I had it 9/28/18. I was 35. Was terrified it would last forever. Face was mostly normal after a week. Balance sucked for a month or two. I still have minor problems with mybleft side of my lips and tongue not quite keeping up when i speak quickly. Sounds (to me) like i’m Slurring. No one else notices.
A coworker had it about a year ago. It took about 2 months for him to get back to normal but he had it bad enough that he could not even blink and needed to use eye drops and goggles. We barely made fun of him...
I had it at about age 42. It was a fairly minor inconvenience and cleared up completely in a couple of weeks. I have had 2 recurrences over the pat 20 years. Each time it has been annoying but not too bothersome and I have had no lasting effects. Don't worry about it, it will resolve itself.
Buddy of mine at work had it last year. Took some time to recover (>6 months IIRC), but he's back to normal now.
Had it around 4 years ago (@42). Spent a night in a house that had a bunch of mold in it. Next day had a headache, I never get headaches, got on an airplane and when I went to drink water was all over my lap. I was also under a lot of stress at the time. Steroids are the first course of action, along with a good amount of Vitamin B, sublingual B and multitude of other vitamins that help with nerve issues. I went for acupuncture at a friends suggestion, doctor had experience with bells, no incense burning or music playing, the doc barely spoke english. I went 2x a week and it was after a few weeks that I felt some feeling in my face after leaving his office. Make sure you lube and tape your eye closed at night s0 you don't dry it out . Lasted a longtime for me, doctors said after a month or so I wouldn't expect to have full recovery. Remember trying to eat soup one day my wife pissed her pants laughing at me. I always managed to keep the beer from spilling. I'm 95% good now, she's probably the only one who notices.
Had Bells Palsy twice in my younger years. First time resulted in shock therapy to release the muscles in my face, second time resulted in surgery. All better now, but I do have some effects of it many years later with minimal movement of one side of my forehead muscle. It started from a common head cold. I've seen a few pregnant ladies get the disorder close to their due dates, but recovered well with Prednisone injections. Good luck with recovery.
There are support groups on Facebook if you’re into that sort of thing. I joined for about a month, and then quit because i couldn’t tolerate the incessant whining. I felt (and still feel) badly for the people who take years to recover, but they would scare the shit out of everyone else and make them feel guilty for recovering. Most of my contributions to the page were reassuring people that they were very probably going to recover fully, if not quickly. I did a lot of reminding people that most of the support group members weren’t in the majority who recovered within a few months, and instead stuck around to commiserate with others who were also unlucky. Eating was a little hard for a while. Never stopped drinking beers or took time off from working out. The balance issue made biking and running hard.
update on my face. it is coming back a little bit every day now. still a ways to go for both sides to match but its livable at least. I did get the bill from the hospital yesterday... That could have been a nice race bike.
Yeah, I had it about 20 years ago, scared the shit out of me, thought I had a stroke. Went to the Dr. and he told me what it was. Slurred speech, drooling(well more drooling ) and had to tape my eye shut to sleep. I believe I used drops to keep the eye moist. It sucked and hope it doesn't happen again! A couple of weeks and I was all better.