The resources for people with facial palsy are improving every day, which is wonderful news! I started this website several years ago and it’s been amazing all the people I have now met with facial palsy, if you consider that when I set up the website I had never met anyone else with the condition, apart from my Uncle Harry who had facial palsy after a stroke. Continue reading
Today I received a special delivery letter from Addenbrookes Hospital which was quite exciting because I have been waiting to hear back from them, but I didn’t expect such a fast response! A couple of weeks ago I requested copies of any records they might still have about my facial palsy, my mum has told me all that she knew and they didn’t really add a lot to this, but it was nice to see it all written down. Unfortunately a lot of it was very difficult to read because it was scans of micro-fiche, but I got the general picture. I am going to attempt to transcribe!
Just wanted to give a brief update on what I have been up to over the summer so far. We kicked off the summer with a wonderful holiday to Dalyan in Turkey. I am so glad we went to Turkey because the weather here in the UK has been pretty miserable really! We hadn’t been abroad for over ten years on a proper family beach holiday and I had forgotten how much good it does you! I have to say a special thank you to Anatolian Sky because the way they looked after us was excellent, we couldn’t have asked for more from a Tour Operator, we’d definitely recommend them for holidays in Turkey and will be traveling with them again.
Courage to Smile Group Meeting May 2011
Saturday 7th May was quite a magical day for me. 12 weeks ago some UK members of the Courage to Smile group on Facebook decided to arrange a meet-up and this happened last weekend. Continue reading
Apologies to people following my blog because I haven’t updated it until now. Things got really hairy just after my last post and I ended up having to have the gold weight removed. You can see in the image on the left (taken 22 February 2011) that things got worse and I ended up with alien eye! I have never felt such horrendous discomfort in my life! It seems however that I was just one of the unlucky ones and I had an allergic reaction to the gold. I have talked to many people who absolutely LOVE their gold weight so please don’t let this put you off trying the surgery. Continue reading
24 hours after surgery
Well this week I put my brave head on and finally went for the gold weight surgery on my eyelid. Today (48 hours later) I am still bruised but the swelling is going down slowly.
When I previously arranged the surgery which I later cancelled (should have been in April), I was supposed to have a general anaesthetic. This time round they put me in for a local anaesthetic which I thought would be better, I’d feel more in control and not just wake up a different woman! I should have known better really, for someone who has fainted twice before at the dentist, I was a bit silly not to realise what might happen! Yes, I fainted on the operating table! The surgeon was just about to put the weight in place when I had a funny turn, so they had to stop the operation halfway through and fill me full of sweet tea, glucose syrup and biscuits to bring my blood pressure and sugar levels back up. Two hours later they took me back in and finished the operation. The operation was not painful at all, I just felt very queasy at the sensations of them poking about in my eyelid and it was very hot in the operating theatre. Continue reading
Shelby Dressel worked wonders for raising awareness of Facial Paralysis last year in American Idol and was the inspiration behind the Courage to Smile group on Facebook. Continue reading
I am finding more and more people online have different degrees of facial paralysis and for many different reasons. Some people’s facial palsy is caused by birth trauma, others by brain tumours, some by Moebius Syndrome, some by Bell’s Palsy, and I am sure there are plenty more to list. Continue reading
Moebius syndrome is a rare neurological syndrome affecting the facial nerves leaving people unable to move their faces to smile, suck, frown, grimace or blink. Other problems are also caused by Moebius syndrome and you can find more information here. Continue reading
We’ve been talking a lot on the Courage to Smile group on Facebook recently about how to raise awareness of Facial Palsy. It’s such a rare thing to happen to a person that even Doctors aren’t experienced in what advice to give, surgery options available, and also what the prognosis is for the future. New parents of children with facial nerve damage are still going through the same thing my mother did 40 years ago, and it is only the internet that is helping to educate people a little more. Continue reading