Bell's Palsy Physical Therapy and Massage Yourself

I nearly called this "How to Touch Yourself for Bell's Palsy" because a part of me is always 12 years old heh. If you laughed at that, good. Bodies are hilarious, even if this experience with Bell's is scary as hell sometimes, and annoying at best.

But!!! Facial massage feels good AND increases muscle and joint functionality, helps move fluids around (saliva and lymph) that usually get moved by our muscles.

Massage increases endorphins, releases stress, encourages relaxation. Super common for athletes and other people recovering from physical trauma (which Bell's Palsy HAS TO COUNT as physical trauma.)

Learn about your body. The more you know, the more you can do to ease your fears and help your healing.

Let the healing take the time it takes, but the more active you can be in your self care and healing process, the better. Physical Therapy has always helped me heal and regain functionality faster and more completely.

For my resume on working PT, I had a dislocated ankle at age 18, sprained ACL (age 28), busted ACL (age 36), which caused foot, hip and back problems (did PT for those too) until knee surgery (age 42, TONS of PT). Just finished PT for the soft tissue damage recovery after double wrist/hand fracture from a car wreck (age 47, 16 months ago) and now the Bell's Palsy (day 6 and counting)

The best physical therapy is whatever you can do that will help you get back to your normal functioning. No ableism intended but I know my baseline assumptions are gonna be different from what some people can do.

DO YOUR PHYSICAL THERAPY! Take care of yourself. *sloppy mwah*