I will fill in the background details soon, but I figured ‘release early, release often’. This is a set of reflections on my run-in with Bell’s Palsy.

Things I have learned:

1. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because one side of your mouth is at least semi-functional, that side can perform successfully the actions of the mouth as a whole. For example, drinking: it’s actually better to slip the liquids (and I do mean, slip) into the paralyzed side because you can actually seal the other side with the functioning lips. It’s so automatic to use the lips that work, I keep forgetting that limitations and liquids roll out the right side unchecked.
2. Vessels with spouts are the key, as they can funnel the liquid. But, if you’re a normal family, you probably have a paucity of available spouted vessels. On the other hand, we’re a Russo-American family with a) a former-baby/current-toddler with baby/toddler cups galore (though sippy cups are just not up to the job of your average thick meal-replacement shake) and b) a matriarch with a formerly-humorous-but-as-usual-devastatingly-on-it-obsession with plastic Chinese tea thermoses.
3. A significant portion of Bell’s Palsy sufferers experience heavy fatigue. I seem to be one, with a strange cycle of tiredness, usually with an onset of about 3:30pm — 4pm. It’s quite something, let me tell you, and not what I expected.
4. There is also an angle of this I am sure many of you would share, were you to be (or have you been) in similar predicaments… A thing I might express as the added psychological stress of being a burden to others. I think this is one of the most difficult things to deal with, since it alone can propel ‘the one who should be resting’ into moments of ‘semi-guilt-ridden activity’ which, I can only imagine, server to exacerbate the condition. It is a strange and gut-sinking thing to see yourself as a sort of deadweight eye of a storm, sort of like being a hunk of paralyzed lead dropped onto a pool tarp, pulling everything down into its heavy, distorting sink.

Image credit goes to: Yann Souetre from whom I borrowed without permission