day 6 of bell's palsy

ugh!  this is the hardest day yet.  i had no sleep last night.  none.  zilch.


i went to work running on caffeine and steroids.  i thought i would be able to make it through the day but by 1 pm, i was dying.  my head and my eye were throbbing.  i wanted to throw up.


i go home early, i eat a little so i can take more steroids and pray that i fall asleep before the steroid kicks in.  no luck there.  i am still wide awake.  hopefully i can fall asleep tonight.  

day 5 of bell's palsy

yesterday, i took a nap and went to sleep early.  i've been feeling really, really exhausted.  i think my body is telling the bell's palsy, 'we're not going to rest until we beat you!'  the steroids that i'm taking is supposed to keep me up so when i take it in the afternoon, i take it early enough so as not to interfere with my sleep.  i take my first doze with breakfast, and the afternoon doze at around 4 pm with a light snack.  so by 10 pm...i ready for bed.  actually last night, i think at around 730 pm, i was out...not knocked out but i just wanted to lie down and close my eyes.  i am thankful that my husband has been taking good care of me and filling in for me with the things that michelle needs.  


we went to church today and everyone was supportive and told me that if i'm not wearing my eye patch, they wouldn't be able to tell that i have bell's palsy...i agree with them.  it's day 5 and i don't think it's gotten worse from day 3.  i think my taste is starting to come back because i drank coffee this morning and it actually tasted more like coffee and less like batteries.  i am also able to drink more water now which i totally missed!  i love drinking water.  


anyway, at church today, pastor andrev, our guest pastor spoke about caleb and joshua and the ten other spies that were sent to check out canaan....if you haven't read this story, look it up in the book of numbers. long story short, let us not be limited by the hindrance we see before us.  let us not focus on the things that could set us back.  God wants his people to just say yes and not question what He has called us to do.  so i prayed to the Lord this morning, 'Lord, whatever it is that you have called me to do, i know you will equip me.  let me see myself the way you see me.  i can do all things because you strengthen me!'  hallelujah!  i feel so good inside, really.  i thank the Lord for giving me the joy.  if i leave it up to me and my emotions, i would be a pathetic mess every day.  =)  


paul took michelle to her classmate's birthday party in san mateo today.  i was supposed to go but i'm just really exhausted and i've already answered enough questions about bell's palsy and i know i will be inundated with more questions if i go to the party.  i decided to just lie down and let paul answer the questions.  by now he's as well versed in it as i am.  


i got a wonderful text message from my mother in law, too.  i'm not asking for a pity party that's why i'm not blasting it out on facebook where there will be a gazillion comments if i mention this...i write about this in my blog mostly for me and hopefully to help others out there if they happen to stumble upon my blog...but i'm feeling the love from all around me.  =D  i pray that no matter the season in our lives, we feel the love of our family, friends, and our God.  God loves you.  if you don't know that yet, it's about time someone told you.  =)

day 5, mirror image. no make up (so vain!), really controlled smile.  not bad right?

it's another sunshiny day!

it's another beautiful day in the bay area!  i love days like this when you don't need to wear a sweater during the day.  we always take advantage of rare days like this and celebrate with a bbq.  we grilled some liempo, hotdogs, and asparagus in the backyard for dinner.  michelle couldn't wait and has been asking, 'when are we going to start our bbq???' this girl loves to bbq.  =)

anyway, it's day 4 of bell's palsy.  i don't think it's gotten worse from yesterday.  everything seems the same...i'll take that over getting worse.  i feel tired though.  i took another nap today...maybe because i just want to keep my eyes closed.  


i'm feeling the love from family and friends who are aware of my condition and continue to thank them and the Lord for being so good to me.  =D  i am blessed and i know it!

bell's palsy day 3

day 3.  the left side of my face is drooping more and i think my taste buds are really out of whack today.  i have not felt the hyper-sensitive hearing yet...

i felt miserable last night and broke down and cried like a baby.  oh well!  there will be days like such but i hope that doesn't happen too often.  claire called while i was in the middle of tears...i think she felt sorry for me that she and her husband, jacob came over last night to check up on me.  jacob's a physical therapist and so i asked him for tips to strengthen my facial muscles.

i think i've found a sweet spot to put the tissue and patch to keep my eye closed.  my main gripe today is the taste bud thing.  everything, and i mean everything, tastes terrible!  but i still gotta eat because i need to take meds. *sigh* oh well!

i spoke with chel earlier today.  it was good to hear her voice.  she said she's been busy in the philippines but over all it's been a great trip.  they're going to burma and thailand next week.

the weather is gorgeous!  michelle took this rare opportunity to play with the water sprinkler in the backyard.  while she played, i planted some carrots, beets, cucumber and green beans.  i really hope they grow.  i have sage, thyme, rosemary and green onions that are thriving right now.  my jalapeno doesn't seem to like the weather here though. it bears fruit, but really tiny fruit and the leave always dry up and fall off.  i'm going to buy strawberry plants next week and maybe another apple tree since i read that you always have to plant two trees so they can cross pollinate...i did not know that.  i want to get some blueberry shrubs too because i just love blueberries.  maybe we'll do that next week too.

