bell's palsy

JamieWM

Anyone else dealing with bell's palsy or have experience from a past pregnancy or experience at all? The right side of my face is completely paralyzed and it started Tues pm so I am hopeful it has peeked but its just so scary. I was in the hospital for a few hours yesterday....happy it wasn't a stroke.

If you do have experience, how many days before you started to feel recovery? Thank you!

barnwife

I had it when I was pregnant with J. It absolutely sucks. When it first happened, I was worried about a stroke or something and it hurting baby. I called my MW who told me to call the ER. The ER nurse said it sounded like Bell's Palsy, but to come in.

It was Bell's. I developed it sometime in third trimester. Half of my face was completely paralyzed. Eating sucked, especially at first. It was hard to keep food on the right half of my mouth. I learned to tip my head a little to the side to drink. People felt no qualms about commenting/staring when I was in public. 

I recovered pretty quickly after J. was born. 

I am sorry you are dealing with this. Hopefully recovery comes soon!

JamieWM

Thank you...I feel like its finally not getting worse....curious if it will start to recover in the next week or two of if it will stick around for the last 10 weeks of the pregnancy. What a scary nasty thing.

BellaOso

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this.

I have 2 friends who had it. One resolved after 3 weeks, the other didn't resolve until the baby was delivered.

I hope you end up in the first group! 

Jarangela

I've actually had it twice, non pregnancy related. First time was right before college. I was put on steroids and a muscle relaxer. Lasted a little over a month. Second time wasn't quite as bad, lasted about 3 weeks.  Drs don't know exactly how to treat it, so it was hard for me to stick to the meds for much longer than a week. Every persons seems to respond differently. I've heard of it last two weeks to two years. Try doing facial exercises. I've found some good info online. Hope it ends quickly!

sarko2011

I am actually going through Bell's Palsy right now.. :-(  It sucks, so I know your pain.  I have read if they catch it within the first 3 days, then it's likely to clear within 3 weeks.  Mine has not cleared, but it's only Tuesday and was diagnosed on Sunday (when my paralysis occurred). 

JamieWM

sarko2011 said:

I am actually going through Bell's Palsy right now.. :-(  It sucks, so I know your pain.  I have read if they catch it within the first 3 days, then it's likely to clear within 3 weeks.  Mine has not cleared, but it's only Tuesday and was diagnosed on Sunday (when my paralysis occurred). 

@sarko2011 You poor thing! I feel like I learned so much since onset! Bells is an idiopathic facial paralysis so there is literally no way to tell how long it will last and the severity...All I know is that it peaks within 48 hours and the recovery totally depends on the severity of the nerve damage etc. Some women don't clear until they deliver...some after a couple weeks etc. After 51 days, I now have about 90% of my face back. My smile is a bit off and my right eye remains semi retracted and I have some tearing issues. The pain was gone after about 3 weeks and I refused meds because it just wasn't worth it for LO and it doesn't always make a difference. What I think helped me so much is that I started accupuncture within the first week and although it sucked, it got things moving again. I hope you are doing okay....it was so mentally exhausting for me. keep me posted.

dimples128

My SIL experienced BP with both of her pregnancies. My youngest niece is now 2 and unfortunately, she still has some paralysis on the left side of her face. Everyone is different.