A lot has happened in the past few years culminating with me letting stress get to me to the point where it physically appeared. I got Bell's Palsy.
One day after a particularly stressful few weeks, I came down with an excruciating headache. It was pretty bad and I noticed that the right side of my face was tingly. It was as if someone had rubbed vicks on my face (even my eye sort of burned). I came home did the usual and sat on the couch with the husband but I was not feeling good. I eventually just told him that I was going to bed and I would see him in the morning.
I woke up the next morning and started to get ready for a big meeting that I had for work. Something didn't feel right though, my right eye felt as if I slept with my hand or arm pressing on it and when I tried to close it, it felt weak. My mouth felt weird too but I couldn't put my finger on it. I got into the shower, got dressed and jumped into my car.
When i got to the meeting, I pulled my lipstick out and low and behold I could NOT rub my lips together! It threw me into total panic when I realized that something was really wrong. Being the trouper that I am....I actually went into the meeting and expressed my concern to a co-worker. She could see the paralysis too.
I finished the meeting and went to my doctors office. I will admit I am a bit of a hypochondriac and I'm so scared of the "medical unknown". After a series of tests they said that I had BP and gave me an RX for prednisone and acyclovir. I began taking it and man...I will say those were the worst few weeks of my life.
I was blessed, I got better after about 2 1/2 weeks (some people take 3 months or more). But the experience made me realize how blessed we are to have a functioning body. I am aging and i feel it on days when I've done too much and I'm sore...or when I wear heels and have to take them off because my feet hurt. This is NOTHING like that. Drooling, can't eat, biting your toungue, biting the side of your mouth, can't close your eye....pain! Not fun stuff. Not to mention after I finally finished the prednisone, I broke out like a teenager for WEEKS.
Anyhow. It's more common than you think and a lot of times it's caused my stress. The moral of the story....LIFE IS TOO SHORT. This was a tough lesson to learn and I'm still trying every day to stop being such a spazz. I'm trying to find a job that I love, something that I eagerly get out of bed for every morning. I'm enjoying gardening, we're growing carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and parsley. I'm laughing more, loving more...working on my relationship with my husband.
