Carly’s Bell’s Palsy Journey

Transcript

Generated automatically from the recording, so expect the odd misheard word.

Welcome to Between Neighbors. I'm Carly.

I'm Kat. Your favorite neighbors are back. Welcome to episode three. Episode three. Yep, it's all about Carly. Apologies. Yes. So we're going to discuss Carly's uh diagnosis, what you went through, how everything, I know you said it happened abruptly, so I want to know all of it. Your treatments, what's been going on. Every day, every time I see you, it looks better and better. So I can't even tell.

Well, you can thank you. It definitely is improving, which I am very happy about. But yeah, I guess I can just dive into it if that works.

Yeah, for sure. It's your time to shine, my friend.

First, I think I'll start by just letting people know what Bell's palsy is. So Bell's palsy is sudden inflammation of the seventh cranial nerve that runs like above your eyebrow to your nose and then under your lip here. It's almost like a three on your face. And what happens is that nerve gets inflamed somewhere. So the connection is basically cut off. So you experience severe facial weakness or paralysis. Um there are different causes for this, but in many cases like mine, there's never like a really known cause. So some of the causes could be someone could get Lyme's disease, which is a bacterial infection that can cause it. Viral infections can cause it. I was not sick when this happened, so they're really not sure exactly what sparked mine. The only logical explanation I can come up with with like my doctors and I is like as a kid, I must have had some infection. I mean, I had the chicken pox as a kid because like the vaccine wasn't out at that time. Um, some type of infection that maybe my immune system was so low because I was pushing myself so hard, staying up too late, not resting, trying to do everything for everyone and not really taking care of myself.

And they think maybe I just lowered my immune system so much that a dormant like virus might have woken up. Oh, like me. Yeah, literally, yeah, stress can do so much to a body, and while it's not necessarily like proven that stress causes this, right? It can cause things to happen in your body, which then can result in something like this. So um, for me, I will never forget it. April 7th, I literally woke up, everything seemed fine, it seemed like a normal day. I had plans, um, nothing crazy happened the night before. Woke up in the morning, brushed my teeth, um, walked downstairs and started talking to my husband, and he was like, What's wrong with your face?

Stop.

He well, he actually said, What's wrong with your mouth? Like, something's wrong with your mouth. Uh-huh. And I was like, What do you mean? And so I walked into the bathroom and I looked at the mirror and I was kind of looking at my mouth, and then I tried to like shut my eyes, and I couldn't like scrunch my eye on the right side all the way. And I was like, Trevor, something is like very wrong. And I can't even describe to you like where my head was at when you're telling your body to do something, and it's like not doing it. Um, so immediately I was like, Chat GPT, right? Like, I'm like, what is wrong with me? What is happening? Um, and ChatGPT was basically like, you need to go to the emergency room like immediately. So um, my husband had to stay home with the kids, so he stayed there. I drove myself there. My mom was out of town, so I called my dad. My dad met me over there. Oh my god.

So I get there into the emergency room, and um immediately I walk up and I'm like, I'm having severe facial weakness. We sit down for like a second, and someone is coming to grab me, and the waiting room was packed, and so in my head, I'm like, awesome! Like something is very wrong. For sure. Um, so got into the triage room and they ran a couple tests, and then immediately I just hear over the intercom like stroke alert level two. And I in my head again, I'm thinking, like, okay, am I having a stroke? Right. And thank God my sister-in-law is a CT tech there. So she came into the triage room and she was just talking to me. She was so calm, talking me through everything, and was like, Here's what they're gonna do. We're gonna take you in here. She was telling me about like contrast and how when they like put it in you, you know, like what feels a feeling of peace.

I know I used to, yeah, you're gonna I just remember like laying on the table and looking up, and they had those like mosaic tiles of like a forest or whatever, and I was thinking, like, what happens if I have a brain tumor? Or what happens if something serious is causing this? And of course, my dad's like such a logical person, he's sitting there and like probably chat GBTina too. He's like, It's Bell's palsy, it's Bell's palsy, it has to be Bell's palsy. Well, you know, and he's yeah, well, he's trying to make himself feel better, probably too. He's that's his way of showing like love and compassion of like it can't be anything worse, you know.

Um like, are you sure? Like, that's how my mom was too right.

But I mean, like half my face was like not working, you know, and it hadn't fully onset at that point, so I could still do more than I could the next day.

Oh wow, yeah.

