On 28th December, I felt a strange heavy feeling in my left ear. When I looked in the mirror. I noticed the ear was very red and a bit swollen. I went to the GP that day as I was supposed to be going out allot over the New year period. The GP said I had an abscess on the inner part of the ear and gave me some anti biotics.

The ear did not get any better, in fact the swelling got more pronounced and I started having the "heavy feeling" down the left side of my face.

On 31 Dec I went back to the GP and said I felt no better in fact i felt awful. He said I should let the anti biotics take effect.

I cancelled all my arrangements and went to bed. The pains started that night. The awful shooting pains from my jaw to the top of my head on the left side. I took Solphadine and tried to sleep. At the time I was living on my own and I was very scared.

For the next 3 days I tried to tackle the pain with Solphidine. They gave max 3 hrs relief.

After 4/5 days I stared to be aware that i could not blink properly and as the day went on I could not close my left eye.

The next day I was horrified to see myself in the mirror. The left side of my face looked like I'd had a stroke. I went to the GP again. This time he admitted he wasn't sure what it was. Then he had a flash of inspiration and phoned the registrar at the local ENT dept. He described the symptoms and promptly wrote a letter for me to take to the ENT dept. He told me I had facial paralysis and should go to the Hospital asap. I was in no state to drive so I called a friend who drove me there.

The ENT registrar saw me right away. I had to make the usual faces so he could see how far the paralysis had gone. He explained that I had a Bells Palsy caused by Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. He said that it was a shame the GP had not sent me sooner. he said there was a 30% chance that i would not make a full recovery.

I was prescribed Prendesilone. 16 tablets a day to be take in 2X8 doses.

He asked if I could eat. Luckily I had made myself eat what I could as I didn't feel like much. He said if I couldn't eat he would admit me. Oh no I thought I am not going in there.

I was also given facial exercises to do as often as possible. Home I went and had a good cry. I phoned my parents who live 80 miles away and all my close friends to let them know what was wrong with me. As Rob said it is then that you find out who your real friends are. People who come to see you in their lunch breaks and others who offer to get your shopping.

As I could not blink properly or close my eye I had to wear an eye patch to sleep and if i went out in the cold. This is to stop eye infections or any lasting damage being done to the eye.

I tried to get in to some sort of routine for taking the tablets, which made me very hungry and doing the exercises looking in the mirror. I had an appointment with the ENT specialist in 2 weeks and wanted to improve my facial movement by then.