Quick Bell's Update

Went to the neuro today. Still no apparent change in condition. However, the pain in the scalp region is gone and the irritation in the inner ear area is gone, or very close, the outer ear, or meatus, is still sensitive and there is the occassional pang in the back of the ear. He said to go down from 20mg to 10mg of Prednisone a 1x a day and to call in a week and then to go back and see him in two weeks.

I think most of this going back and seeing him is for him. For me, when I get some apparent movement in my outer face then I can go see him. Mostly, with Bell's it's just a wait and see game. I ran into a natural cure on the internet. Just take this for 12 months and you'll be cured!

Life Continues Along in the Same Vein

Bell's is still the same. You can see from the picture. There is no response in my face from any effort to move it. Some of the pictures were grotesque with the effort to move the muscles. I won't show any of them. Little children might see them. It reminds of the ending of the Princess Bride. The irritation is still there. Sometimes I like to believe it is diminishing, but each time I think that shortly thereafter it reappears. I use a lot of eye drops to keep my eye moist. I should begin to use this ointment at night. It comes in a tube and is five tenths percent mineral oil. I think that this has effected my reading or vision. Right now my glasses are so bent out of shape it's impossible to tell. I don't think it's useful to go to the optometrist now. I won't go until Bell's settles down at least, or I can raise my eyebrow.

I don't really go anywhere. I don't go into work. I go out and buy stuff, like food. I have this new way of smoking pot, a vaporizor. There's a bag of vapor sitting over there now. That's probably my biggest problem. It's not smoking pot, it's being stoned all the time. I have no motivation to do anything. Not get up in the morning, not go out, not do anything, not meet people - look at that picture. Smile you say; no, that goes in the "scares little children" category. I took one of those pictures.

This is reversed, or I guess how I would look to an other person.

I live in an apartment next to a shopping center on a busy street. I had to get a white noise machine, i.e., fan, to go to sleep to, but now that I have that I have no trouble sleeping, or might not have any trouble sleeping if I wasn't stoned all the time, all day long. I keep saying that I'm waiting until the irritation from the Bell's goes down because my neurologist suggested that raising my blood pressure might increase the irritation, so exercise is all about raising blood pressure and right now my main preoccupation is with at least getting the irritation to phase out. Right now, it's still painful, in a small way, to touch my inner ear, there is still an irritation behind my ear, an offshoot of the involved nerve.

Me: Smiling. PG13 at least.

Business: we just had a meeting with UBOC. We had exceeded one of our covenants, the loss reserve/AR one. We are having it changed to 3% from 2%. That will relieve some pressure. But, still, there is really nothing for me to do there. Well, that's not entirely true. I have a to do list in the business section.

Now, I'm getting depressed. 09:04. On the other hand, I just learned how to insert space on this page. One Note HelpOne Note Help

A New Beginning

The is the best picture I have of my "new" look. This is two weeks in. The Bell's Palsy set in on December Friday 18th. So, it's been 10 days. Although, this picture was taken 5 days ago, it is still pretty representative of the way I look.

I went to a ENT and had an ENOG test. The facial nerve is unresponisve. It has a real flat curve, while the right side is more wavy as they increasingly stimulate you. The Dr. said to check back in 3 months. Now it's a waiting game. I need to get my camera so I can take new pictures.

Half of my face is paralyzed. It's like looking at an other person. I hope my eye looks better. I've been using Refresh Celluvisc, 30 Sterile Single-Use Containers. It comes in little droplet bottles of 4ml. each. I squeeze one in my eye every couple of hours or so. It takes about 5 minutes to do it right. I lie down and drop in the corners and in the middle. Then I roll my eye around for a while, looking up and down to spread the lubricant around. Then there's a couple of minutes of lying there with my eye closed while things settle in/down. Then I have to mop up the excess oil.

At nite I use an ointment. It's .5% mineral oil. It comes out of a squeeze tube and is a little hard to apply. Sometimes I just use the drops. Why I have to do this is because my left eye doesn't blink. Francie and I had a whole conversation about the default position of eyelids. I came to the conclusion that it's cyclical. During the day, your eyes stay open. You don't really have to do anything to keep them open. At night the oppisite is true: your eyes stay closed, you don't really have to concentrate on keeping them closed. I just have to close my left eye manually and it stays closed all night.

There are other issues: eating, laughing, smiling, talking. But, I'll leave them for an other time. Now I have to go look for my camera.

Well, a lot has happened since then. I was stricken with a severe case of Bell's Palsey on December 17th, 2010. It started out the night before with a terrible case of vertigo. James can down and took me to the hospital. It's now January the 4th. The left side of my face is completely unresponsive. I drink with a bendy straw. The vertigo comes and goes when I don't take the mecklivine for awhile, it comes back as if it's never really gone.

So, I feel somewhat restricted in my plans. And, oh, what plans I had. I am now living by myself up near Town Center in Aliso Viejo. It's a nice place. I was getting back into sailing, I was looking at getting a dog, I was looking at Big Brothers. Now, everything is on hold for a while. Once I decide what the mid to long term out-look will be, I'll get back on track. The vertigo is dissappointing. Without it, most things are doable; with it - nothing.

Had a great dinner last night and a great lunch today made from leftvers. Tonight, I'll be having the salmon & rice. Maybe I'll leave some for Francie, when I go by there today.