So that's another thing is like bowel's palsy can take numerous hours before it fully onsets. So the connection is like lost slowly. Um the neurologist saw me right away um and basically he said, which hallelujah, your CAT scan looks great. You have no tumors, brain bleeds, nothing that you know would lead us to believe that anything else is going wrong. This is Bell's palsy, and they prescribed me a prednisone, um, a steroid for inflammation and um antiviral medication just in case it was a viral or something. Yeah, well, a viral infection. They tested for Lyme and they knew it wasn't that, which I was happy about because um that can more often lead to permanent damage as opposed to like more minor cases.

Yeah. So I went home and that's where like everything really sank in and everything began.

My gosh, what was like okay, so you said your husband, you know, he was like, What's wrong with your mouth? And then you find out it's not like worse, right? Right. It still sucks, let's be real. Yeah. And then you now come home and you're seeing it more like Did your kid say something? I know your son is at the age of like, you know, that's kind of what, like, what was he thinking? Was he scared for you?

What? Um, well, thank goodness I have such a good support system. So that day I was supposed to take him to like um one of those like slide places where the kids can like go on slide. So one of my best friends, she was like, I'll take him anyways, like you go figure out what's going on. And it was so funny because I was like, Yeah, I'll just like meet you after or something, you know, before I knew right what was going on. I think I'm always in denial of like, oh, I'll just fix it, you know, it'll be fine. Um, it was not fine. You gotta take a break and take care of yourself, yeah. So the kids were gone, at least my son was gone when I got home. And really, I would I was just in like rest mode. I was exhausted too. Um, like I was swollen, so I was in some physical pain. And um, I think my mom had then come home from wherever she was and came over right away, and she spent like the next six days, six to seven days coming to my house, and she was honestly like such a saving grace through all that because she was like, We're gonna get your mind off this. Right. Um, I'm such like a fix-it person, and for me, this was truly a test because there is nothing you can do, there is no magic pill you can take. There's no like I I just went into research mode too, to where I needed to know everything about Bell's policy. I bet you did.

Like probably had like a no-oh yeah, yeah.

But like I needed to know the causes, I needed to know treatment plans. I immediately um got on the phone with my primary doctor, got in to see her with like in the next two days. I told her I wanted to do acupuncture because I had read um, you know, that would be a good thing to try. So um they referred me to their acupuncturist, and I called and they're like, Oh yeah, our next appointment's in August. This is April. Oh my god. Like, find someone else. Yeah, I'm like, that's not gonna work. So ended up finding like just a out-of-like network um acupuncture place and went three times a week for three months. Wow. Yeah. Um, I did infusions too. So started doing those right away of like all different vitamins.

Um is there anything in particular that helps more or that you feel helped more?

Um, I wish I could say, Oh, I did the acupuncture and it was like I saw results, or I did these infusions and I saw results, and I truly believed I was going to from all the research, and I didn't. Um, so it wasn't until I read some medical papers that talked about photobiomodulation laser therapy. Oh my god. You sound like young Sheldon. Wow. And um microcurrent therapy. Okay. And it's all like very new. Laser therapy, I guess, is like a big buzzword right now. Again, I am not a doctor. We always say that. I'm not, I have no idea. And some people do acupuncture and say that it works well for them. What I didn't want to do was hurt myself, like hurt my healing. Um, so like the stimulation, like adding that to acupuncture needles, like that can actually like make it yes, yeah, and not allow your nerves time to regenerate and heal. Um, so I did a ton of research and the laser therapy I thought would be a good option for me. And after two treatments of that, I got a flicker in my mouth. Oh god. And that was after three, like just shy of three months.

And where like where did you, or if it was new, like where did you find where to go, or how did that work out?

So my aunt actually had suggested she's an esthetician out in California. Okay. And she had said, you should look into microcurrent therapy. And I was like, okay, that's interesting. And so I started reading medical papers on that in relation to Bell's palsy, and I there was, you know, some success, and there were different theories on that. And again, I do not recommend doing that until you've had paralyzation or severe facial weakness for over eight weeks because you really just need to give time for the inflammation to go down, and so microcurrent therapy can actually they say if you do it too early, can induce synkinesis, which is like

which is like if you like open your mouth, your eye shuts, or like the wiring becomes like a little wonky, crossed, right? So again, this worked for me. I'm not saying that people who get this should automatically do this, but I have spent so many hours researching and learning about this.

I feel like you were like set on like finding something, you were determined like you're gonna fix this faster than the time frame. Because wasn't there like a time frame they told you to possibly to get full sure, well, like so everyone's different?

