Bells Palsy Day 11.12.13

Yep still here...  I found that the chicken egg rolls taste good!!!  Oh to have something taste good is such a gift...  I had a Pepsi yesterday...  It still didn't taste good...  I am just moving forward...  Meds are done...  My knee hurts again...  Maybe the steroids is what helped my knee...  Oh my smile is a little bigger...  I can move my eyebrow a little...  Is this the beginning of it all getting better?  I noticed that I can drink the water out of the glass and it works...  Still tastes funny but, tada, I can drink out of a glass...  I know what I am celebrating today!!  Find something to celebrate everyday!!!  I am!!

Bells Palsy Day 10

Day is almost over and I have no pictures...  I worked on the computer today grateful that Bells palsy does not hamper anything except smiling, eating, drinking and talking...   I am uploading videos and notice there is a difference in my voice and a sniffle...  Another symptom that would have gone unnoticed is the nasal drip from the over active watery eye, if I had not caught it in the video...   I am on the verge of a breakdown though...  Frustrated would be an understatement...  I keep thinking it will be all better when I wake up...  And there it is the crooked smile, watery eye that wont close and twitches, and the earache...  I wonder if it will be like this forever...  I wonder what is my lesson here?  hmmmm...  Find something to celebrate everyday!!!  I am!!

Day 9 Bells Palsy

Yep still here...  Crooked smile... bad taste...  twitchy watery eye...  funny feeling face...  lil earache...  and this happens...

lol... I was supposed to put the coffee in the canister and I accidentally put it in my cup...   Coffee was already made in the pot but I hadn't poured mine yet...  Yes, I am tired and I am going to rest today!! 

Bells Palsy Day 8

Well it has been a week...  I am exhausted...  I woke up in Ojai today...  Looking forward to spending the day with my mom...  We will be working in her yard...  My face is still funny...  The taste is still here...  Checking my face wasn't the first thing I did this morning...  This was the first day that it just kind of seems like it is part of life to have this over watery eye, funny feeling on the right side of my face, funny metal taste, lil earache...

It was great to spend the day with mom...  We got some of her entry redone...  Tom picked me up and drove us home...  Because of the over watery and twitching eye driving was a little scary and Tom changed his plans to come to Ojai on the motorcycle and drove me...  I am so grateful and exhausted...  Find something to celebrate everyday!!!  I am!!!

Bells Palsy Day 7

The Journey continues...  Today is the wedding, I will be helping with the flowers...  I have looked forward to this for months and it was never a doubt for me that I would be here to do these flowers...  Even through all this medical situation...  I still have a crooked smile...  I can still taste the metal, waxy taste...  I have my shirt picked out special to hide any dribbles...   It is still a learning curve on eating and drinking... especially drinking...  Amazing how our muscles work to keep our mouths closed when we eat and drink... 

I am so grateful that I can still help with the flowers...  It is a busy special and I want to enjoy every minute of it...    Find something to celebrate everyday!!  I am!!!

Bells Palsy day 6

Good morning sunshine!!!  There was a crooked lady, with a crooked smile...  Yep it is still here...  I was up till the wee hours of the morning working on the wedding album then slept in till 10am...  I am very tired and can feel it in my face... 

So you would think that since things don't taste good it would be a great diet, but what I have found is that I want to taste everything looking for something that is going to taste good...  So I haven't lost any weight, haven't gained either though maybe because of the steroids I feel huge and uncomfortable...  I have finished the wedding album, hooray...  it is beautiful and I am very proud of it and grateful that I had it to really keep my mind off my medical condition most of the time this week...  I packed and have us ready to go spend a few days in Ojai...  Looking forward to it...

St Patrick's Dinner Party at St Thomas was so much fun...  I got to see many friends that I grew up with...  Here you can see that I still have the crooked smile...  Many people said that my smile looks so much better than the first picture they saw...  I have many people praying for me...  They also said they could not hear any difference when I talk...  I am still very embarrassed but didn't want to miss out on this eve's festivities and chance to see old friends...  I'm so glad we went...  I enjoyed the time with my family shown here... 

So It has been quite a week and tomorrow is the wedding...  The daughter of two of my very long time friends...  I will be helping with flowers...  Today was great and I am so excited for what tomorrow holds...  Find something to celebrate everyday, I am!!!

