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Vicki Hall
Faith Brought Me Through My Affliction
You never know when something
horrifying might happen to you. You
have to count your blessings and be
thankful each day for what God has
given you. I went to bed one night,
completely normal. When I awoke,
the right half of my face was paralyzed.
I was stricken with Bell’s Palsy.
I was devastated, but had faith that
God would be with me.
With Bell’s Palsy, the paralysis is usually
on one side of the face, but it is not
uncommon for it to affect both sides
of the face. There are many symptoms
associated with it. I experienced having
a smile on only the left side, an
inability to pucker my lips to whistle,
kiss or sip from a straw, numbness on
the right side cheek and in the inside
of my mouth – right down the middle
of my tongue and the roof. I could
not chew on the paralyzed side. Food
got caught in the cheek and liquids
drooled from the corner of my mouth.
Breathing was impossible on the right
because of collapsed nostril and nasal
muscles. I could not close my right eye
and the blink was abnormal. I had a
dry eye and had to cover it with a
patch at night to prevent scratching
and used drops regularly during the
day. I perceived sounds as excessively
loud and they were often painful.
My eyebrow, eyelid, cheek and jaw
line all drooped. I could not raise my
eyebrow and my forehead would not
and could not wrinkle. My taste and
speech were affected and my face
hurt. At work several people asked
if I’d had a stroke.
I learned that Bell’s Palsy is a viral
attack on the facial nerve. The
paralysis is caused when the virus
attacks the nerve and causes inflammation,
essentially pinching the nerve
and stopping the electrical impulses
that flow through to the muscles.
I heard from various sources it could
take from three months to a year or
more to recover and that some people
never recover completely. I ordered
some Enrich products.
They were
to do three things:
-
address the virus
-
help reduce and heal the inflammation
-
provide nourishment,
healing and support
to the nerves
The
products were SIG –
a natural antibiotic;
LifePath 50 – a
powerful antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory and
anti-viral; Passionflower, StressAid, Valerian, B-Complex and SN,
all for the nerves. I started on the
products and also began some rigorous
facial exercises. I was also placed
on my church’s prayer-chain.
In four days I began to see results.
My eyebrow began to move back
into its normal place and my smile
started to function again, although
just barely. At the end of the first
week, my eye was not as dry and
some feeling seemed to return to my
cheek. By the end of the second
week, I was able to sip from a straw.
My taste was beginning to return
and drooling had completely ceased.
My cheek had lost much of the paralysis.
At the end of the third week, I
was 95 percent back to normal. My
smile, eyebrow and forehead were
almost completely normal. The pain
in my face was gone, my hearing had
returned to normal, the feeling in my
mouth returned and I could chew
normally. It took a few more days
before my blink felt right. At the end
of the fourth week I was completely
back to normal.
Paul writes in Corinthians, “We are
afflicted in every way, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed.”
I
thank God for his blessing and for
Enrich each day.
– Vickie Hall
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