Bell's Palsy

Bell’s Palsy
(Sometime Jun 09)
I wonder how many of you are familiar with this medical mumbo-jumbo, frankly I wasn’t until of course it decided to pay me a highly unsolicited visit, one fine day, no not one of those fine days really. In the 42 odd summers that I have been here on this planet of ours on a tourist visa like most of us, I have had the privilege of being with the practitioners of Herodotus on a number of occasions. Sometimes it has been the routine common maladies and afflictions which help keep the profession of medicine alive in your sub-conscious. But once in a while the Almighty up there decides to remind you of the good fortune that you enjoy in being in perfect health, and that sadly only happens when we fall sick!
Well, I was hale and hearty just back from a hectic trip to Bangalore where I was hobnobbing with the IT whiz of the nation, INFOSYS, WIPRO, MINDTREE, MACMET , that was of course to impress you all! But yes it is true, I was actually there meeting them and feeling might important and knowledgeable. Important because, recession has brought these high and mighty also to our levels where, they consider our projects also worth a try. I recall my visit to Infosys a decade ago, during the IDT, when we were treated with total disdain, in fact the person responsible for conducting us around made it a point to rub this in a rather bashful tone that their clientele was all abroad and they did not take on any domestic projects at all! So times they are a changin’! Yes the meetings were fruitful and I was returning with a sense of satisfaction of having set the ball rolling and looking forward to some challenging and may be intellectually stimulating times ahead.
But the most modern airport of the country played the spoiler; I ended up losing my cell phone at the security check arena. It was a shock to say the least because you cannot even imagine such a thing can happen to you of all the people. At the security check of all places, when you put down the articles for screening, you naturally presume that the staff on duty is vigilant, but here on the contrary, there was total apathy and denial. It took some convincing for them to believe that I had actually placed my cell in the tray and that it failed to make an appearance on the other side of the X-ray machine. Their CCTV camera footage was highly inadequate and hence they could not zoom into the location to check as to who picked it up. All that they could confirm was that it was placed there by me. But even till date, neither has the Airport authority deemed it fit to apologise nor are they in a position to even confirm whether they are close to unravelling this mysterious disappearance. Naturally I was upset, a man without his cell today resembles an idiot, as he has no memory, all his contacts lost, he is lost in this big bad world, suffering the ignominy of queuing up at a STD booth (!?) for even a simple call. It is a humiliation which you would not wish even on your worst enemies. But thanks to the efficiency of Bangalore airport authorities, I was at Coimbtore airport trying to rack my brains ( I presume there are some grey cells still in tact, as I managed to recall a few numbers and could call up ) to get through to friends and inform them of the disaster which had struck and also locate the vehicle at the same time. To cut the suffering short, I landed up back home in a rather pensive mood, still recovering from the shock. But it was the next day when disaster actually struck and made you realise the futility of all the heartburn associated with the loss of a mobile phone. Since I had work to catch up on, I was glued to my laptop most of the day, trying to finish off the backlog, my eyes were shedding all kinds of tears, and the left eye even decided to twitch quite a few times. It was odd at first, but the logical conclusion was that rather prolonged exposure to laptop a t a stretch was responsible probably for this discomfort. But by dinner time, I had s inking feeling that there was more to it, when there was total involuntary leftward movement of my lips and this scared me naturally. Thanks to the chain of fwds which we keep getting bombarded with in our e-mails, we are wiser about a whole lot of things, including certain medical emergencies as well. The situation appeared to be alarming so, I dutifully landed up at the MH to be told by the doctor on duty that I was probably suffering from this Bell’s Palsy. But he was not very sure and decided to exercise his prerogative of giving me the benefit of doubt; asking me to take a sedative relax and be back next morning if things got worse(!) The doctor definitely deserves to be rewarded for his brave act, when he should probably have kept me under detention if not admitted me then and there.
Then what is this Palsy which has a ringing tone associated with it, no not the mobile ring tones which we all have got so used to these days, the good old bell is what I am referring to. So let me just put you all a little wise on this issue, on which I dare say that I have done some research and can claim to have a reasonable amount of insight.
Bell's palsy is a paralysis of cranial nerve VII (the facial nerve) resulting in inability to control facial muscles on the affected side. Several conditions can cause a facial paralysis, e.g., brain tumor, stroke, and Lyme disease. However, if no specific cause can be identified, the condition is known as Bell's Palsy. Named after Scottish anatomist Charles Bell, who first described it, Bell's palsy is the most common acute mononeuropathy (disease involving only one nerve), and is the most common cause of acute facial nerve paralysis.Bell's palsy is defined as an idiopathic unilateral facial nerve paralysis, usually self-limiting. The trademark is rapid onset of partial or complete palsy, usually in a single day.
It is thought that an inflammatory condition leads to swelling of the facial nerve. The nerve travels through the skull in a narrow bone canal beneath the ear. Nerve swelling and compression in the narrow bone canal are thought to lead to nerve inhibition, damage or death. No readily identifiable cause for Bell's palsy has been found, but clinical and experimental evidence suggests herpes simplex type 1 infection may play a role.
So this in a nutshell is the problem, the good news is that 85-90% patients are reported to recover totally in a period of three to six months. Also the statistics reveal that the incidences are not as uncommon as they may appear with international average being 1 in every 65 persons suffering from it some time in their life span. Although Japanese report the highest number of cases, but any Neurologist in India would tell you that Indians are also quite close to the international averages.
It is well behind us, have totally recovered, thanks to the Almighty!!