Hello, My name's Cassandra and I am 27 years old. I was diagnosed with BP on my left side on Thursday May 21, 2009 so it has been 4 weeks today. My story is like many others. It started with a pain in the back of my left ear and a loss of taste. I also had some facial twitching but thought nothing of it. I went to sleep that Wed night and woke up and noticed that my left eye was not closing and and as I was talking to my son and getting him dressed for preschool, I notced that my mouth was pulling to the right. As with everyone else, I thought I was having a stroke. I had a class I could not miss so after my class, I went to the ER and was diagnosed with BP. The doctor's reassured me that it would be gone in 7-10 days and at the most 3 weeks. I have been very depressed and I have a 3 month old daughter and it breaks my heart that I can't smile at her the way I want to. Last Thursday, (everything seems to happen on a Thursday) my 3 week mark.. Things had started to improve a little and I was very optimistic. I had a terrible headache and twitching on my right side. I thought it was just a side effect of the PT I had earlier that day. I was devistated to wake up the next morning and could not move the right side of my face either.
I went back to the ER and was hospitalized for a few days and they could find nothing wrong, and as they all said, it's so rare to have it on both sides at the same time. I am trying to stay positive but the doctors feel that since I haven't recovered in the classic "3 weeks" that there isn't much hope. I would like to post pics of myself before the BP and now after (it's so horrible)but I'm not sure how to do that on here. I just graduated college and my graduation is on the 25th of this month and I'm not sure I even want to go. I'm also very scared that I won't be able to find a job because of it.I am also stressed about what's going to happen to my relationship if it does not improve. And most importantly, I want to be able to smile and laugh with my children. I pray I still have a chance to recover and I am praying for all of you out there who are suffering as well.