Yeah, so that's what's crazy too, is they tell you, like, oh well, most people can recover in four weeks. Oh, but that was not the case with me, sure, and then they say then there's like the next tier is like, oh, well, then some people take eight weeks, and then after eight weeks you kind of accept that you're like a longer term recovery, which three to six months seems to be like that window, and then there's even like a longer term where people that don't see movement by three months and they might be a year to two years, and then there's a small percentage that don't ever recover. Wow, yeah, you're looking good.

Thank you, and I think that's something else that is so crazy about this illness is that you don't know. So no one can sit there and say, like, you're gonna be better, you're gonna fully recover, and everything's gonna be fine. Like, no one can tell you that. So for three months I sat in like this space of like, I don't know what's going to happen. And that was challenging. That was really challenging for me. Um, you know, I put on a brave face and I I stay in a positive mindset because I could not fall into that dark space, and thank God for my kids and my family. And I was, you know, in the sum it this was basically all summer, but my kids are so busy, like my son is in T ball, my son does all these different sports, the girls are in gymnastics, and that just kept me going. And every day I just got up, I showed up, and I did what I have to do, but it was always in the back of my mind, like half my face doesn't work, like I couldn't smile, I couldn't talk.

I I guess that kind of would be like the confidence-wise, like going to those things. Like, how did you deal? How did you deal with that or what was going through your head? Like, are people looking at you or you know, from that kind of I guess standpoint, what would you well?

I'll never forget. So we I was supposed to go to my my one of my husband's really good friends got married um this summer, and I just wasn't in a place to be in the in an environment where we're like taking pictures, and I had zero movement at that time, and I told him, We already have my parents watching the kids, I would like to go on this like retreat. Yes, okay. Um and I think this would be really good for me, just like me, myself in this tiny cabin, like up north, like way up north. And he was like, Do it. I think you should, I think that would be great for you. And so I spent four days just like by myself. I mean, it was at a retreat where someone like cooked farmed fresh food every single day, and you know, it was fantastic.

They didn't have you join a cult. I was texting her like you better not be joining a cult up there.

I literally like went forging for plants with Native Americans. Oh my god, were you looking for mushrooms? I learned all kinds of like, don't drink the tea. I watched too much uh Netflix, so that's so funny. Yeah, and I just remember sitting in the airport. Um, and uh my flight was delayed, so I was sitting at the bar. I ordered like there was like nothing there, and this airport is so tiny. And well, I believe it. Yeah. Well, and it was still like two hours from the airport. Yeah, a two-hour drive from the airport. So I'm sitting in this tiny airport, and there's like two other people next to me, and the bartender, you know, serves me like I don't know, it was like chicken tenders or something like that. And after sitting there for two hours because of the delay, you know, I started talking to him and I told him I had you know bell's palsy and this and that. He's like, Oh, I just thought you were winking at me.

I was like dying.

That's cute.

I'll never forget that. He's like, honestly, I was just like, Why are you winking at me? Yeah, like oh so um, so yeah, and I think back to your question just about you know, feeling self-conscious. I think this was good for me because sometimes I feel like I put too much weight on stuff like that. Like, oh, I have to look good or I have to, you know, a little superficial if I'm being totally open and honest with myself, and I feel like um, you know, previously that that I've kind of been like that throughout my life, and this really knocks me down, man. This humbled me. Sure. Um, and it made me realize what's really important in life, and all that stuff doesn't matter. Yeah, it really doesn't. And I got to a point where I would, you know, I was not gonna miss my son's t ball games because of the way I looked. And I just I just had to kind of own it.

That's awesome.

And when people, you know, I talked to different people, I would tell them what's going on. Um I remember when I first got diagnosed, I was in Target and I saw someone I went to high school with and I like hid.

You want to hide anyway. Let's be real. Like, come on.

I was like, I am just not ready to be out in public yet. And then that slowly faded because again, it took me three months before I got any movement back.

I feel like we didn't see you for a really long time. Yeah, and obviously everybody understood, you know what I mean? Like it's on your time when you feel ready and prepared, and yeah, whatever you know was needed. So that's totally understandable.

Yeah. I took a lot of time to just try and heal. Yeah. And you know, our book clubs are usually later at night. Of course.

Um, I think you were going to bed like early.

Oh, early. And I for the first two months, I did not drink, I did not eat anything bad. I was like, okay, were you looking good? Oh yeah, I was. And then that third month hit, and I was like, I gotta, yeah, I have to live a little. And I was like, I haven't seen any improvement. It's been two months of this. I need to let myself have a little more fun and get out there. And I remember we got invited to a pedal tavern, and I was like, I'm gonna go. Even though half my face doesn't work, I'm going to go.

