Facial Palsy and Cranial Nerve Damage

There are many websites describing Facial Palsy in "doctor-speak" but you are always left with the feeling that unless the Doctor actually "suffers" from Facial Palsy then how do they really know what it is like?

March 1969, a facial presentation at birth

Pregnancy is such a magical time and I know from personal experience what it is like to give birth to a child who has a "difference". I don't like to call facial palsy a birth defect, because who is to say what makes us truly perfect? Don't people often look at conventionally beautiful people and think they are lacking because they are simply too perfect? I always think that a beautiful spirit is far more powerful than beauty on the outside.

I came into this world in the spring of 1969 and I was born with facial palsy, in other words, congenital facial paralysis. I do believe that I am luckier than someone who has become a victim of Facial Palsy or Bell's Palsy in later life, and that is because I have only ever known the face that I was born with, and although sometimes I have my moments, on the whole I am fairly happy with it.

When I was born I was what was known as a "facial presentation" birth and I came out "face first" instead of "head first". Had I been born in today's more modern world, my mother would have had a caesarean and my facial paralysis would maybe never have occurred. The doctors were never quite sure what happened to my face, they said I was the first person in the UK to have this happen without there being a specific reason for it, and possibly in the world. Many people suffer from Bell's Palsy after head injury, stroke or for various other reasons, but there was no definite reason for this happening to me. I now know that there were other babies born with similar problems, if only we had had the internet back then! I didn't have a clue that I wasn't alone with this unique looking face which only smiled on one side!

Was it only Facial Paralysis or in fact Cerebral Palsy?

My early years were filled with numerous trips to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, UK, where I had to endure brain scans and various other tests. The doctors did not rule out cerebral palsy until I was about 10 years of age. My mother was so desperate to prove that I didn't have cerebral palsy that she pushed me to the limits developmentally, she wasn't going to let me be different to any other child the same age.

Although the doctors eventually decided that I didn't have "cerebral palsy", I never really got any answers as to why this had happened. They decided that a nerve behind my ear must have been damaged when I came out "face first". I now know this is called cranial nerve damage.

So what is it about me that is so different? Well there are pros and cons of my situation so I will list them here.

The downside to my Facial Palsy

• I can only shut one eye 
• I can't show my teeth when I smile 
• My smile is lop-sided 
• I get a sore eye 
• As I get older one side of my face is getting more wrinkled than the other 
• It makes me different 

The upside to my Facial Paralysis

• I can read out of my paralysed eye in strong sunlight because it won't squint or close 
• I don't need to worry about food stuck in my teeth 
• I don't need to worry about what my teeth look like 
• I can wiggle one eyebrow (I don't tell people it's because I can't actually wiggle the other!) 
• It makes me different 

Facial Palsy friends

One of the best things about having facial palsy is the amount of friends I have made because of it.  It's no longer a lonely world where no one else understands the pain of growing up with a wonky smile, these days I feel like I am a member of a very special club, I have made friends from all over the world who understand exactly how I feel.  We all have different degrees of facial palsy, but we all share the common understanding of what a potentially cruel beginning it is in life to be unable to smile normally, but thankfully, most of the people I have met have adapted brilliantly, and being unable to smile normally has not held us back.  There are a couple of groups on Facebook for people with facial palsy or parents of children with facial palsy and it's good to know other people who are in a similar situation to talk to.  There is a new group called Courage to Smile which has been set up recently and it is growing quite rapidly.

Facial Palsy in the media

Recently, I have met a lot of new people who have facial palsy, and this is largely due to Shelby Dressel, who has appeared on American Idol in 2010.  It is wonderful that Shelby has had the courage to appear in front of the viewing public of the United States, I know how difficult that must be for anyone with facial palsy, and I am so grateful to her for raising awareness of such an often lonely form of paralysis.