222 Day Update

I decided to come back and update this, because I have recently received an influx of comments from people finding my blog suffering from similar issues. I also received a heartfelt question from someone I have not seen since I was in the early stages of my struggle. They asked “Hows your face?” it touched me.

It’s been 222 days since I was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. I lived to talk about it. Well, at least 172 days since my last update. (knock on wood) I have barely any noticeable traces of ever having Bell’s Palsy. The only thing I notice, is that when I crack a huge phony smile my lower lip on the side that had the palsy isn’t as tightly drawn as the side on the left. You would have to really stare me down, have me point it out you, and then actually care to notice.

My eyebrows are moving, my mouth moves normally, unlike my last video where I said I was 98%. I was full of crap. I guess I was just hoping I was done. It got better, I am not complaining.

Other side effects that never lingered were the watery eye and high blood pressure symptoms I was suffering from. Thank god, that was the biggest pain in the ass. I couldn’t handle driving, the migraines, and facial flushing.

For those of you that have Bell’s Palsy, feel free to post pics and links your own blogs or share you own stories. I was fine without them, but apparently there’s people out there that enjoy reading my stories and updates. I am sure they’ll like yours as well. Please ask me any questions you may have, I will do my best to answer them.

Stay pretty,
Dan

p.s. Bell’s palsy does have a possibility of returning. I hope like hell it doesn’t, if it does, I blame all of you it’s contagious.

Bell’s Palsy 50 Days Update

My Bell’s Palsy is almost cured, I beat it with time. So my palsy is almost gone, I would say I am about 95% recovered, give or take. You can see in the video I am going to update what the issues are. However, my gorgeous pictures off to the right speak for themselves. I am hot, let’s be serious. Sorry ladies I am taken.

People have continued to say it’s hardly noticeable. I don’t notice it unless I shoot these damn videos so you people can amuse yourselves with my suffering, or if I look in the mirror while talking. I can wink my right eye now with some effort, but hey it’s better than doing the ole fish eye.
(when you turn your head and blink with both eyes, to give the illusion of winking.)

*just watched the video, turns out I have Parkinson’s as well. Sorry about the camera shaking, it’s worse than The Blair Witch Project*

I will now leave the floor open to any questions.

Thanks again to everyone for your support.
I am going to start updating my other blog that is private and only 3 people know about it. I will be making it public and it will only have random thoughts and rants from me and links.

One Month Anniversary

Alright so here you have your one month update…Patty. Here’s the low down people. I still have this bell’s palsy shit, it sucks. In the video you can see my face is messed up still…from the Bell’s Palsy. My speech is still affected. my eyebrow moves a little bit. my eye can still water like a sprinkler at times but not as bad as it was. I don’t have the headaches and hypertension anymore at least that seems bell’s palsy related. Food is less of an issue unless it’s a big bite type of food, Italian Beef, pizza, and burgers.

When I sit around and don’t talk, like when I am home alone I don’t notice it obviously. I am supposed to be doing facial massages, which sounds dirty. I have to sit around and rub my cheek. It’s odd, so I won’t admit to doing it. (i do it) That’s really all there is to the recovery besides waiting. When I took a long weekend from work I felt as if there was a noticeable difference. I am not a doctor but resting was very helpful. The doctor didn’t suggest any time off work but, if you get the opportunity take it. With a doctors note and then any vacation time you have at your job.

I have had a lot people’s support and I appreciate it. Thanks for your hell and support. Especially my girlfriends she’s probably teased me more than anyone and allowed me to keep making this annoying condition funny. She’s awesome, However she thought the blog was stupid. Make sure you give her shit in your comments. This wraps up today’s post. I don’t know when I’ll update it next.
LEAVE COMMENTS. If i think people care I’ll update more frequently.

much love,
Dan

Follow me on twitter Http://www.twitter.com/danheinz

One Month Video Update

i’ll try and do a write up tonight. we’ll see I have a lot going on. wanted to thank everyone for your support or lack there of, which keeps me laughing (Chris, Livius, Robb) and half smiling

How I’m doing

OK here’s an update on how I’ve been doing. It’s been about 20 days since I was diagnosed. I am starting to feel less affected by it, however the paralysis is still present. My eye still waters, but mostly when I look down. This makes reading and text messaging difficult, no big deal unless your average cell phone bill has 5,000 texts like mine does. I still have some issues eating, anything on a bun or that requires a big bite can result in me biting my lip. I don’t feel the tenderness that I was feeling in my last update, which is good. Another positive side has been the lack of extreme hypertension I was experiencing. My speech is still affected, the next video will speak to that. People have been saying that it’s less noticeable, but they’re probably just kissing my ass.