Do you feel some of that that what you were kind of being so strict at first? Do you feel that that almost kind of was hindering?

You know, I wonder that. That's a that's a great question. Like putting these more expectations on myself. Yeah.

You're very type A, so I'm sure you were like, you know, that it wasn't happening, or yeah.

So yeah, and in doing my research, I found that there is a actual nerve clinic. So that's another thing. Like going to my primary doctors, going to different doctors, I wasn't getting like the help I needed. This is a very like interesting illness where we don't know the cause of it, no one does, so it's really hard to treat an illness that you don't know what causes it.

Right.

And so, like, I was talking about the laser treatment therapy, and I was kind of talking about how um my aunt had told me about the microcurrent therapy. So I called around to different places, and no one really would take on a Bell's palsy patient, like microcurrent therapy is done a lot for facials, and I wasn't I did not want to go to an esthetician.

Right.

So I found a place about 30 minutes from my home that um specialized in both microcurrent therapy and laser therapy for pain management. Okay, and I called them and this doctor took me on right away, and he was so real, he was basically like, I'm not guaranteeing I can help you at all, but I'm telling you that I think this could help, and I'm willing to take you on as a patient, and we can. See where things go. And like I said, within two treatments, um, I got that first flicker.

That's amazing.

Well, and I will also state like I don't I can never be sure if that was just my healing timeline or if that did it, but I truly feel like that was helping. So, um, and then in addition to that, I found a clinic that once you have severe facial weakness for three months, they'll take you on. And it's about two hours away from here.

Wow.

Um, so I finally qualified for that, like right at three months. I'm calling them. Like, okay, it's been exactly two months to the date. They're like, okay, so they took me on, and now I do physical therapy through that clinic.

Wow. And so do you have a time frame now of how long you'll be doing treatments or what that looks like for you?

Um, so with physical therapy, I think I'll probably do that for a year. Um, just like we'll see where things go. So I mentioned synkinesis before, and that's when like your wires get a little crossed. Um, what's interesting about Bell's palsy is nothing comes on like all at once. Different parts wake up at different times. Like the branches are longer in some places. Some places experienced like there's so many different nerve branches, like they experience you know, different damage or severity of damage. So it just depends on how things are waking up in your brain. As soon as you're not using something, your brain starts deleting files. It just wants to hold on to what's absolutely necessary. If you don't need it, it's gone. So I'm actually the clinic is retraining my face to do simple things.

Sure.

So, I mean, like in the beginning, I couldn't drink out of a straw.

I was gonna ask that. Like, how did it affect like your eating or what did you see? Like you said, you were brushing your teeth and you didn't feel that, right? Not until your husband saw it. So, like, how did that work with like eating, drinking, just all talking?

Um, at first, eating and drinking were very hard. Um, I couldn't drink out of a straw, like I would like drool.

Literally, I would like drool like when I put too much in my mouth. I had to eat only on the left side of my face because I couldn't like dig food out of my cheek. Yeah, you probably have to be careful not to choke, too. Yeah. Um, and I was fortunate, like, some people lose taste, and I didn't lose like that on that side, like I didn't lose any of that. I wasn't in severe pain ever. Some people have severe pain, that was never the case for me, um, which they say is good. But yeah, I mean, I I struggled eating for sure. Like I remember eating a hamburger and just being like slow motion, you know, and now I'm I'm yeah, I'm okay. But that's good. Yeah, thank god. But I do have to retrain my face essentially to work properly because now what's working great is like okay, I'll just take over for the parts that aren't. So now we have to kind of retrain how it all works, and it's all possible and doable, it's just gonna take some time, and um, my doctors are very happy with where I'm at right now, and I continue to uh improve. I would say like every every week I see differences at this point.

I I agree, I totally see like I guess I saw you just last week. This week, like you can you can see such a difference.

It's just like little things too. Um my eye is starting to come back a little better now, which is good.

That's good, yeah. I know the first episode you were talking about it like blinking, so it's good.

It's it's better, yeah. I mean, I would still say this one blinks a little more, a few times more than the other. Yeah, but um definitely improvement. So it's just crazy because you look in the mirror and you don't recognize yourself. Yeah, like how did that like yeah, you don't smile the way you used to, and again, no one's gonna really tell you when it's gonna get better. And yeah, I mean, I took videos every single week. Videos, photos, um, because sometimes you get so in your head like nothing is changing, and then you look back and you're like, oh my gosh.

