The Woman with Half a Smile
She looked in the mirror Saturday morning. It could not be, she could not comprehend what she was seeing. Her left eye was very red, although she felt she was well rested from the night before, and more or less recovered from this week's stress from her hectic agency job and her insane superiors. Yesterday, her left eye was bothering her quite a lot, and she had to hold it closed quite often, she recalled, could it be related? Her passing and dismissing thoughts she had yesterday about the state of her health ran through her mind. It could be an allergy, or the fact she had a lot of detailed computer work lately and she was out late the night before. She was too young for it to be anything else, to be anything serious, she thought.
Now on a wonderful bright warm Saturday morning, with the first signs of spring coming, she wondered out loud, "Am I imagining this, or am I still asleep?" She called over her boyfriend to come bear witness in the bathroom with her. He knew she was stressed and he was worried about how she could have coped through this week, quitting her job and dealing with the consequences. However, he was less likely to see things that were not really there and could be objective.
She tried to blink. No response in the left eye. She tried to smile. No response in her left cheek, her left side of her mouth. Her nose was only running on the left side. She had a slight cold, but nothing serious, not worth staying in bed. Her left ear and neck was throbbing slightly, along with a mild headache. What's happening to me? she thought and suppressed a whine in her throat, she didn't want to show her boyfriend her fears for the worst. Her boyfriend said as calmly as he could, "We should go to the hospital you should go see a doctor".
After 6 hours in the emergency room, and another hour at the eye hospital, being poked, prodded, reflex tested, blood pressure monitored, bright lights shined in her eyes, the agitated woman had her diagnosis: idiopathic facial paralysis, a.k.a. Bell's Palsy. She wanted to go home, she wanted to sleep. Although the worst was over, the eye patch made it difficult, her left side of her face made it difficult. Angry that nobody could fix her, she fussed and tossed all night. Why is this happening to me? she stewed. I can't work like this, I can't live like this for the next three months, she worried. The prognosis was unknown at the moment, and that scared her too. The doctors said could be two weeks, it could be three months, it could be a year.
Tomorrow: Coming to terms with it....
