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Been suffering for a couple of weeks with what I thought - from the pain and discomfort and some leakage of wax - was an ear infection. It certainly felt like the ones I used to have from when I was a kid up to about 5 years ago.
Went to the doctor after about a week and got told there was no signs of any infection, try steaming sinuses, OTC meds as necessary etc and it should ease off.
Luckily I cancelled my plans for the bank holiday weekend. Because not only did I have my report from my ATOS benefit assessment come back full of fail (5000 word document going off to them pointing out what they got wrong and what they ignored and misconstrued)... but I started to notice other odd symptoms.
I was catching my lips when I ate on my teeth. And I had a watery left eye that didn't seem to want to focus and was pulling right. I assumed it was just pressure from the ear issue. But I did get my friend who came over and was being a wonderful giver of TLC to check if there was any "outward" symptoms of stroke etc and there wasn't as of Saturday morning or throughout the weekend.
It got slightly worse (aware of lips on left side being oddly close to teeth when speaking etc and a very occasional mouth twitch) over the weekend and I'd already decided I'd be going to the doctor again today if not gone.
He checked my ears and found no issues but I'd already noted that the left side of the face felt "taut" today for the first time in all this. He got me to smile, grin, frown etc and said he could easily see differences in the facial movements and said it was Bell's Palsy which shocked me because I'd only heard of it after a stroke and with the drooped face etc up until now.
So.. Prednisolone, eye drops and just wait and see (although report any worsening of the symptoms or that I'm concerned about to the doctor) is the current plan of action.
I feel lucky so far as it only really shows up outwardly if I grin and show my teeth. My smile is slightly lopsided (but not obvious) and the eye on that side does close on demand so .... its minor. I'm hoping it stays that way and goes away relatively quickly!
Went to the doctor after about a week and got told there was no signs of any infection, try steaming sinuses, OTC meds as necessary etc and it should ease off.
Luckily I cancelled my plans for the bank holiday weekend. Because not only did I have my report from my ATOS benefit assessment come back full of fail (5000 word document going off to them pointing out what they got wrong and what they ignored and misconstrued)... but I started to notice other odd symptoms.
I was catching my lips when I ate on my teeth. And I had a watery left eye that didn't seem to want to focus and was pulling right. I assumed it was just pressure from the ear issue. But I did get my friend who came over and was being a wonderful giver of TLC to check if there was any "outward" symptoms of stroke etc and there wasn't as of Saturday morning or throughout the weekend.
It got slightly worse (aware of lips on left side being oddly close to teeth when speaking etc and a very occasional mouth twitch) over the weekend and I'd already decided I'd be going to the doctor again today if not gone.
He checked my ears and found no issues but I'd already noted that the left side of the face felt "taut" today for the first time in all this. He got me to smile, grin, frown etc and said he could easily see differences in the facial movements and said it was Bell's Palsy which shocked me because I'd only heard of it after a stroke and with the drooped face etc up until now.
So.. Prednisolone, eye drops and just wait and see (although report any worsening of the symptoms or that I'm concerned about to the doctor) is the current plan of action.
I feel lucky so far as it only really shows up outwardly if I grin and show my teeth. My smile is slightly lopsided (but not obvious) and the eye on that side does close on demand so .... its minor. I'm hoping it stays that way and goes away relatively quickly!
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