Dealing with Bell's Palsy

I haven't updated this page since January, so some of you may not know that Rachel woke up with Bell's Palsy on Feb 8th. The right side of her face was swollen and seemed paralyzed. It was quite an ordeal since I had never heard of it before and didn't know what was going on, and also because her doctor told me that Bell's Palsy occurring in toddlers was very rare. She sent us to Loma Linda University Hospital to see a pediatric neurologist in order to rule out any other diagnosis, like meningitis. She said that Rachel would most likely need to have an MRI and stay overnight. However, once we got there and saw the doctor, we were told that it was definitely Bell's Palsy, Rachel would not have to have an MRI, or stay overnight. She was given prescriptions for Prednisone and Acyclovir, and I had to give her eyedrops during the day and put ointment in her affected eye at night. That lasted for a week and Rachel was totally wacked out and off schedule from the medication. But it seemed to work. She is slowly improving, and per her doctor, should completely recover within the next 3 weeks or so.

I'm so thankful that it wasn't anything worse, and that Rachel is so young and strong that she is making a quick recovery. She doesn't seem to be aware that anything was wrong, although she hated going to through all of the poking and prodding at the doctors' offices. We have one more follow-up appointment in about 2 weeks, and hopefully, we'll be done with all of this! It's been hard for me, especially in the beginning, giving Rachel the medication, but Jeremy's mom Judy drove from Arizona to help me out, which was wonderful. The week after that, Rachel and I made the trip to St. Louis to visit my family, which was also great! Now that we are back home and settling back into our regular routine, we are just anxiously awaiting Jeremy's return from deployment, as I'm sure he is, too!

Thank you all for your help and prayers during this time. We are so blessed to have family and friends that love us so much. :)