Monday was not a great day for me! I woke up an hour early with a pain in the ear and a really dry right eye but kind of brushed it off and headed to work. As the day wore I noticed that the right side of my face was pretty much paralyzed. I can close my right eye but only if I also closed my left. Hmmm, that's not quite right I thought. Worked the whole day like that (maybe not my brightest move) and hit Urgent Care on the way home. They don't have the diagnostics and refer me to the ER. Great, there goes the rest of my night. At any rate, after an MRI and blood workup to rule out a stroke or tumor it seems to be classic case of Bell's Palsy. In the grand scheme of things I guess that beats a stroke or tumor but I'm not looking forward to steroids and anti-virals. The one plus is that at least it's not contagious/communicable. Once I get my scrips filled I'll be able to work, probably taking it a little bit easier for a couple weeks. And a joyful thought; the doctor said I might have to tape my danged eye shut when I sleep so I don't dry out my cornea and go blind. But aside from he says nothing to worry about.

Kind of a bummer but I'm relieved it wasn't something worse!

Perhaps that is the same I suffered when I was 15. One evening my parent noticed that my face did not look normal. Half of it was paralyzed.
Stayed at the hospital for a week and got mild electric shock treatment to my face muscles. And then recovered and got home.

Yikes, that's a scare. Glad you're going to be okay.

Damn, sorry to hear this.
-Blast

Glad you dodged the bullet. Hang in there!

Yeah, it's more annoying that dangerous. I'm tired and uncomfortable and bracing myself for potentially minor side effects from the steroids and antiviral drugs. With any luck it will pass soon, or at least start improving a good bit once I'm done with the course of meds.

Here in the Eastern US, Bells Palsy seems to now be most commonly due to Lyme Disease, which can be acquired without a tick bite ever having been noticed. If you haven't been checked for that, would encourage asking for that to be done.

Yikes! Is there a specific test I should request? The ER did draw blood and runs a bunch tests but would that be something they would check without being asked?

I'm in SW Montana if that affects anything. I don't see much for ticks in my area but that's not really scientific or anything.

Ticks are where you find them, get tested. MTC good luck

Lyme IgG/IgM is the standard screening test.