Happy St Patricks day and Day 5 Bells Palsy

Top of the Morning to ya!!!  Rainbows and pot of gold?  Lucky?   Well its still here...  I can actually feel the difference in the sides of my face...  But what is really strange is that it is the sensation of the good side that I can feel...  My right side (the affected side) feels very cold when I touch it...  hmmm...  I still can not close my right eye all the way it leaves a sliver open...  I pulled out a mirror that has a 4X closer image (ha scary) yep the crooked smile is still here. 

This is a picture of my face when I am not smiling no make up.   You can see that there is a difference to each side.  The effected side has less wrinkles. It is resting...  hmmmmmmmm....

 I was able to work on the wedding album all day.  I made the best corned beef and cabbage ever today... I could taste it, still had a metal taste and coating but it was good...

Tom and I went to the park to listen to our friend Marks band.   We danced on the infield of the baseball diamond and had a great time...  Here you can see our selfie and my crooked smile...  I was tempted to not go out because I am feeling self conscious...  It looks better than the original picture, but it feels different and I notice it more and I don't want to eat in front of anyone...  I actually went shopping for something to wear to the wedding sunday that has a print on the front so if I dribble it wont be as obvious...  I am moving forward, I am still so grateful that it really only has effected my face, my mind is great, I can move and dance and make things and still enjoy life...  Happy St Patricks day!!!!  Find something to celebrate everyday,  I am!!!

Day 3 and 4 Bells Palsy Journey

So my new routine meds in the morning and through out the day...  It is really hard to get pills down with a straw when it is so hard to hold the straw in your mouth and not have water fall out...  Yes, the facial paralysis is still there, or here...  And today it actually feels different...  I can tell it doesn't work...  My eye does not close all the way and was very dry and irritated when I woke up...  I may need to add an eye patch to keep dust out at night...  I have to say it is truly a strange feeling to not be able to force your eye shot. Lymph nodes in the back of my head are still swollen but not sore...  The earache has dulled to where I hardly notice it...  So many of these things are good... 

Today I noticed that my pill is a shield and it has a J on it... Yes my meds are monogrammed, lol...   Not to easy to swallow but knowing that this may be how I get better faster I will take it even if I end up with water on my shirt... dribble dribble...  

Oh my favorite drink... The very bad for me Pepsi from Mexico, chilled to very very cold, and it is almost impossible to drink it from the bottle (that's how I like it)  and it tastes horrible, yes the metal taste that seems like a wax coating on my food is still there...  bummer... 

I am so grateful that although this is so very irritating and scary I am grateful it is not effecting my other capacities...  I can still think, and do (my knee doesn't hurt for the first time in 2 months)  I can work on the wedding album hooray...   I can still find something to celebrate everyday and I will...  Thank you for checking out my story, hope it gives you info you can pass on... 

My Bells Palsy journey, Day 2

Good morning world!!  Tuesday, 4am and I look in the mirror and smile a big ole "crooked" smile.  Yep, it did not go away.  It was not just a bad dream.  I was hoping that all symptoms would be gone when I woke up.  Yes I think I was hoping to be that overnight miracle.   So reality began to set in.  I took my new pills, sent Tom off to work and went back to bed.  I slept better than I had in a week.  My earache though still there was tolerable.  I was feeling a little groggy, probably from the meds. 

So this morning is the second day after the facial paralysis happened.  I have to eat a snack before I can take my pills and that is fun, trying to chew, keep my mouth closed is going to be a learning experience.  It is probably not pretty.  My right eye is still wide open and is now taking turns between being so wet that it makes my vision blurry to being so dry.  Time to take my meds and that is fun as water trickles down the side of my mouth.   It is harder to negotiate than it was yesterday, but I am still slurping, ugggg.   Maybe try a straw later.  

