Wow - it's been years since my last post! Now I'm living in a much colder place (windchill of -40 these days).
And the topic is not anything cultural, but rather an update on my health, as I'm still recovering from the fatigue and Bell's Palsy which hit me soon after my first C. vaccine about 7 months ago. The fatigue is mostly done with - this past week I was able to jog on the treadmill for 5 minutes at a time which I couldn't even imagine doing a few months ago, so that's definitely encouraging!! As far as my face, there are many possible symptoms of Bell's Palsy (see https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/bells-palsy), and I got most of them:
--"Disordered movement of the muscles that control facial expressions, such as smiling, squinting, blinking, or closing the eyelid" YES. This has improved some over the months to the point that my face pretty much looks "normal" except if I smile a lot or laugh. I cannot close just my left eye, and blinking doesn't work well so bright light/sunshine as well as wind are hard to deal with, and I use a lot of heavy-duty eyedrops.
--"Loss of feeling in the face" YES. This was pretty much the whole left side of my face; now it is a lot better.
-- "Headache" not really. But I did have a horrible piercing pain behind my left ear for several weeks - was on painkillers a lot to start with and couldn't bear to wear earplugs or earphones. I was so glad when the pain became less frequent and then stopped altogether. I can still find a place behind my ear that is painful when I push it, but that's all.
--"Tearing" - I don't think so, but when you can't close your eye naturally, you lose track of what it can and can't do!
--"Drooling" - fortunately not, at least not day-to-day. It is more difficult to keep the one side of my mouth closed when I sleep so I have to work at it. And I do often "drool" when I drink or eat things like soup, so I always have a napkin or tissue handy. And talking about eating...
--"Loss of the sense of taste on the front two-thirds of the tongue" - DEFINITELY! This means that nothing tastes like it used to; in fact, most food just tastes bad and leaves my tongue with a cloying, almost hurting, feeling. This has been great for losing weight, but I have to work at getting proper nutrition. While simple starches are something I now usually avoid because of how they make my tongue feel, fresh vegetables also don't agree with my tongue plus the pieces get caught on the side of my mouth that doesn't work well (I usually chew only on one side). So much for the salads that I used to love! So I eat a lot of cooked vegetables and meat. I avoid acidic foods (tomato-based and citrus) as well as strong spices as they seem to "sting" my tongue; and I also avoid very cold drinks (goodbye iced coffee!!) as well as very hot food/drinks (it's harder to avoid burning my tongue when I can't sense the temperature well). All this to say that I can still eat everything, but it probably won't be enjoyable and sometimes I try to use my memory of how good it used to taste....
--"Hypersensitivity to sound in the affected ear" - hard to evaluate, as I've always been quite sensitive to sound, but I would say yes, this increased. Mix that with the inability to wear earplugs at night for a few weeks plus dealing with pain, and yes, I had some miserable weeks.
Treatment? There doesn't seem to be any treatment for Bell's (other than the initial Prednisone, which I did take, and daily stimulation of the affected side of the face, which I do), so the symptoms are treated to prevent long-term damage. Will I get totally better? I had hoped to be better before the end of 2 months, then 6 months.... I'm still hopeful, but there is also a chance I may never get my taste back or be able to laugh "normally" again. While I am not against the vaccine in general, at least for the foreseeable future I will not be getting the 2nd (or subsequent) vaccine(s), which might limit international travel (though a doctor's letter gets me into places here). While the lack of quick resolution to this condition has been disappointing, I only need to think of my friends around the world who are in much worse situations to realize how "blessed" I really am. God is still good. All the time!
