My nephew Justin Cross
A few years ago, my nephew Justin was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. He’s at high risk because he works in the woods, so is diligent about checking himself thoroughly for ticks.
Early in tree cutting season, he found three ticks crawling across his skin and one in his mustache on the left side of his face. That one was attached, he says, but not engorged, so he was pretty certain it hadn’t been there for long. He also didn’t think any of them were deer ticks.
He started to feel achy in all his joints, even his wrists and elbows but figured it was because he was working hard and was out of shape. He never got a bulls-eye rash, and it never occurred to him that he might have Lyme Disease.
Then he lost his sense of taste. Everything — sweet and sour foods, even water — tasted salty.
“My taste buds went on Wednesday,” Justin told me, “and then on Friday I was at work and tried to whistle a tune, but couldn’t. I found a mirror and the whole left side of my face was just hanging!”
He got himself to Maine Medical Center’s Emergency Department, where he was quickly diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. What’s that have to do with Lyme Disease? As it turns out, quite a bit.
What is Bell’s Palsy?
Bell’s Palsy is a temporary weakness or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face. The muscles are controlled by the facial nerves. The facial nerve begins in the brain stem and passes through the parotid gland where it divides into two main branches, one for each side of the face. The branches divide into 7000 smaller nerve fibers that control all our facial movements.
A viral infection, most commonly one that causes cold sores or a bacterial infection, such as Lyme Disease may cause Bell’s Palsy. It’s not a given that if you have either cold sores or Lyme Disease you’ll get it, but in some people, the immune response to the infection causes the facial nerve — usually on only one side — to become inflamed and compressed. As a result, the muscles are temporarily paralyzed.
That’s what happened to Justin. He couldn’t raise his left eyebrow, smile, frown, grimace, open or close his eye, or even blink. Nothing. He also couldn’t produce tears or taste food. Here’s what he posted on Facebook: “Yeah. Lyme disease. Bell’s palsy from Lyme disease. Drooling on myself-at least I have a reason now.”
Yes, Justin has a sense of humor!
No one took a picture of him, but he says the one below, from Wikipedia, looks just like he did, only on the other side.
Man with Bell’s on the right side Courtesy of Wikipedia
Connecting Justin’s Bell’s Palsy to Lyme Disease
As soon as the doctor in the emergency room found out Justin worked in the woods, he ordered a blood test. It was positive for antibodies for Lyme Disease. A Western Blot test confirmed the diagnosis.
It turns out that facial paralysis is a stage two symptom of Lyme Disease that may show up from one to four months after infection. The achy joints Justin had in the month before his diagnosis are considered an early symptom. Only 85% of people with Lyme Disease get the bulls-eye rash.
Treating Bell’s Palsy and Lyme Disease
Justin treated for the Bell’s Palsy and was also on an aggressive six-week course of Doxycycline, an antibiotic which, unfortunately, upset his stomach and made his fair skin even more susceptible to sunburn. “I forgot to do the backs of my hands recently because they are tan from working outside and now they are swollen and burned!”
When he’s done, he’ll get tested again. Let’s all cross our fingers!
My daughter just got diagnosed with this same thing, she has the bells palsey on the right side of her face like the above picture. Our family doctor thought out was a medicine allergy when we took her to the doctor. The next morning she was worse, we called the doctor and was told to take our daughter to Pittsburgh immediately. This was yesterday, the doctors came up with this diagnosis after several tests.
She is never in the woods, she showers twice a day as she is an athlete. Just goes to show, this can happen to anybody. This is an especially bad year with the warm winter we had, I think we might see more of this in my opinion.
A friend of mine woke up the other morning to find a tick on her leg and she had not been outside at all the day before. She went straight to the local Quick Care to be tested. It’s pretty scary and they can carry more than Lyme Disease. I hope your daughter recovers quickly. (And yes, they predict we will see more this year.)
I too contracted Bell’s Palsy (severe case) as a result of Lyme Disease in July 2017. It took 9 weeks to recover from the Lyme and I am researching the effect of steroids for the Bell’s on the recovery time. It’s now been 6.5 months with Bell’s and some parts of my face still don’t work at all while others are still severely weakened so that I can’t use them normally, though I no longer look deformed (until I eat or speak). I wish to hear your stories and any others you can point me to. Thank you in advance.
Karen,
A great resource for Lyme Disease in general is Midcoast Lyme Disease Support and Education. The two women who run the organization — Angele and Paula — are awesome.
I’ve had bells palsy THREE times and drs can never tell me why. I will see if they can test me for this. I have recovered 95% of my facial movements with treatment of electro-stimulation of the facial nerves and vitamin B shots each time. I hope that help those who still haven’t regained all movement. I also practice making facial movements every day.
The thing is, right now every blood sucking insect is carrying the seed of Limes/Morgeelons. It also brings with it a lot of other parasites and viruses and worms. I have had Morgellons for eighteen years and every time I try to treat it I end up in hospital. I have had six GI bleeds now since I got this and I am just home a day from the hospital with what they called Diverticulitis and treated me with two different antibiotics. There are no options for us who suffer from it, they tell us its all in our heads. Finally a few Dr’s are stepping up to the plate.