Bell's Palsy

One morning before school, Alan was telling me about how he could close one eye better than the other one. I was making breakfast, and assuming he was talking about winking, replied that I could wink better with one eye than the other too. That that was completely normal, and many people can only wink with one eye. He also mentioned about not being able to whistle, but I thought nothing of it. 

Then after school, he said... "Mom, I won a staring contest at school today because I can't close my eye!" At this point, I stopped and asked him to show me what he was talking about. Only one eye was closing, and asked him if he was winking or blinking. When he replied blinking, I knew we were in for some trouble! 

He showed me about not whistling etc, and it was clear that he could only move one side of his face. I looked it up online, and recognized that he probably had bell's palsy, and that it would take care of itself on it's own. But after a call to the pediatrician, he recommended that we take him into the emergency room that night to verify that it was bells palsy and not something else. So Scott and Alan spent about 5 hours in the emergency room that night, verifying that it was not lymes disease or a stroke or anything like that.  

Through it all, Alan was a real trooper. I think he thought it was exciting to stay out late with his dad. They got to watch the Bruins game in the ER. :) He would say things like... "Look guys, now I can do the people's eyebrow!" and exciting things like that. :) He had previously had a pretty bad ear infection in the ear on that side of his face which wasn't completely gone, and we think is what caused the palsy. The doctors put him on a steroid and antibiotics, and ended up doing a lymes treatment just in case, and Alan eventually got pretty sick of taking medicine. He had to put a gel in his eye and wear an eye patch at night to make sure the eye didn't dry out at night, and put in eye drops during the day. Thankfully there was only one day of school left before April vacation, and by the time he went back to school, his face was doing much better. 

I didn't take any pictures showing the real effect of the bells palsy, but you can kind of tell in the picture below. (James is actually winking and has no facial palsy, but Alan is just trying a smile. :) The Pokemon cards in the Easter basket were a big hit as well. :) 

He is now completely fine. We're grateful, of course, that it was nothing worse, but would also prefer not to go through the experience again. :)