It's been a long time since I made an entry here, partly due to work and partly due to the fact that I've made a complete recovery... or as near to as possible. However, it's still no excuse! Shame on me!

Nowadays I'm feeling quite good. I can't say that I'm 100% because I've still got residuals but these are more an occasional nuisance than a real problem. Every so often, and I'm talking weeks in between, I will get the familiar 'off-axis' dizzy spell where my whole field of vision tilts. Imagine how the horizon looks to a pilot when he banks his plane hard left.

If I'm walking or standing when this happens I'll suddenly lose balance and depending on the intensity I'll either recover in a split second or when I've let go of the wall/banister/door frame/nearest stranger hahahaaa. As I said, these are infrequent but still lurking. I find that closing my eyes tight, putting my head down and concentrating on my composure helps but this is a little bit horrifying to people during meetings hahahaahaa.

In general my balance is fine but it has definitely taken a blow. If I turn too quickly I can stumble quite easily and I seemed to have enhanced my knack for clumsiness. If you want someone to walk into you, drop your stuff or make a mess then I'm your man! Again it's infrequent but regular if you know what I mean? On a daily basis I can be spot on with everything I do then I'll drop something, pick it up, stumble, knock something else over, pick that up, lose the original thing I dropped, find it, put it back, stand up and knock the whole lot over. Yes, RHS turned me into Stan Laurel! Well Jo is always saying "that's another fine mess...."

My face has visibly recovered. From the outside you can't tell that I've ever had facial paralysis but there are a few tiny clues which can be seen if they are pointed out. Mild synkinesis still makes my right eye close when I yawn and I've got a few unusual muscle reactions. For instance, when I furrow my brow I can feel the corner of my mouth almost tighten or protrude on the right hand side. Visually it causes a tiny muscle 'ripple' under the skin but like an ulcer in your mouth it feels much, much bigger than that! If I do the opposite action i.e. raise my eyebrows, I can feel the same area pull upwards ever so slightly.

Another irregular reaction is when I flare my nostrils. It's the same area to the right of my mouth which is affected but this time I have the added bonus of a slight pull in the corner of my right eye.

Recently I had a load of twinges, ‘freezes’ and visible twitching around my nose/cheek area but I can't say that I've noticed any significant outcomes. Usually it signals another baby milestone because nerves are firing again but this time nowt, nada, ningun, nuttin! I'm not too disheartened though because it still could have been the healing of an important 'behind the scenes' area.

I had pretty bad earache on the right hand side recently and although it didn't lead to anything untoward it was disconcerting because it happened along with as head pains and increased hypersensitivity in the ear. Remember I mentioned this sensitivity before? If not then in short, there are areas in my ear (former zoster locations) which are excruciating when scratched. As I said, nothing came about this episode so a big pheeewwww to me.

As with everyone else my residuals flourish in glorious Technicolor when I'm tired, to the point where I'm convinced that my face is drooping. Not so though and I refer you back to the example of the ulcer in the mouth!!

Tinnitus is also a jolly daily jingle but I'm used to the high pitched 'weeeeeeeeeeeee' noise now. In fact I've had slight tinnitus since I was a kid.... but that was in my left ear! grrrrrrr! Hahahaa, if you recall, the hearing tests I took just after the RHS onset showed that the left was non-responsive to some frequencies..... still, it outperformed the RHS ear hands down.

So, on the whole things are hunky dory except for a few little niggles. Nee worries though cos Father Time is my healer and he’s been pretty good to me so far!