Facial Nerve Palsy -- anyone had it?

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jcb51
jcb51 Member Posts: 382
edited September 2017 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

I'm having problems with facial nerve palsy. It started with pain in my outer ear several months ago and now is affecting most of the left side of my face. I cannot raise my eyebrow, my upper lip droops when I smile, I get shooting pains off & on in my salivary gland(s) when I take the first bite of certain foods, my eyelid droops and my eye will not blink...all on the left side. My oncologist, radiation dr and family dr all thought it was being caused by bulging cervical that I have putting pressure on the nerve. I finally saw an opthamologist because my vision was getting blurry and I was afraid I was going blind. Turns out I have cataracts on both eyes so my blurry vision is not related to the nerve palsy. He said most likely I had a viral ear infection that went untreated and settled in the facial nerve. He referred me to an ENT dr and I have an appt with him on the 19th.

My non-blinking eye is what is currently bothering me the most. It's been going on for about two months. Has anyone else had a similar problem? If so, how long did it take for it to go away?

Jan

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  • dsyoung53
    dsyoung53 Member Posts: 20
    edited August 2013

    Hi Jan,

    I had the same thing several years ago. I was told the pain in my eye was because it wasn't closing all the way and therefore drying out. I bought an eyepatch and put it on at night with a cotton ball under the patch to keep my eye closed. Dr. Put me on a 10 day course of prednisone and it went away. In about 2 weeks. He said it may have gone away without the prednisone, but that is the normal treatment. It had nothing to do with bc. It was called Bell's palsy.



    Good luck,

    Diane

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  • bevin
    bevin Member Posts: 1,902
    edited August 2013

    http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/bells-palsy-topic-overview

    I am sorry to post here, but when I saw facial nerve palsy , it was something near to my heart and I experienced a problem with Ball's palsy myself.  It sounds from your symptoms that you could possibley have it too.

    I had Bell's palsy and the pain started in my ear, it was very severe.  Its caused from your  7th facial nerve getting inflammed and compressed which causes the stroke like symptoms in your face.

    I was treated with 1 month of steroids. It really took away the pain and reduced the inflamation which helps resolve and reduce nerve damage - over a period of 3 months the Palsey resolved itself. They can diagnose Bells palsey with an MRI, which was how mine was diagnosed and this was completed by a neurologist.

    If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

    Bevin

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  • DianeKS
    DianeKS Member Posts: 241
    edited August 2013

    Hi Jan,

    When you asked about Facial nerve Palsy, I was reminded of my sister. She presented with a facial palsy and she was pulled into neurology apts scans and the like. Brain scan was clear, which relieved her as she had not been diagnosed with mets at that time.

    At some point she felt an enlarged node --supraclavicular. A CT was done and they saw only one, inaccessible to bx. A bone scan was ordered and the results of that were mets to her spine, and around a foramen (opening) in her skull bones behind her nose. That was pressing on nerves for her face and affected her eating,eyes,and pain to that side of her face. I had never heard of that before, nor since. That was 2009. She progressed and died in 2011.



    That is not to say I think that is what you have. It is just my account of what my family went through before the cause was found. It took a little while and perhaps the nerve pain would have been less if found sooner...you have bone mets so I'm guessing that you are followed by bone scans.



    Really a trying time no matter what the cause is. Wishing you a solution to the symptoms. Hugs to you,



    Diane

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  • jcb51
    jcb51 Member Posts: 382
    edited August 2013

    Thanks for your replies.

    Bevin, the opthalmologist told me that the ENT dr he referred me to might want to try steroids. My ear pain was severe, too, and I also had severe pain in the area behind my ear (which is also in the 7th cranial nerve's pathway). The only other time I had pain that severe was when I had an abcessed tooth and at first I thought that's what was causing the ear pain. The ear pain lasted several weeks, then went away for a couple of weeks, came back and then stopped. Now my outer ear is kind of numb, but I still get occasional shooting pains in it.

    DianeKS, I'm very sorry about the loss of your sister. I had a bone scan on 3-29-13 and an MRI of my brain and upper neck on 7-5-13. My brain was clear which was a major relief. The MRI of my neck showed 3 bulging disks in my upper neck (probably from an old whiplash injury). My oncologist didn't mention anything about mets in my skull, but the MRI of my neck may not have gone high enough to see any problems in my skull and my facial bones probably would not have shown up on the MRI of my brain. The opthalmologist said he didn't think the bulging disks were causing the problem because the 7th cranial nerve exits the brain just beneath the ear which would be too high for anything in my neck to be affecting it.

    My original bc was on the left side and my worst bone lesions are in the bones that form my left shoulder. My bone scan showed progressions when compared to my last bone scan, but that was done in Dec of 2012, so it would show a progression even if I'm stable now. Since Feb of this year my oncologist has said that according to my lung CT's, the cancer in my bones and lungs is stable. A lot of my bone mets show up on my lung CT's and there has been no change in them since Feb.

    I see my family dr on Monday and will discuss all of this with him. I think I need to see a neurologist instead of an ENT dr. I'm pretty upset about this because it's been going on for several months and my oncologist really drug his feet in trying to find out what was causing it. It wasn't until I was unable to blink my eye that he seemed to get concerned.

    Thanks again for your replies.

    Jan

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  • DianeKS
    DianeKS Member Posts: 241
    edited August 2013

    Hoping you get some clear answers to what's causing the symptoms on Monday.

    Will be thinking of you,

    Diane

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  • sunny210
    sunny210 Member Posts: 292
    edited August 2013

    My son had similar symptoms with Lyme Disaease. He was treated with antibiotics??? - I can't really remember - but he recovered without too much trouble. Good luck.

    Sandy

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  • justjudie
    justjudie Member Posts: 3,397
    edited August 2013

    Hi Jan.

    Certainly seems you have had to wait a very long time for answers on this problem.  I too have often heard of Bells Palsy although I have never had it myself.  It is not all that uncommon.  Im sorry you have had to wait in pain for all this time.  

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  • acupuncturist
    acupuncturist Member Posts: 2
    edited September 2017

    It can be cured by acupuncture

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  • acupuncturist
    acupuncturist Member Posts: 2
    edited September 2017

    Hello, I'm from China. I wonder how your condition is

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