the next day and by the 5th day of taking my eye and smile were back to normal. When I returned to England I went to my GP who ordered a MRI scan which thankfully showed no residual damage to my facial nerve. I’m actually telling my story now because as it’s coming up to a year again I’m a bit worried that I may develop it again as apparently it can occur again, so fingers crossed it won’t happen this year again.