Bell’s Palsy Update: Day 2191

For those dear readers who have followed my blog over the years, you probably have read about my contracting Bell’s Palsy...and my continuing journey on the road to recovery.* The first couple of months were extremely difficult days, and I dealt with them in the best way I knew how: with words...lots and lots of words. Now, as hard as this is for me to believe, another anniversary of that terrible day in 2012 has rolled around. My stars! Can it truly be six whole years?

(*You can revisit Day 1 here, if you need to refresh your memory...I’ll wait...)

If you recall, the doctor originally said it could last 15 days...or the rest of my life. Ah well, it seems to be the latter, doesn’t it? Because, while my face no longer appears to be sliding off my skull and I was able to recover my speech patterns, I continue to live with residual effects of facial paralysis known as synkinesis. Not the worst fate, most assuredly, but still bothersome on a constant basis.

Sip a beverage through a straw? My left eye closes. Smile? My left eye closes. Smile too big...or for too long...or squint into the sun? The left side of my jaw locks into a painful spasm. It goes away with massage, but I know it will return. Just a matter of time before the next one. Sigh.

There’s something else I know. I know that I am fortunate to have recovered as much as I did. I know there are worse afflictions. I know “that which doesn’t kill one, makes one stronger.” OK, that’s three things I know.

Anyway, another year is over...and another chapter in this saga has been written. And as anniversaries go, this particular “celebration” has been a quiet one. No champagne. No party. No cute or sentimental cards. I mean, really, a truly boring commemoration if ever there was one.

But that’s good, right? Because even though I don’t want BP to play a major part in my life, neither do I wish to forget the role it has played. And to remember it is now a bit player.

So, hip hip hooray! Now, let’s move on...