Did you avoid other photos like at events or family gatherings? Like, how did that work for you? You know, yeah, everything's posted, right? You know what I mean? Like what yeah, how did that affect you?

I mean, I was definitely self-conscious, I'm not gonna lie.

That's you know, it's understandable.

Right, it's not like I was like, oh, I don't care, I'll put myself out there. Um no, I was I was definitely self-conscious, and um, I struggled with being in pictures, but I think again, it was all part of the process, and this experience like tested my patience more than almost anything I've ever experienced in my life, and it just showed me again what is important, and I joke that you know it gave me like a new skill of that like resilience because I got up every day, I did what I had to do, I was there for my kids, even when I couldn't smile at them, right? Even when half my face didn't work, even when I couldn't chew, um, you know, I I just got up and did it anyways.

Definitely.

So yeah, and I'm still healing. The story isn't finished yet. Yeah, of course. I still have um I still have things to to work on and to heal, but I'm so thankful and so proud of how far I've at least come.

Yeah. I mean, I think everybody that knows you knows that you are very strong and very proud that you didn't give up and that you just looked for the answers and what could help. And um I mean that's that's amazing in itself, especially when you don't know, like you said, nobody could really tell you what treatment would work or where you could go. Um, but you you didn't stop and it it looks great and it's gonna look better every day from you know now on. So yeah, yeah.

I appreciate that. And I hope that you know, if there's anyone out there that's going through this the best advice that I can honestly give is just don't get trapped into thinking like this is never I'm never going to improve. The the percentage of people that don't improve is so statistically small, it and you it just might take a while. And that sucks. It does suck. And being, I would never w wish it on my worst enemy for half your face not to work, but I truly believe like you just have to sit in that positive headspace and say, I'm going to get better. This may take time, I need to accept like where I'm at and give myself grace, and you know, hopefully I can just continue to heal, and that's what I had to do.

And nothing else was affected, right? Like nothing else of your body, it specifically the face, is that or could it be like with Bell's palsy? Is it something that can be something else other than the face?

With Bell's palsy specifically, it is just that seventh cranial nerve, yeah. Um and it can affect like smell too, I guess, but again, just things that are connected with that specific, like those nerve branches within your face. There's different like palsies that affect like different things and uh way more serious ones. Um yeah, that one specifically is just that that seventh cranial nerve.

My goodness, and then I know you said a lot of it was out of network. So can you talk more about that? Because I know, you know, yeah, obviously insurance a huge thing, especially with different medications and you know.

Um, yes, so like the I mean ER visits, you know, you have a chance for a reason. That was at least like you know, went towards my deductible with insurance, but everything I did laser treatments, microcurrent therapy, acupuncture. Oh my gosh, I went to this lady.

Listen, I got some acupuncture stories too, like old school.

This isn't even an acupuncture, though. Oh my god. Okay, so a friend suggested this lady. I thought she had like an office. I actually showed up to her office on her website and she called me. She's like, oh no, it's her house. Oh, okay. She hooked me up to this machine. Like, I put headphones on, and she like did these clicks that are supposed to do not, they're supposed to like reset things in my body. Okay. So she did a full body scan with me just like holding or putting on headphones and like all these different clicks in my ear. And I'm not even gonna tell you what she charged me for this.

Oh my gosh.

And um But like that's the other thing.

Like, you're willing to do anything ever you can or that you think might work. Yes. So I mean, there's not really a price tag.

Right. And at that point, I was like, thank God for an HSA because I drained that.

I I really did. I that was probably the most extreme thing I did. She like gave me this like tincture of distilled water with like not to drink it. I that was the most like, and that was early on. That's when I was so desperate for anything I was willing to try. You were gonna drink the tea. Oh, you're gonna eat the muck. I was gonna like fly the turkey.

Hey, guys, go for their hair there. So if it can fix your face, I'd go too.

Right. And I would say, like, that's another thing, like, don't get too crazy with things. Like, the I kept thinking like I was gonna find the magic bullet, you know, that was gonna fix me. And that is not the case with this, slow but steady, exactly. And you you just have to have faith and you have to be positive. You have to obviously take care of yourself and do what you feel is right. A lot of people, like Ant Angelina Jolie had this. She swore by acupuncture. Actually, I think I heard something about this. Justin Bieber actually had like more severe. Because you're a man.

To your husband. Uh yeah, he did. I remember you said that, and you you were like worried that it was gonna be like that, and it's not.

