Its been an interesting few days…let’s just say I would rather write them off as sunk, but unfortunately I have to deal with the repercussions.
On Wednesday I was in NYC for a meeting and against my better judgement I went to Brooklyn instead of NYC. It was bitterly cold and I was already uncomfortable for some reason. I had woken up on the wrong side of the bed or something and I was having trouble drinking water out of my mouth. I have been having trouble sleeping as of late, so this was an indication to me that I actually needed to sleep more.
Either way, the wind was whipping, I had traveled approx. an hour in the wrong direction to the wrong city, and was wandering around aimlessly, 45 minutes late for my meeting. It was awful, embarrassing and I was so uncomfortable. I kind of broke down at one point and just started crying in the middle of the street out of shear exhaustion and frustration. I could feel my whole body just give way to the emotions.
So, I started questioning what was going on with my body, my brain and my mouth.
Thursday I woke up and the feeling was actually worse. I volunteered at the Salvation Army and the two people I volunteer with, Michael and Lucy, are retired nurses. I mentioned my face and the weird feeling I was having and Michael did a whole bunch of tests with me. He was checking for numbness and when he didn’t find any he decided that it had to be a nerve palsy issue. YIKES!
Kurt showed up to walk with me to get our driver’s licenses and while I didn’t feel freaked out on my own, the look on his face when he saw me after Michael had pointed out the parts of my face that were not working, made me well up and cry. It was so scary for me to see Kurt’s reaction. Kurt did some research while I was on our way to our new doctors and he determined I had Bell’s Palsy. Basically it is a temporary paralysis in the face that happens during high-periods of stress. It is something that can be caused by auto immune disorders, pregnancy or Lyme’s disease.
I had a meeting scheduled with my new doctor at clinic in Peekskill near the new hospital that we are planning to deliver at. I had a meeting schedule only with the nurse and when they took 1 look at my face, they immediately brought in the doctor. I was told that I was being sent to the hospital to have it checked out.
All in all, I spent about 4 hours between the doctor and the hospital to be told what my glorious husband had already told me. The baby is totally fine and other than my freakish smile, my inability to drink water and my supremely uncomfortable dry eye, I am good to go. I am resting and doing what I can to relax my eye. It is hard to do so, but hey… it gives me an excuse to wear a pirate patch! But guess what?! The best part is that I had an excuse for why I missed the meeting on Wednesday and what was happening with my brain. Bell’s Palsy can make you disorientated, forgetful and misaligned. I clearly fit the bill. Phew… it wasn’t just poor directional sense after all.
Bell’s Palsy can last between 2 weeks and 6 months. Hopefully it is closer to the 2 week mark!