Ring My Bell? One Mo' Time?

So. How y'all durrin'? Me? I'm thinking I've got Bell's Palsy again. You wouldn't know it to look at me, though. My face has no outward signs at all this time. I had it for three weeks last summer and had the telltale Bell's muscle weakness and droopiness of my face. I took some steroids, dosed up on Vitamin B12 and waited it out. I was completely recovered in three weeks. About six weeks ago, the right side of my chin started being very sensitive to water coming from the showerhead. I didn't think much of it. I usually don't. It takes an anvil to the head for me to get concerned. Then about four weeks ago, I woke up with the whole right side of my face from my eye down completely numb. There was none of the Bell's droopiness and there has been none since. It's not getting worse, it's just the same every day. I went to my family doctor and my dentist to try to narrow some things down. It's not any of my teeth but my dentist said it may be my TMJ that's inflamed and pressing on a nerve. She said it could be a "perfect storm" of Bell's, TMJ and my chronic sinus flare-ups. Lucky me.

I have numbness, tingling, twitching and ear pain on that side. All of my teeth on that side, top and bottom, feel like they need root canals. This ain't been fun.

Last Monday, I went to a neurologist who performed a very thorough examination on me that included watching me walk and testing my balance, tapping on every bone in my body and having me make faces at him. He said everything looked good but that I absolutely had a little asymmetry to my face. I think I can see it. Larry spent the better part of this weekend staring at my face trying to see what I was talking about but he couldn't see any change. Nobody knows the details of my face better than Larry does but he thinks I'm the most beautiful thing he's ever seen so he's a little blind to my flaws.

We did a bunch of bloodwork last week and it all came back normal. I'm scheduled to have an MRI of my brain next Monday just to rule out a tumor. Since I don't have the main Bell's Palsy symptom of muscle weakness in the face, we've got to rule out the bad stuff and then figure out where to go from there.

I know it's Bell's. Just a milder version of it. And for that I am SO thankful! Gobble gobble!!