I call my mom to give her an update.  I texted with a couple of friends.  I checked out facebook.  I'm working on an ebook I am writing but I can not concentrate on any thing long.  Today I discover my attention span is shot.  And when I need to switch what I'm doing I just have to change what I'm doing.   So that is very frustrating.  Oh and noises are bothering me.   Through out the day my eye has twitching sessions, and it is weird because the tears that have welled up move around like little swishing waves, oh but when the eyebrow decides to twitch that is an experience.  Lunch is not fun things still taste strange.  I have to concentrate to keep the food in my mouth and take much smaller bites.   Still haven't mastered drinking either and find that it is hard to drink hot coffee out of a mug, the thickness of the rim makes it hard and coffee dribbles down the edge of the cup when I have taken a sip.   That is frustrating.  I'm a mess lol...


So at the end of day 2, all the symptoms are still here.   It is real.  There are things I will be relearning.  I know that I really don't want to go out in public, especially where it is an eating thing.  I know that I'm very close to a big cry but it hasn't happened yet!!

I am still so grateful that it is only this Bells Palsy.   I am grateful that it is just my face that has paralysis.   I am beyond grateful that I have Tom as my husband, life partner and at this time my nurse... I am grateful for my friends that are praying for me...  God is good... 

So speaking of God,  I am curious what he is doing with this...   I know that in other times in my life he has used situations to prepare me for something or someone that will come later in my life... 

Its just Bells Pasly, it is temporary, it is part of my journey!!!
and remember, find something to celebrate everyday!!!  I will!!!

Bell's Palsy? or what? Day 1

For a week I had an earache.  It was not constant but it was painful off and on.  This earache was painful enough that it caused me to not be able to sleep.  On Friday things tasted funny.  It was like there was a coating on everything I ate and it tasted metallic.  This taste and the earache continued thru the weekend.  On Sunday night my mouth felt a little strange and numb.  But I thought it was lingering effects from some ambesol that I had used thinking the earache might be from a tooth I had some trouble with.  Also my right eye started watering on Saturday constantly but I just thought it was because of allergies, although it is usually my left eye that waters constant.  It was also way more water than usual,  I can now say.    

So Monday morning I woke up and got Tom sent off to work as usual.   I was tired so went back to sleep.  When I woke up at 9,  I took a bath and got dressed.  I needed to go to the store to get some things for a party I was going to for lunch.  I put my hair up in a bun and went to the store.  It was time to get myself ready to go to the party when I went into the bathroom to fix my hair and makeup.  That was when I noticed my dropping face.  When I smiled my right side stayed the same while the left side made a full smile.   I was crooked.  My right eye was wide open.   Even my neck looked different on the right side.  I was suddenly so scared. 

I lifted up my arms to see if they felt like they were tingling, or numb.  I was suddenly conscious of every part of my body and checking to see if I was ok.  I found on the back of my head one of the lymph nodes was swollen and hurt to touch but other than that nothing different then usual.

I went to the kitchen and put the items I was going to take to the party in the freezer and went across the street to let Vicki know I wouldn't be able to come, I needed to go to the doctor or the dentist and find out what was wrong.

Because I had also had this tooth thing going on I wasn't sure if I should go to the doctor or the dentist but decided be cause my mouth looked like when my brother had his stroke I would call the doctor first.  I went and took this picture so I would have it in case someone needed it.  This is no exaggeration no filter.

Now anxiety steps in.  I have not gone to the doctor often at all and I wasn't even sure which number to call.   But I found it in my phone and called and I choose to talk to a nurse.  I told her my symptoms, crooked smile, numb face, earache, watery eye, metal taste in my mouth, and swollen lymph node.   She put me through some tests in front of the mirror.  I was shocked when she told me to close the effected eye and I couldn't.  It didn't blink all the way when the other eye did.  I could still see light and shadows when my eyes were supposedly closed.  I had not tingling or numbness in my extremities, I was walking fine, no leaning to one side or the other.  My balance was fine.  She also had me check other things all okay.   So then she told me it sounded like Bell's Palsy and that though I didn't need an ambulance or emergency room I should be seen today and transferred me back to make an appointment.   I got an appointment for 7:10pm the earliest I could see a doctor.  And now the waiting started.  Oh somewhere in there I had messaged my husband.
Tick Tock Tick Tock
 I called my mom and my daughter.
Tick Tock Tick Tock
I cut out some starfish.
Tom messaged me that he would be taking me to the doctor.
Tick tockticktock
I did make a scrapbook page.

