Back from the Christmas extravaganza and back to our normal schedule. Everything went fairly well and despite a few hiccups with Connor waking up during the nights and a handful of bad naps, he did okay too. Came home Saturday and spent most of yesterday trying to clean up our super messy house. We just don't have enough storage space for the ever-growing amount of toys that Connor is amassing. We either need to move or get a storage shed or something.
Last Friday was the 3-week anniversary of my Bell's Palsy. It's still getting better a little bit each day, so that's good. I'd say I'm at about 50% recovered or so. I can finally close my eyes without using my fingers and I can sleep at night with the tape. Thank god. My non-open-mouthed smile is starting to come back, but smiling while opening my mouth is still wonky. Hopefully in a few more weeks, I'll be recovered.
Still need to work on my end of year summary. I'll try and probably do that tomorrow before bed. The years are starting to fly past.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
A few more days have gone by and the Bell's Palsy is slowly and steadily getting better. At least, that's what I like to think. Really, though, I do seem to have more control over various parts of my face. I'm able to almost close my eye now, but still having issues with smiling and other, more difficult facial movements. Eating is still about the same. Since I can't still move my lips, it's hard to open wide enough to put food in. My vision has been a little blurry/foggy the last couple of days. Hopefully, there isn't permanent damage going on. I've been using eye drops liberally, so I hope that helps. The last couple of nights, I've had issues with taping the eye lid shut. Dunno why. Maybe it's because I have some control over my lid vs. no control at all? It's harder to keep taped down or something. The other thing is that once every night or every other night or so, I'm waking up with night sweats. Last night, I woke up and I had to change my shirt since it was so wet. It was cold too. I'm hoping this is a side effect of the Palsy and/or the meds that I am taking. I read a few people on the support boards mentioning insomnia and night sweats with the Prednisone, so that made me a little more relaxed about it. I'll probably mention it at the doctor's appointment that I need to set up next week. I have a few more days of meds left and I'm done. The last few days I've also had a lot of twitching and stuff around my face going on, mostly around my lips and chin. The left side of my face is also sore. I think that's a good sign. I still do think that I have at least a week or two before even coming close to normal again, but I just hope that none of the loss of movement is permanent. I can only wait.
Monday, December 09, 2013
Just coming back for a better update before Connor wakes up soon.
So, this bad cold I've had since Thanksgiving has blown up to bigger things, apparently. The first week was severe sore throat and then coughing/runny nose. The Friday of next week, I woke up with a weird, numb feeling of my tongue, but just the left side. I had taken a Nyquil the night before for the first time ever, so I thought it was that. I decided to wait a day to see if it would go away. The next day was even worse. The entire left side of my face was numb. I guess numb isn't the correct word since I could still feel it. More like paralysis. Anyway, about midday, I was getting freaked out so I went to the ER. They suspected it was Bell's Palsy after a quick look and hearing about my cold for the past week and a half.
So, there's nothing really I can do but wait. I have a couple of medications, but hopefully within a week or two, the symptoms get better a little better each day. I guess the majority of people are fully recovered by 3 months, some shorter, some longer. It's not bad in the sense of pain or something, but VERY annoying when it comes to talking, eating, not being able to blink/close my left eye so I need to put drops in every so often and sleep with tape over my eye to keep it closed, etc. Lucky me. And I still have this stupid cold to boot. It feels like it's starting to get better, though, the cold anyway. Still have a runny nose but my coughing is down a lot.
I gave Laura one of her Christmas presents because I was feeling a little down and needed something to cheer me up. It was one that I couldn't really wrap anyway. It was the 3 Sims expansions that I bought for her back in November during the huge sale. She liked it a lot and was playing it for a little bit yesterday. I gotta wait 2 more weeks to give her her real gifts, though. Bleh.
Anyway, I can't thank Laura enough, as always, for taking care of me during this this past weekend while wrangling Connor around since he only has eyes for mommy during the weekends. The weather is quite cold outside this week, and the last week at that, so it's been hard to take him out to play or anything, especially since he and I still have this stupid cold. He's slowly getting better as well. A couple of nights he's been struggling to stay asleep, but hopefully this is ALL over soon. I doubt I'll be recovered by Christmas time, though. We'll see.
I need to think about my year-in-review, but I have an interesting idea for it this year.
I can't believe Connor is still sleeping. It's been just about 3 hours...I kind of feel like I should go check on him, but that will definitely wake him up. It good that he's trying to catch up on sleep, though.
So, this bad cold I've had since Thanksgiving has blown up to bigger things, apparently. The first week was severe sore throat and then coughing/runny nose. The Friday of next week, I woke up with a weird, numb feeling of my tongue, but just the left side. I had taken a Nyquil the night before for the first time ever, so I thought it was that. I decided to wait a day to see if it would go away. The next day was even worse. The entire left side of my face was numb. I guess numb isn't the correct word since I could still feel it. More like paralysis. Anyway, about midday, I was getting freaked out so I went to the ER. They suspected it was Bell's Palsy after a quick look and hearing about my cold for the past week and a half.
So, there's nothing really I can do but wait. I have a couple of medications, but hopefully within a week or two, the symptoms get better a little better each day. I guess the majority of people are fully recovered by 3 months, some shorter, some longer. It's not bad in the sense of pain or something, but VERY annoying when it comes to talking, eating, not being able to blink/close my left eye so I need to put drops in every so often and sleep with tape over my eye to keep it closed, etc. Lucky me. And I still have this stupid cold to boot. It feels like it's starting to get better, though, the cold anyway. Still have a runny nose but my coughing is down a lot.
I gave Laura one of her Christmas presents because I was feeling a little down and needed something to cheer me up. It was one that I couldn't really wrap anyway. It was the 3 Sims expansions that I bought for her back in November during the huge sale. She liked it a lot and was playing it for a little bit yesterday. I gotta wait 2 more weeks to give her her real gifts, though. Bleh.
Anyway, I can't thank Laura enough, as always, for taking care of me during this this past weekend while wrangling Connor around since he only has eyes for mommy during the weekends. The weather is quite cold outside this week, and the last week at that, so it's been hard to take him out to play or anything, especially since he and I still have this stupid cold. He's slowly getting better as well. A couple of nights he's been struggling to stay asleep, but hopefully this is ALL over soon. I doubt I'll be recovered by Christmas time, though. We'll see.
I need to think about my year-in-review, but I have an interesting idea for it this year.
I can't believe Connor is still sleeping. It's been just about 3 hours...I kind of feel like I should go check on him, but that will definitely wake him up. It good that he's trying to catch up on sleep, though.