Yep, you heard right, I have a type of palsy. Go me, my life just got so much easier.

Yeah, right...

Essentially Bell's palsy is the total paralysis of one side of the face. I have it on the right side, and it's totally paralyzed. So now when I go to to smile, blink, or make any facial expression I look like a complete idiot. Not only that, I can barely close my right eye and I can't blink, which means I have to keep an eye on it(no pun intended) so that it doesn't dry out, which could lead to permanent vision problems. Eating, drinking, or even brushing my teeth is now a big chore since half my mouth refuses to work. On top of that, I'm also experiencing crocodile tear syndrome, aching muscles on the affected side of my face, hot flashes, a runny nose, hypersensitive hearing, distorted/slurred speech, pretty bad fatigue, and tasting problems(I can't taste a darn thing). These are all side effects of Bell's palsy, and more could crop up as my condition progresses.

I've only had this problem for about two days now(I woke up with it Wednesday morning) and I went to the hospital yesterday night, thinking I had combined the wrong meds since I'm taking some cus I've been the sickest I've ever been in a while. They said no, it wasn't the meds that caused it, but it was the sickness I've had which looks like a type of herpes. Basically a gland that surrounds the nerves going to the right side of my face swelled because of the virus and damaged or destroyed the nerves in the process. And recovery is slow. The shortest I could be recovered by is in three months, but it could take several months if a lot of damage is done, and it's still unclear whether I'll have a complete recovery. So yeah, that's what I'm going through and there's really nothing I can do except wait it out and hope I recover fully. It's gonna be a long few months.

Since I don't wanna end this on a bad note I'm gonna say this: I've recently started learning parkour. I'm no good at it now, but I really want to learn. So, as soon as I get rid of whatever I have illness-wise I'm gonna start practicing it. The palsy shouldn't affect that activity thankfully and I could use parkour as a means to deal with what I have. We'll see how everything goes over the next couple weeks, hopefully it'll get better for me.

Oh, and on a side note to all you gamers out there, I'm looking for people to play Halo 3 or Left 4 Dead online with. It would be awesome to play with any of you guys once I get my internet hooked up, though I'm not sure how long that'll be. This recent move has really left us hurting money-wise, so it could be a while.