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Thursday, November 18, 2004

I'm all clean now, making me quite the happy camper indeed.

Yikes! Check out that lazy eye. Whatup wid dat? Can you say Bell's Palsy? Bell's Palsy, what a fun experience that was... NOT! In 1997 I contracted the condition, initially I thought I had suffered a stroke because the left side of my face was completely paralyzed. That's right, completely paralyzed. A quick visit to the emergency room indicated otherwise, I was suffering from an aliment that strikes 1 out of 5,000 people. Perhaps you know of someone who has had it?

That was a scary time for me. Fortunately, the odds were well in my favor, the vast majority recover from the paralysis in about a month's time. As for me, between the slurred speech, the difficult eating, the having to sleep with a taped eye because I couldn't close it on my own, the condition continued on for two months without improvement. Was I in the small minority who don't recover?

Into the third month things finally turned around for me. Within about a day's time I magically regain about 90% muscle function in the left side of my face, I'm ecstatic! 10% of my muscle function is still missing to this very day and is most evident when I smile. So, there you have it.

Okay, now that I'm all clean and dapper, on with my clothes. It's feels so good to be clean again.