You know, it's it's so easy to fall into a mindset of like, oh my gosh, this is the worst thing that can happen. But then you hear other people's stories, you talk with others, and it's like, okay, I can handle this. Yeah, you know, I can handle this sucks. I'm not gonna lie, and I am gonna have bad days, but there are so many worse things that could happen. I always think of that quote: like, if every single person in the world threw their problem into a bucket, would you take a chance and pick a new problem, or would you just work through what you have?

That Dan could I I I know. I mean, we talked about it, and I feel like this is how we have the similarities and and bonded on this, because I agree, right? It's the same thing. Like I still can walk and I can feel everything, and um you definitely see the percept perspective of your situation versus other people with the same thing, and I I totally agree.

Yeah, it's just crazy to think to think about that. So, and and yeah, the answer is no, I wouldn't. I could have terminal cancer, right? I could, yeah, there could be so many worse things I can handle Bell's palsy, and something that kept me going too was like I want to be a good example for my kids when they go through hardship. And so if I can put on a strong face figuratively,

and you're still funny and you can still laugh, and that's the best part. But if I can still put thank you, um, on a strong face and show my kids that you work through hard. Yeah, you keep going, um, then I think I'm doing my job as a parent.

Um, I agree. Should definitely be proud. They're still little too, so I'm sure a lot of it was, you know, I'm sure they won't even remember this to be honest.

That's true too. Especially like the girls. They're right. Too little. Caden like has said to me though, he's like, remember when you couldn't smile?

You probably have some one-liners.

Yeah, he's like, it looks so much better now. Yeah, he's so sweet. Yeah, he is. He's a good boy. He's good. But um, the one takeaway I I would say too is just continue to advocate for yourself because there were some doctors that gave me some not so great advice. Um, and we kicked those out. Well, really, you have to. I am all for following doctors' advice, but you have to advocate for yourself and do the research too, to know which doctors, especially with a specialized illness like this.

Of course.

You know, I remember the ER doctor, one of the no, not the doctor, one of the ER nurses was like, Yeah, you should get better in like two weeks. Like he had no clue what he was talking about. Right.

It's like, don't say that to someone. Of course.

And yeah.

Um, like I was gonna ask, who was your biggest source of support? But it sounds like, you know, your family, your husband, your friends, everybody seemed really supportive, and I feel like you like you said, you definitely advocated for yourself. I feel like you were one of your biggest like self-supporters, but um

is there anything that like stands out from that?

I yeah, I think you hit it right on the head. My family, my friends. Um, I remember all the girls in the neighborhood making me a little basket. I had my work, oh my gosh, my place of employment has been amazing throughout all of this. Um just so supportive and giving me the time that I need, sending me cards. Um, they even sent me like a little care package. I'll never forget I was having a bad day. And I won't even say bad day, a bad moment, you know, because it they usually lasted

you know, 10 to 15 minutes or maybe an hour, to where I was like, holy shit, you know, like what is happening? And I was I got a little teary-eyed, and I just looked at my husband and I said, What if I can never smile again?

Oh my god.

And he looked at me and he just said, God wouldn't take away that smile.

Oh my god, he's so cute.

Yeah, and in that moment, you know, I just had to dig deep into my faith. Like I joked last week, like, oh yeah, lighting candles at mass. I was lighting candles at mass. Like I was doing everything I could in my power to try to heal, and now like every little movement feels like I'm getting another piece of myself back, and I honestly will never ever take for granted something as simple as smiling. Ever again.

My gosh. Yeah. What um what would be your advice to somebody like newly diagnosed or maybe not even diagnosed, but just going through it as well? I mean, you seem like very strong and you know, competent still. Um I guess what would you say? You know, what would you tell somebody?

Honestly, what they won't want to hear, which is rest, hydrate everything they tell you, get get prescribed the I really do think the prednisone right away, um, take the antiviral just in case. Um and just for the first month heal. Right. And if you're still, if it's been four weeks, eight weeks, and you still haven't seen any improvement, start getting out there and and looking for different things. Maybe it's laser therapy, um, maybe you have a nerve clinic near you. But honestly, for the first month, I would just do your best to rest and know you're gonna get better. The percentage of people that don't heal are typically older. Sure. You know, if you're a young, healthy, for the most part, person, and that's what everyone kept telling me like you're young, you're healthy, you're gonna be okay. And I know that there's a small percentage that is not the case. So if someone's listening right now, like, yeah, right, I I get it, I hear you, and I'm so sorry, but statistically, you're gonna be okay. I'm I'm not gonna minimize that it it's horrible. Right. And you're gonna have moments of panic, um, depression, you know, feeling anxiety, but you just gotta keep picking yourself up and things are going to be okay.

