Bell's Palsy

So, there's one kid in every family who gets all the weird stuff: glasses, braces, cavities, lyme disease... In our family, Asher's that guy.

When he woke up this morning, half his face was "out."

I didn't notice until this afternoon and then I had to take a video and text it to Nate. "Is Asher's face weird or is this just in my head?"

 

 

Weird. Definitely weird. The entire left half of his face is paralyzed and the nice ER doc diagnosed him with Bell's Palsy. It should resolve itself in a couple of weeks so no biggie. Treatment includes some sort of steroid that greatly decreases the likelihood of permanent nerve damage (inflamed Cranial Nerve #7, I think they called it). For now, his left eye is our only concern. Because he can't blink it's already quite dry and beginning to hurt. We need to help him "blink" manually and apply ointment and drops several times a day. He also has to sleep with a patch but I think he's secretly thrilled about it.

 
Other than that we're all getting a kick out of watching him try to drink anything and his frowny face is my new fave.