Tom came home and told me what he had learned about Bells Palsy.  I had not yet been brave enough to go look it up.   I was shocked to find that all my symptoms even the taste were symptoms of Bells Palsy.  The fact that it said in most cases it was only temporary made me feel better.  But for me looking back I think the thing that kept me most calm was that it was not a stroke. 

Time continued to tick along and it was finally time to go to the doctor.  We got in the car and started our half hour journey to town.   I pulled down the visor as we were going into the sun and wanted to shade my very sensitive eyes and looked in the mirror and made some faces.  Yep still crooked.  Then I took this picture of me trying to make a fish kiss face. 

yep still crooked.  No exaggeration.  I'm still calm and have not told anyone outside of family and a few friends.   So I start writing a post for facebook as I am getting a little scared.  The post has this picture and then this picture of  a sign from the doctors office that just seemed ironic yet comforting.

So now after that horrific blood pressure machine that hurts so bad and releases so slow ugggg.   And being weighed uggg.   I finally get a room and Tom joins me and we wait for the Doctor.  

The doctor comes in and asks me what I am there for.   So I smile.  Then I tell him my symptoms.  First he thanks me for calling the nurse and not rushing into the er.   Then asks me what I think I have.   I tell him Bells Palsy.   He said it sounded like it and told me about it.  Most was what I had read when I googled it.  Then we talked about treatment.   He suggested a med for viral infection and a steroid.  He said they may help they may not.  I was mostly hoping they would help the earache at that point as it had kept me from sleeping. 

So I have a diagnosis.  Bells Palsy.  I got my meds spoke to the pharmacist and we go home.  On the way home I posted the diagnosis with a little info on facebook.   I don't want to tell the story over and over again and this really is a great way for me to just get it out there.  Tom heated up some pizza Vicki had brought us that was from the party I missed.  I was drinking my water when I realized I was slurping.  So that was new.  Uggg.  Went to bed and slept so good for the first time in a week.

Valentine Flipbook for my granddaughter!!! Its wild!!

Its flipbook Friday here Is the one I made for my granddaughter enjoy

https://youtu.be/aMtfUdJjK3A

Why December Daily?

Why December Daily in 2016?

That is such a great question!  This year I am looking back @ December as I begin to put my book together.   Usually I have the format decided and the cover made along with many of the pages for the inside picked out and punched and in order.   2016 was a different story as I had decided to launch "dearjuliejuliecelebrate&remember"

my business that covers all things to celebrate and the process of getting pictures and memories out of our heads and devices and in front of us, documented for now and the future.   It was exciting and took up most of my time along with the regular Christmas duties I decided it was OK to document our December in January after the hustle and bustle but while it was still very fresh in my mind. 

Why December Daily at all?

Another great question!  This is my fourth year documenting ON PURPOSE our December and I am grateful that the process was introduced to me.  December holds so many amazing things that happen and no all are Holiday related.   Here in the desert the fluctuation of the temperature is impressive, the changes around the our home and community including incredible sunsets, fires in the woodstove, and this year the ice and puddles were a welcomed addition especially ice and puddles that lasted a whole day.

December Daily gives me a chance to document family and friends at our Christmas celebrations as well as a great way to document changes there. 

But really JulieJulie why? Why? December Daily?

The get to the bottom, nitty gritty, answer for me and it delights and drives my husband delights and drives my husband crazy sometimes is that extra push it gives us to go out (or stay in) and really look and listen, enjoy and celebrate and share all the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, people and the feelings that only December has to offer.   Yes, December Daily has gotten us out the door this year to enjoy our local community.  Originally it was for this picture with our community tree after it had just been lit at the park to put in our December book.

This turned out to be such a heart filling experience seeing how much fun our community was having kinda like Dr. Suess says "well in Whoville they say- that the Grinch's heart grew 3 sizes that day".  I also got my favorite picture of December that outing featuring the Grinch photobombing my hubby
and me.

So today January 2nd the New Years Day do over 2017, after, watching the rose parade I sit down to put together our documented December.  A box of pictures, a cup of coffee, Heidi shine, glitter glue, amazing paper, and some awesome memories with family and friends.   I'm diving in! 

Thank you for joining me today as we start the new year!!!