Bell's Palsy

Today has been a crazy, overwhelming day. This morning as I was making pancakes for Olly and Jack, Dusty called inquiring about whether or not he could just walk in to Dr. Head's office. "Why?" I asked "What's going on?" He said that the right side of his face was numb and he couldn't smile like after you go to the dentist. I told him to just go to the E.R. and I would meet him there. For the past 2 days Dusty has had a very strange headache right where his neck meets his head. So, we were thinking that maybe this was causing the problem, maybe creating pressure on the facial nerves and causing the numbness. (Of course, we were thinking other things that were A LOT worse too) The doctors gave him a CT scan and said that everything looked fine. There was no bleeding, no bruising, no tumors or cysts. They decided that he has Bell's Palsy, which is a temporary paralysis of the facial muscles. No one knows what causes it, and it goes away on it's own. 80% of the time it goes away within 6 months, and 20% of the time it can take upn to a year. We are hoping it doesn't last that long, but for now we are just waiting to see what happens. I am SO GLAD that it wasn't something more serious. Right now his smile is only a half smile and his right eye doesn't fully blink along with his left. I call him limp-face :) But it's done out of love and because I'm so relieved that it wasn't something awful or deadly. But, he's cute, and I'm glad he's ok. Here is a link with some information about Bell's Palsy if anyone is interested. http://www.bellspalsybook.com/faq.html It's so crazy that your face can just temporarily paralise and no one knows for sure why... but such a relief that it's only temporary. OH, and did I mention that i'm so GRATEFUL that it wasn't something worse....