If you have found your way to this blog, the most likely reason is that you or someone you love has received the diagnosis of Bell ’s Palsy. Having recently got a diagnosis of Bell’s Palsy and recovering after a few weeks, I felt that it was important to give a firsthand account of what it is like, so that maybe I can save someone the doubt and worry that I experienced.
The beginning of my experience may not be that different from everyone else, I got Covid-19. This was my 2nd experience getting Covid since 2020, a habit that I hope does not continue. I had received my vaccinations months earlier and was doing everything I could to be as safe as possible. Despite my best efforts though, I still ended up getting sick. I tested positive on a Tuesday and worked from home on rescheduling my appointments and responsibilities throughout the week. I noticed some fatigue and figured the best thing for me was to quarantine.
By Wednesday, that fatigue had worsened and I felt like my face was swollen. Specifically my eye and cheek. Having heard about the odd side effects Covid-19 can have on people, I decided that I should take no chances and follow up with my family doctor. I set up a telehealth appointment and asked if there was anything more I should do for my symptoms and mentioned these odd symptoms that I was feeling as well. My doctor quickly and easily diagnosed me with Bell’s Palsy. For those not familiar, Bell’s Palsy is a result of trauma to the facial nerve. This trauma is typically caused as response to a virus but the pathology can also be very complicated, examples including people being more likely contract this palsy if they have high blood pressure, an auto immune disease, or being pregnant. I have none of the above, but there is a large correlation of people getting this palsy following respiratory based viruses.
What my doctor prescribed to combat the Bell’s Palsy was a round of oral steroids to alleviate any inflammation that may or may not be around the facial nerve. After that, wait and see. Waiting is not something I do very easily, not when I felt like I could be doing so much more. So I did what anyone does, I went online and searched for anything and everything related to Bell’s Palsy I could get my hands on. The first thing I learned is that my symptoms may worsen for the first 48-72 hours after onset. They did. How quickly we take for granted our bodies working properly every day. After 72 hours, it wasn’t the small things I was worried about: not being able to smile or raise my eyebrows, it was the big things. I could not blink my left eye, or close it all. My speech slurred and there weren’t many sentences I could complete the way I was accustomed to doing for so many years. What did make me the most self-conscious though was my ability to eat and drink was hindered as I lost control of my mouth on the left side. While I could chew with my left side, I couldn’t trust my mouth to keep the contents inside. It was slightly embarrassing, though not a single person ever made me feel less then, a sign of not only great friends and family, but a wonderful company that very quickly jumped into action for my recovery, one of the many benefits of working for a Physical Therapy company.
Like I mentioned earlier, the wait and see method wasn’t enough for me. The data suggests that people start getting better after 6 weeks and should notice near full recovery after 3 months. I wanted to be fixed now. I was very surprised that very few online resources even recommended physical therapy. Physical therapy has consistently proven to be one of the safest and least invasive ways to combat pain, weakness, and stiffness throughout the body, so for it to rarely be recognized as an approach to help heal from Bell’s Palsy was disappointing.
My own clinical experience treating Bell’s Palsy was limited to a few rotations I had when I was in school, so I was very rusty on what my approach should be. I inquired with my colleague Nick Platko, who is a physical therapist at The Center and he helped guide me on what I could do with my facial muscles in order to retrain them to work properly again. These are muscle groups are used every day, but rarely are focused on when doing a work out. People talk about “leg day” but they don’t talk about focusing on their buccinators, masseter and zygomaticus major muscles at the gym.
The first hurdle was that I had no ability to contract my facial muscles at all. I couldn’t lift an eyebrow or smile without using my hands to help manipulate that motion. So that is what I did. I started working through different facial movements consistently throughout my day. I also utilized a portable muscle stimulator called an EMS 2C. This does exactly what you think it would do, it puts electrical current into a targeted area of the body. I have used electric stim in the past but this was a little different. This e-stim was uncomfortable and after my first treatment, I said I did not want to continue. However, the results after the 1st treatment were noticeable, something I had not seen doing the exercises on my own. So despite the uncomfortable feeling of the E-stim the results I saw was enough to keep me moving forward with this intervention.
After 2 weeks of treatment (2x per week) I had function back in my face, with no noticeable symptoms or limitations two weeks following this. The timeline showed a full recovery after 6 weeks, well ahead of the 3 month timetable I was told to expect, and I noticed improvement after 2 weeks instead of the 6 week expectations. While everyone heals differently, I would tell anyone that is healing from Bell’s Palsy to be your own advocate, and inquire on treatment options to help expedite the process.
If you or someone you know has questions about Bell’s Palsy, please reach out to our team at The Center. They gave me the confidence that I would heal and showed me the way to that day. A smile is a universal symbol of joy and happiness, from someone that temporarily lost theirs, choose to smile whenever possible.