Other ways facial palsy affects my life:

Make up is difficult enough as it is without a wonky face. I was lucky enough to get some make up tips from a couple of experts recently which I thought I would share.

Complexion:

We've all seen the tutorials for contouring which look like a complex jigsaw in varying shades and are quite frankly terrifying. Contouring does not have to be that complicated. A swipe of bronzing powder below the cheekbone can do the trick on it's own. If one cheekbone appears lower than the other, simply swipe the bronzer slightly higher to give the appearance that the cheekbone itself is higher.

You can also add a highlighter on the cheekbone, again adjust the positioning to balance the face.

Eyebrows:

My eyebrows are not only different heights but also arch differently. Start by getting a brow pencil (any will do) and fill in the brows trying to match them up as much as possible, be it lengthening one, adding more of an arch to the other. At this stage it might look odd as you might not be used to filling them in. Once you've pencilled out a shape you're happy with pluck any stray hairs around the edges. Just remember no ones eyebrows will perfectly match :)

Eating and drinking with facial palsy:

Eating without dribbling and drinking out of cups is something most people take for granted after about the age of 2, but with facial palsy it's not that easy. 

Living with facial pain:

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love football. Unfortunately football is played outside in the winter. After my second episode when I was 21, my face became sensitive to the cold and it got worse after my third episode. Spending any amount of time outside when it was cold caused agonising pain. Sitting outside for 2 hours to watch a game of football was not going to happen.

I was prescribed medication to help with the nerve pain because it was stopping me from sleeping but I could only take them at night as they made me really drowsy. When it was windy was the worst, and made my whole face feel like it had seized up.

When I finally got seen by a specialist, 11 years after I first developed facial palsy, and started a programme of physiotherapy and Botox to help manage the synkenesis and hypertonicity things started to improve. After 3 years of treatment, I only sometimes get facial pain and it's not the agonising pain that it was, and although the cold still makes my face feel tight, I can now sit outside for 2 hours every other week to watch the football - which is mostly a good thing! 

Life with unexpected facial expressions:

Life with a unique smile:

Life with an eye that doesn't blink:

It's the first ever Facial Palsy Awareness Week from 1-7 March #FPAW. Over the next 7 days you will read 7 statements on here that describe the effects of facial palsy. You will read them and then you can forget them. Those affected by this condition cannot forget, they live with this daily. This condition can hit any one of us, from small babies to the elderly, at any time with no warning. There are no nationally funded trials investigating causes or treatments for facial paralysis. Many people are denied treatment because it is deemed purely 'cosmetic'. I'd like you to read my statements over the next 7 days and decide for yourself whether this condition should simply be disregarded as cosmetic.

I can live with a wonky smile. I can live with a Roger Moore eyebrow. I can live with getting Botox. I can live with not being able to pull duckface. I can live with not being able to frown. I can not live with The Fear. 

As part of the incredibly exciting "The Face Project", which comprises many ideas such as a performance of chamber opera "Face on the Ballroom Floor", a video installation and a virtual choir, it was suggested that a good idea would be an art exhibition depicting faces affected by facial palsy. This ties in nicely with the opera, in which there is a scene where an artist is painting a face on the ballroom floor, and led to the suggestion of an art competition with the winning piece becoming the "Face on the Ballroom Floor".

After almost 11 years of the left side of my face being paralysed I don't really think about how it affects my life on a physical day to day basis anymore, you just kind of get on with it. It wasn't until recently that a conversation prompted me to think of the things that I can and can't do because of my facial palsy.

For the first time in almost 11 years I really feel I'm starting to get my smile back. It's not that I've been miserable or depressed for 11 years, far from it, rather that I've had Bell's Palsy three times with very little recovery each time, which has left the left side of my face mostly paralysed.