A woman was left in shock after waking up one morning only to realize that the right side of her face has been left paralyzed.
29-year-old Danielle Ferguson is a nutritionist from California who woke up suffering from a paralyzed face as a result of stress.
As the young woman revealed, she was experiencing cold-like symptoms such as fatigue and jaw pain for one week before the paralysis occurred.
After Danielle’s parents took her to the hospital, doctors told her she had Bell’s Palsy and gave her prescriptions for oral medicines.
In addition, they have also claimed that her condition was caused by excessive stress and that she couldn’t do anything to stop it after experiencing its symptoms.
While people with Bell’s Palsy typically regain full control of their faces following weeks or months after the paralysis, the condition with no cure doesn’t disappear in some cases.
“The week prior to my diagnosis I had felt like I was coming down with a cold. Then that Saturday I started to feel the symptoms coming on, but I didn’t know what it was at the time,” Danielle recalled.
“My tongue felt numb and my jaw hurt really badly; almost like someone had punched me or I was grinding my teeth all night long. Plus my smile was a bit off but nothing super noticeable.
“I woke up on Sunday to my entire right side of my face paralyzed which I was told by the nurse the prior day that this could happen. So, I wasn’t as shocked and afraid as I would have been if we didn’t go to the clinic the day before.”
As the 29-year-old added, she became extremely conscious about her looks following the paralysis. Fortunately, however, she quickly found a lot of support online where people shared similar stories.
“At first, I was shy about being around anyone other than my family, however I never really let that stop me from sharing with my Instagram community,” Danielle admitted.
“I found once I started sharing my story, people started to tell me they either had it or knew someone who did, and it created this sort of connection. I do still hide my smile at times when I laugh or smile big as that is when you can really tell my smile is crooked.”
Fortunately, Danielle is already regaining strength on the right side of her face even though she knows she’s still got a long way to go to fully recover.
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