Well, just when I thought I was getting all better from my illnesses, I woke up yesterday and slowly discovered that my lips and facial muscles were numb and not responding correctly. After a while, I started wondering if it might be Bell's Palsy, something that my brother had gone through a while back. After talking with him, I decided it may or may not be, and while driving home, I saw that my mouth wouldn't smile correctly on the left side. My right side pulls up into the smile properly, while the left side pulled back only a little bit, causing what appears as a sneer. I stopped to see the doctor, and it looks like it IS Bell's Palsy on my left side.
From some reading on Wikipedia and discussions with the doctor, it appears to be a fairly mild case, as I don't have any drooping features really. It's more just that the left side muscles don't respond as much as the right side muscles do. It could last 10 days, it could last 6 months, but it should go away in time. The doctor decided that I probably didn't need anything to treat the symptoms unless they get worse because the treatments would be bad for my blood sugar and not help enough to offset that for the mild case I'm experiencing. He also said that, if he had just seen me in the store and I smiled at him, he might not have noticed that anything was off. I don't know if he said that for my vanity, but if so, such a thing is wasted on me!
My wife has had some family members experience strokes in the past, and they have had a hard time smiling due to that, so it was really tough on her to hear that I was having that same symptom. The doctor said that, while I do have a lot of risk factors for stroke with my weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes, those factors appear to be fairly well controlled and improving as I lose weight. The fact that it is only one side of my face that is affected instead of one side of my body (my left hand, arm, leg, and foot are all feeling and working fine) also indicates that this was not a stroke. We are grateful for that!
Lastly, I got up with the intention to work out this morning, but my daughter came into our room just as I was getting ready to start. In the hopes of getting her to go back to sleep, I took her back into her room only to discover that our youngest was wide awake and anxious for me to hold him. I enjoyed spending time with them this morning instead of working out. :)
I did weigh myself and came in at 350.4 lbs.
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