I’ve been posting pictures on the Flickr widget on the right and I will probably post another video in the next 24 hours.

your comments are appreciated. thanks, dan

Is there something wrong with your face?

I decided to write about people reacting to my face and speech. I’d like to start by stating a well known fact. People Suck. I have encountered several different reactions and it goes to show that people do not know how to react to most situations, including me. I have had people react the following ways.

1.) Is there something wrong with your face or mouth?

Why would you ask something like that? Could it be the fact half of my face is sitting there like an alcoholic at a bar? I guess this is probably the safest way to ask. However, the tone and how people have asked is pretty funny. When you have something wrong with your face, it’s hard to not feel like people are staring directly at your half-face.

2.) What happened to your face?

WOW! Why are you in that wheelchair? are you crippled or something? I wish, only one person had asked this question, this way. The funny thing about this, people think they have tact when they ask this.  I foud the best way to answer this question is lie your ass off or cynical sarcasam.

My best response included me in a bar fight and that I got sucker punched. However, I turned the tides and “you should see the other guy”

3.) Normal conversation while staring directly at my mouth and immobile eye.

I guess this is probably the way I’d handle the situation. People just stare,  I love the attention being as narcissistic as I am. I just wish they’d say something.

This subject sucked. I am going to write another update.

The cure for bell’s palsy

Maybe not. Saw this at work todaythought this would be funny

Video Update 10 days later

Ok so I was too lazy to write a real blog so…..VIDEO UPDATE WOO WOO

8-ish days later

Ok so it’s been over a week since I’ve been diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy.On the outside I’ve been dealing with it comically and making light of it. However, I have had some side effects that are less than desirable. Most of these symptoms were not noticeable until after I was off the prednisone. I will discuss some of these symptoms today.

Eyes: My right eye (paralyzed side) is constantly watering and it makes my vision blurry and irritated. If I could blink this eye and focus with the other it’d be no issue, however, I can not. When driving I constantly am rubbing my eye and my vision is not 100%. I mentioned in previous posts that I have to tape my eye shut when sleeping. Having to pull tape off my eyelid each morning has left my eye a little tender. My eye feels puffy and sometimes feels like it’s pulsing. Having to work in an extremely dry and dusty environment has pushed my eye to the limits. I get headaches, feel dizzy and often feel fatigued as a result of my eye alone. I need to take breaks about every 3 hours at work, I hold my hand over my eye and rest for about 5-8 minutes. This seems to do the trick.

Face/mouth: The condition seems to give me time periods where my teeth ache from the inside out. This is painful and obnoxious, it makes me extremely sensitive to sounds and life in general. Right below my eye where someone normally has cheek muscles, my face is sore and feels bruised. This is only painful if I touch it. (Solution: Don’t touch it. ) My lips are chapped and dry constantly. When I wet them with my tongue, I look and feel like Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Body: After being awake for 8-9 hours my blood pressure seems to escalate drastically. My face will become extremely red and hot to the touch. This is most commonly when I feel my eye pulsating, it’s not a good feeling. This usually is accompanied by  headache/migraine like symptoms

Email me if you have any questions.

Karaoke playlist

So based off my previous thread that no one read. I thought karaoke would be hilarious with bell’s palsy. Just going up there and singing and drooling all over myself wouldn’t be good enough though. You have to have the right song. Which begs the question (not really, but it does now) What song to sing. It has to be humorous and have some form of pun related to having half a face, or something with the word bell in it. I need suggestions.

Here’s my brief list:

1. Anita Ward – Ring My Bell
2. Stone Temple Pilots – Creep
3. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (I already sound like this)
   
4. Afroman – Crazy Rap (I think it’d be funny)
   
5. Notorious B.I.G. – Big Poppa ( I just love this song)

Please reply with your comments and song suggestions

p.s. I forgot to add this yesterday Bell’s Palsy reccomended meal of the day – Wendy’s Chicken nuggets. Bite size and delicious