Um, I was gonna ask you, is there anything that you would have done differently? But it it sounds like you kind of did everything that you could. Um, I mean, maybe not go to that acupuncture lady.

It was okay. It wasn't acupuncture, it was clicking, you should be.

I mean, but oh besides that, is there anything that you would have done differently?

I think really like looking back, I think I did the best that I could with the information that I had, and I look back and think that I'm proud of you should be, definitely. Well, yeah, and I just feel like there's other situations in my life where I went through hardship where I don't view them as that. But I think this was such a period of growth for me and realization, and I don't want to say like awakening and be lame like that, but you know it it really kind of was.

Do you also think, and this is gonna sound cliche, but like when something like that happens, it's kind of like hey Carly, slow down. Yes, always girl, you were running.

I know you still are running sprinting, yeah.

So now you get a jog. I like yes sprint, fast walk, fast walk. We like to fast walk, yeah.

A fast walk. I mean, I felt like I looked like that guy from Batman Two Face.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

My eye was like wide open. I I mean, when I'm like resting, if you didn't know me, you really cannot tell much of a difference. I so predominantly talk out of one side of my face that you can see my blink is still, especially at nighttime, a little more delayed. But if you just saw me grocery shopping at a grocery store at this point, you're not thinking anything, you know. So

improvement.

Yeah, sometimes I guess again, sometimes it is one of those things like to slow down.

Oh yeah, yeah. It was definitely, I think, a sign to like chill out and focus on what's important.

Yeah, it's okay to say no to things like I'm not going, don't judge me.

Right. Like I had to say no to going down to the city when you know a couple of the girls went from the neighborhood because I just can't do that right now. And I I'm so used to just saying like yes that it's time for me to start making different decisions. That's gonna be proud of you. Okay, did we have some questions? Well, thank you before we end this portion of this.

Um we do. Oh, so you're gonna answer your part. Um, last week we just answered the question to me, um, and then you said you were gonna answer your side. So let me pull that up. And thank you to everybody who has gone on the website and added to. Some questions again, don't be shy.

Yeah, we love that.

Um, every time one comes through, I get a text from Kat. She's like, Oh my gosh, we got a question. Her husband was like testing it the other day, and she texted me, like, Oh my gosh, a question. She's like, Oh my gosh, it was just my husband.

I was at my son's soccer game and I was like freaking out. I was like, We gotta we got a question, and then it was him, like test test. Oh lord. All right, so it was about what was your um reaction to being diagnosed? And I answered my part, and then it was for you because remember, you were going in, I mean, they were saying, like, you know, stroke, right? Yeah. Like at first. So, what was your kind of first reaction to finding out that this is what it was?

So, oddly enough, I think very similar to yours for different reasons, but relief because it wasn't a stroke, it wasn't a brain tumor, it wasn't a brain bleed, it was Bell's palsy, and that is something one, you most people recover from, and two, something that isn't hopefully, you know, gonna affect me long term, something that I don't need surgery for. Um, and so while I was, you know, obviously like, oh my gosh, I was kind of like, okay, this is best case scenario out of all of the things it could be at this point. So um relief and then just confusion. Sure. Like why how and why, and what's gonna happen next, like a little bit of fear for the unknown.

And then I'm just like, I just want to get out of this hospital. Of course. You know, anytime you're in the ER, you're like, just discharge me. Let's let's move on. Now that we know, because once you know, I'm not an important patient anymore. Once they say, like, oh, it's Mell's palsy, then you're like, you're waiting 20 years.

Your dad was right. What was his reaction when he was right?

Oh, of course, he's like, Yeah, I knew it. And then he well, it's so funny. We were, you know, the we're talking to the nurse practitioner there, and he's like, Yeah, I'm gonna, you know, prescribe you prednisone. My dad's like, well, what about the antiviral? And I'm like, Dad, he's gonna think you're a doctor or something. And he's like, Oh, you know, I'm not sure. It's not really proven. And then the uh NP comes back and he's like, So I was talking to my colleague and we are gonna provide or we are gonna prescribe the antiviral, and I just like look at him, he's like, Yeah, I think that's a good call. Like, okay, dad. But it was nice in that moment to have someone like advocating for me and giving me the best chance at recovery.

