The first day of Spring! How nice to contemplate the approach of warm weather. It felt so good to be out and sniff the fresh air. I noticed a slight pain behind my right ear. "Could I be getting another ear infection?" I wondered. (In December I had an ear infection on the left side that probably came from the pool.)

Did not swim today because I didn't want to tempt fate with my ear and because I had so much to do, to finish preparation for Seder and to begin packing for our trip to Los Angeles. At dinner with friends the pain behind my ear seemed to increase, and the skin on the outside of my ear felt "tingly-painful" when touched.

I still felt that pain, my gland on the right side hurt and felt swollen and I was a bit light-headed. Called my doctor and asked if this could be the start of allergy season? He suggested I begin to take my Claritin and that if I don't feel better by Monday to come in.

Reading the Times in the afternoon, the pain behind my ear became so intense I could hardly stand it; and my glands felt more swollen, even down into my neck. Also, it felt like my hair hurt! When I told this to my husband, he looked at me like I was batty.

I saw the doctor at 12:30. He looked in my ears, felt my glands and said there was definitely something going on and prescribed Ceftil for me. I filled the Rx and then went home to begin packing. The pain came and went.

I was brushing my teeth and suddenly I couldn't spit! My mouth was all crooked, and my eye didn't want to close. Ran to my husband, Sandy, who took one look at me and said, "you've got Bell's Palsy" - call the doctor." Within the hour the diagnosis was confirmed by my doctor. "But we're supposed to go to California tomorrow" I said. The doctor said it was up to me whether or not I wanted to travel. He also said there was not much to be done for this, except to buy some artificial tears, to keep my eye moist and to be patient because this could last several weeks or months. For the pain, he told me to use Extra strength Tylenol. The nurse, when she drew my blood said this would be a good excuse if I didn't want to go. "But I really WANT to go to this Bat Mitzvah!" I said. "All right, then," she said, "but just don't try to wear lipstick!" Other than my eye needing to be held shut every now and then and my face lopsided, I felt uncomfortable, but determined to go.

Later that afternoon I went on the net and read all about Bell's Palsy. I went to a site where patients told their stories and was upset to find that this thing could last years, not weeks or months as my doctor had said. (Obviously he didn't want to upset me at the outset.) When I investigated further I found out that there's something else called Ramsey Hunt Syndrome. It has all the symptoms of Bell's Palsy, with the addition of Shingles, caused by the Chicken Pox virus, which lies dormant in the nerve endings.

"This doesn't apply to me" I thought - I have no signs of shingles....

Went to my Bridge lesson, but left early because the light was too much for my eyes and I was tired and light-headed I told my friends that night: " If I go on this trip, tomorrow, I'm either the stupidest person I know or the gutsiest!"

I felt nauseous, nervous and pretty miserable, and thought maybe we should cancel the trip. Sandy tried to encourage me not to let this defeat me. Yes, we'll go, no, I can't - yes, no and finally I decided I would be even more miserable if we stayed home and I moped around the house all weekend, bemoaning the fact that we were missing being with Sandy's family. Our plane was only half full, so I stretched out on three seats across the aisle from ours and tried to sleep on the first leg of the trip, to Houston. Felt a little better walking from one plane to the other and even ate the snack they gave us on the way to LA. The heat and brightness of the sun when we landed in LA bothered me a lot, even with sunglasses on. I had to keep closing my right eye by hand. Arrived at cousin Johanna's and had a lovely dinner and then I went to bed, exhausted. My ear feels like there are blisters in it, but Sandy doesn't see anything.