martyp's blog

Having been lucky with my health for so long I think I began to take it for granted. Very little seemed to warrant a visit to a doctor and I was a healthy active 25 year old. I had travelled to many exotic countries and had no allergies or conditions at all.

My family is also generally healthy and normal although one thing that really intrigued me was that my mum had this strange thing she could do in a way of saying 'err' in like something was disgusting. She could lift her top lip up on one side, completely independent of the other side.

This was really familiar to me and I asked her how she could do it and she said it was from having Bells Palsy when she was in her teens. She told me she practically just woke up and half of her face couldn't move. Her younger brother had it too and being a brass player panicked that he'd never be able to play again. Both cases went in a couple of weeks. Both my mum and and uncle are 100% today. I believed this was some kind of prevalent condition in the early half of this century and didn't occur today...little did I know...

Day 34

A very hot day which was spent out and about at first, then most of the afternoon and evening spent resting as I felt really tired and exhausted.

Very slight twitching felt behind my ear and my ear can feel slightly itchy at times but that's probably my hair doing that as it's no more really than the other ear. I never really had problems with itchiness at all.

Day 33

Facial muscles seem to be 95% back to normal now. I don't really think about it at all. I feel very much back to normal generally. Can feel tired and exhausted at times though.

My eye on the affected side still isn't quite that good though. It feels a little odd when trying to close it tightly. At least now it closes tight enough to keep shampoo out my eyes in the shower!

Day 32

All still looking well. Quite tired though still. Trying to rest as much as possible.

Day 31

All still looking good. No real improvements to mention. My ear looks very normal now and my face does too generally.

Feeling a bit conscious laughing that my mouth isn't quite working perfectly. I can smile fairly well now and show all my teeth where before my lips were quite closed on the affected side. Still feeling very tired all the time though.

Day 30

Very much all normal now, except the smile and the fact that my eye still doesn't seem to close as tightly as the other one. I had a little pain behind my ear at one point, maybe a lingering after effect.

Day 29

Now feeling normal when talking and eating. Feeling generally very tired a lot of the time though and very exhausted for no real reason. Had a sleep in the evening when I got back from work.

Day 28

Felt ok generally all day, went out various places. Following the success of being able to pout my lips to blow the night before, I tried whistling in the evening and found that I could! Must be a definite improvement. The smile doesn't seem very good though. My ear can be a bit sore to touch strangely, so too can my cheekbone area, if feels like it is bruised at times.

Day 27

Did quite a bit of driving around which wore me out a bit. My ear is now quite clear now and looks very much normal. In the evening I went to my cousin's wedding and although my forehead wrinkles up both sides fairly well, my smile is still quite lop sided.

One achievement was that I was able to blow air out to blow bubbles at the wedding reception!

Day 26

All seemed ok generally. No headaches or anything at all really. No real progress otherwise. Still biting my top lip on the affected side when eating which is quite annoying and painful.

Travelled accross the UK to my parents place in the evening. Feeling generally tired though.

Day 25

Felt my eye twitching quite a bit. Mouth movement starting to show a bit. Some occasional pain behind my ear and a little pain opening my mouth really wide.

Lesions still much the same; still holding out from touching them at all. Feels like my eye closes better on that side too.