My Journey to Recovering from Bell's Palsy

CC: English, Español (Spanish), हिंदी (Hindi). Don't hide from the world! :-) This video diary documents my ~97 day journey to healing from Bell's Palsy. I had a severe case including mild deafness, and still made a full recovery after approximately five weeks.

I credit my recovery to: quick diagnosis; starting oral steroids within 2 days of first symptoms; twice weekly Chinese acupuncture and daily herbs; plenty of vitamins, water, exercise, and sleep; weekly acupressure massage on hands and feet (to trigger facial twitching through acupressure points); and keeping company with positive-energy friends and trying to keep an optimistic outlook.

There were a lot of days where I felt depressed at times. It took at least 23-24 days before any significant signs of healing appeared. After around day 23, movement began to return quickly with each passing day. There were noticeable improvements every morning in days 23-30, and by week six I appeared normal.

If you have Bell's Palsy, try to be patient during your recovery even though some days you might feel depressed or hopeless that movement will ever return. Some cases require 6 months or longer to see improvements. What I believe worked for me is to keep going to work, going outdoors, and to not let the condition interrupt my camping plans or anything else I wanted to do in life.

During recovery the only thing you can really control is your attitude. Try to stay as positive as you can. Explore non-traditional treatments such as acupuncture or electro-acupuncture (where muscles are stimulated by low current). These treatments can get expensive but I think it's worth making the financial sacrifice to make sure you try everything you possibly can to experience a full and rapid recovery.

Soundtrack used with permission of Dan Pulfer.
https://soundcloud.com/dpulfer/divided