And also sometimes you don't know, I mean, all those things going through your head too, having like somebody else, and I can't say that his mind was clear because I'm sure it wasn't, you know, he's probably worried about his daughter, but to have like somebody else there to ask questions um that you might not think of too much, and he was right through that chat GBT shout out, yeah. The other thing then, um, so this one isn't a question, it was just somebody that said, just wanted to tell you the podcast was great. I'm I mean, I'm assuming it's both of us, obviously. Um, thank you for sharing your story. Uh, or she put, thank you for sharing your story, Kat and Carly. Great job holding space for her. I know you I don't know you two in person, but you seem awesome.

Oh thank you.

Who was that from your name? They did. I don't know. I mean, you can be anonymous. I'm not sure if she wants to share her name, but that's awesome. And then, um, so thank you. We think you're awesome too. And then we had another question, and this one uh was towards me, so it says this is for cat. So you so you had other issues when you were younger, question mark. Do you think it is all connected to having MS? And I know I mentioned that too. I don't know. Um, like you said, it could be a by like even Bell's palsy could have been from a virus that was dormant. So same thing with me too. Like, could it be from that? There's all new studies coming out. There's actually a study yesterday that I read about multiple sclerosis and something with like a blood test, and then certain um certain cells that if you have or don't have have a higher probability of developing into MS. So uh to answer that, I don't know. Um maybe, you know, I did have a lot of like quote unquote growing pains, but I feel like that was I thought was normal. I don't know if everyone else had that. Um, but that's definitely something that I do remember because my grandma would be like rubbing my legs at night. Um so that's one thing that does stick out in my head. But other than that, like you said, it could have been just like a dormant virus from childhood that yeah, you know, it's your odd it's your it's autoimmune disease, so anything kind of can trigger those things, unfortunately. Yeah, there's no real answer.

Yeah, and that's the crazy part about these kind of like illnesses, like you just you have to accept the fact you're never really going to get an answer, like maybe through more research or whatever, but at least I've come to terms with I'm probably never gonna know what caused this. And I just have to sit with that and be okay with that, and know like this doesn't define me and I'm gonna be okay. Yeah, girl. Um, so yeah, those it's it's pretty crazy.

Yeah, there's no um no right answer, yeah. It's always kind of like a a maybe or could be. Um, but yeah, like you said, you just roll with it and we're still awesome. Absolutely.

But yeah, keep them coming, guys. Yeah. Thank you all so much who have reached out. Oh, yes, yes, left comments, yeah. All of that. Listen, thank you for all the downloads. We're so excited, and we're excited of what this like now we've both officially told our stories, and so now our goal is to bring in others and hear other stories. So if you're interested, yeah, let us know. Yes, please. I got a couple people in mind, yeah, and please reach out if you're interested. And didn't we have an a new thing added to the website?

Oh, yes, we have instead of um like just kind of waiting for the uh episode to release, you can actually go on the website, enter your email address, and then you will be notified of when the new uh new episode is uploaded. So just a little alert. Nothing, you know, no spam. Yeah, we're not we're not spamming you, we're not selling you nothing. Uh just you know, add your email, it's safe. Uh we got a good IT system here, and um, yeah, then you'll be notified as soon as they're uploaded.

And please subscribe to the podcast so we can buy a camera. Yes, because it stopped recording again. So we do not have video again for this one. We we gotta get we have to get more subscribers before we can adjust to that. So um subscribe, like, share, follow.

Leave review, of course. Right? Yeah, I think that works. All right, we love you guys, and we love you, Carly. Oh, thank you. You did awesome. Thank you for sharing your story. Absolutely, definitely proud of you and how far you've come these last months. Huge, huge difference. Um, and you should definitely be proud of that too, because you never gave up.

Yes, that's very true. Thank you. I appreciate that.

So and we started a podcast in the middle of it all.

Well, actually, you're so right because if this wouldn't have happened to me, if you wouldn't have been diagnosed with MS, we wouldn't be sitting here right now.

Yeah, we would probably be doing it, but like without posting it and recording it.

Yeah, oh right, we would be sitting here talking, yeah. But I don't know if it would have sparked us to say we're doing this, we're making a podcast, we want to share our stories. True.

And that's like a blushing in disguise. Absolutely. Sometimes, you know, there is a rainbow at the end of a cloudy day.

So if you're going through something, stay strong and hit us up. Yeah, we'll just literally talk to you. We don't care. Yeah, like we can talk about anything. All right. Well, thanks so much for listening to Between Neighbors. Good night.