In the immortal words of the late, lamented Gilda Radner, "It's always something." That's a good way to describe this weekend.
First, Mark got the same kind of error message on his dashboard about his transmission that he was getting about a month ago. He has an appointment with Ford, but not until the second week of September. We are back to using my car for All The Things for the time being.
Second, I was out with friends at Marsh Creek when I felt something unusual. We were a combination of deaf and hearing folks, so I made a facial expression (part of ASL) as part of my response to something, and it felt "off". It actually felt like only the right side of my face had moved properly. Hmm. Odd.
Then, last night, I noticed that my left eye wasn't closing all the way. Hmm. VERY odd.
Fast-forward to this morning. There were definitely assymetrical facial movements, with my left side being less responsive.
Fortunately, I knew of the existence of a condition called Bell's Palsy, and felt there was no reason to panic. We went to church, as I interpret on the fourth Sunday of the month, and from there, we went right to Urgent Care.
The doctor agrees that it's Bell's Palsy, which a viral infection that affects one of the facial nerves*, which can take weeks to resolve. But as there is no limb weakness, no lack of mental clarity, no slurring speech, etc., odds are that it is NOT one of the more dire reasons why a person would have asymmetric facial movements. Heck, I spent an hour using sign language at Mass. If there was any issue with my limbs, we can guarantee that I would have noticed it long before Mass was over. All the limbs and all the fingers and toes are doing their jobs properly.
*Very rarely, in fewer than 1% of cases, both sides of the face are affected. In most cases, including mine, only one side is impacted.
I did get the COVID test done anyway. Why the heck not? Might as well rule out that any OTHER viruses are intruding on the premises, while we work on getting rid of the source of the Bell's Palsy. Man, that swab up the nose is annoying, lol. But it could be worse.
Long story less long: I have a ten-day course of both Prednisone and an antiviral. I am hoping that since I started treatment within the first 2 hours of having symptoms, maybe the symptom progression won't get too far. The first 48 hours of symptom onset is when things are in the "getting worse before it gets better" stage.
I have a feeling I will be drinking through a straw for a while. This morning, I almost ended up wearing my coffee. That's all I need are MORE reasons why I end up having food and beverage mishaps, lol. I have enough of those on a normal day.
