IN MY SHOES: “My Face Is Paralyzed, And I Can’t Blink.”
Lonnae O’Neal Parker writes about being on assignment for The Washington Post three months ago, on the road with two people she was writing about when suddenly, “I couldn’t close my lips around the toothbrush, and my mouth didn’t seem to work right.” After her symptoms became more pronounced, the two men she was with insisted on taking her to the ER immediately:
“My face is paralyzed, and I can’t blink. I think I’m having a stroke,” I told the receptionist at the Moses Cone Urgent Care Center, though it all felt so surreal. I’m only 44, and I’m healthy!
“You are either having a stroke or you have Bell’s palsy,” the receptionist said as an EMT ushered me to the back. Turns out I had Bell’s palsy. …
The urgent-care doctor immediately put me on a 10-day course of high-dose steroids to bring down the nerve swelling. She also patched my unblinking right eye, which, left uncovered, could get scratched or sustain permanent damage. …
[A]s days became weeks, I started each morning with a cry. Bell’s palsy had come on dramatically, overnight, and I thought maybe it would be gone overnight as well. Then I’d try to smile and realize I had at least one more day of paralysis. I compared myself with the “before” Lonnae and wondered if she was ever coming back. I wondered if maybe I would be one of the 15 percent whose faces would never fully come back. Usually after a few minutes, I’d dry my tears and spend a little time in the mirror practicing my new, enigmatic Mona Lisa half-smile. …
[N]early four weeks into my Bell’s palsy, my blink had largely returned, and I got rid of my eye patch. My smile was bigger, and I decided that if nothing else came back I’d be just fine. That anyone studying my face closely enough to notice something was a little off probably loved me anyway.
In the following days, my face twitched constantly and my bad eye started to blink in unison with my good one. My smile began to feature all teeth, and I flashed it often. … [T]wo weeks later, I was nearly my old self again.
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