i'm really trying my best to keep my mind off of this condition and go about my day.  it's hard but you just gotta keep going.  i am so blessed to have my family and a wonderful set of friends who are always there for me for support.  God is great!  =D

bell's palsy: day 2

i took a 2.5 hour nap yesterday after i got home.  i have been wearing my eye patch consistently...taking a break from it only when my daughter insists on wearing the patch herself. 

taken using my phone's front facing camera so this is a mirror image.
i know it doesn't look too bad but if i smile any bigger, it becomes obvious
how lopsided my face is. 

the thing that bothers me the most is the eye not being able to blink or shut completely.  it is so uncomfortable.  i woke up this morning and my eye isn't as red as it was yesterday.  going to bed with the patch really helped.  my eye gets more watery so much more today than yesterday.  driving is difficult because i can't wear my patch when i'm driving and yet i can't blink my left eye so it starts to blur and get watery.  oh well!  i'm driving more cautiously and will probably not drive beginning tomorrow and hope the eye things improves by monday.  i don't want to take BART to work!

my taste buds are out of whack...everything tastes terrible!

you will hear me complain a lot as i document this journey but please don't forget that i am extremely thankful that i didn't have  a stroke or something worse than bell's palsy. 

it's so weird to have this condition after i learned about it several months ago.  i spoke with someone from our church who had bell's palsy last year.  i didn't even know she had it!  she said it gets better after a month...a little longer than i had hoped but what can we do?  there are some things in life we can't control and this is one of them for me. 

i try not to take it too seriously.  last night, lai was making fun of me and the funny way i say letter "P".  she asked me, 'what's the name of kate middleton's sister again?'  imagine popeye the sailor man's lips when he speaks...yup, that's what i look like. 

i'm popeye the sailor man!

on a temporary pirate gig

last night i had drinks with two of my best girl friends, lai and claire at celia's mexican restaurant.  when i took the first sip from my margarita, i told them, 'hmmm, my tongue feels funny.' they, like me, just shrugged it off and we proceeded with our chatter about life, love, and the draw something game that we were all playing!  after a couple of margaritas, it was time to head home.  


this morning, i woke up with my left eye bright red, not pink eye, but blood shot.  because i have chronic dry eyes, i said to myself, 'gotta use them eye drops more often!' during breakfast, i noticed that my coffee tasted funny and so did the water.  it had that iron-y, metallic taste (lasang kalawang, sa madaling salita!).  again i ignored it.  in the shower, i could taste the water, too, and i thought to myself, 'could our water be contaminated?  this is weird.'  


since paul and i woke up late, i had no time to put on my make up at home.  so in the car, at a stop light, i pulled out my lipstick and started to apply it on my lips.  i puckered my lips and noticed that my lips were lopsided.  i took off my aligners (invisalign) and puckered again.  still lopsided!  'did i have a mild stroke that i did not know about???'  i immediately called paul and started freaking out! 'beb!  there's something wrong with my face.  my lips are lopsided...i just noticed it now...'  there's nothing that freaks out a husband more than a freaking out wife!  when i got to the office, i immediately told my boss what i was feeling and scheduled a doctor's appointment for 940 in the morning and got it checked.


i told the doctor what i felt, what i saw, and when it started.  she started nodding her head...i did not see a look of panic in her face so i said to myself, 'ok maybe this is not as serious as i thought. thank God!' after a series of minor tests and exercises she said, 'what you have is bell's palsy.  have you heard of it?'


i told her yes, i know about it and have read about it in the past.  she put me on prescription steroids for the next 10 days.  i had the image of the totally ripped arnold schwarzanegger flash before my eyes when i heard steroids.  and as if she read my thoughts, the doctor said, 'there shouldn't be any major side effects with the medication since it will be a low dose.'  the doctor assured me that i will make a full recovery but it could take any where from a couple of weeks up to 3 months before i feel the rest of my face again.   the left side of my face is affected...it's hard to eat and everything tastes weird!  when i drink water, sometimes it dribbles down my chin.  thank the Lord i'm not drooling!  i can hardly shut my left eye, thus, i was advised to wear a patch over it (day and night) so my eye doesn't dry out like it did last night so when i went to walgreens to pick up my prescription, i bought an eye patch, too. so i will be on a temporary pirate assignment until this all goes away.  lai looked up my pirate name today and said i shall be called Pirate Uma the Staggering Drunk.  


But when i got home, guess who insisted on wearing the patch?

arrrr you rrrrrrrready?

in case of an earthquake...

we live in northern california, just a couple of miles east of the san andreas fault - there is a highway that runs along the fault and it's kinda freaky knowing that you're driving just inches away from one of the most active faults in the world.  until the massive earthquake and tsunami in japan last year, i haven't really given earthquakes much thought.  if you've always lived in the pacific ring of fire as i have, earthquakes become part of normal life.  BUT that earthquake worried me enough that i started taking action.  we have an emergency container in each bedroom + the garage at home filled with emergency food, water, medicines, bandages, etc.  just a couple of days ago, we finally (after many years of me just thinking about it) got an earthquake shut off valve for the natural gas line that runs to our house. 

the 1906 earthquake and the loma prieta earthquake in 1989 did a lot of structural damage to buildings in the bay area but the most damage came from fires that sparked from leaking natural gas lines that run into the buildings.  now, i feel a little bit more prepared if an earthquake strikes.  

The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 

Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989

next on our to do list, earthquake/emergency drill at home.