Bristol Palin has been dealing with a case of facial paralysis.
“I woke up nine days ago with a weird little sensation in my face,” Palin, 34, said in a Wednesday, January 29, Instagram Story video. “My mouth was pulling this way and it just felt a little off. So, I went and looked in the mirror. I’m like, ‘Wow, this is looking a little weird.’”
After “a couple of hours,” Palin found that the entire left side of her face “was numb and just paralyzed.”
“Couldn’t really blink my eye, definitely had no movement on the side of my face,” she said. “So crazy. [I] went to the doctor. They ran tests, they did a CT scan [and] they put me on steroids, put me on other medications. Nothing came back with all the results. They think it’s just a case of Bell’s palsy maybe brought on by stress or lack of sleep.”
Palin added, “I’m not really sure. There’s nothing that I was super stressed out about, but I think it was brought on by stress.” (According to the Mayo Clinic, Bell’s palsy is a temporary condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face.)
According to the Teen Mom alum, her face still “looks crazy” — but in an improved state.
“This is such an improvement from what I was looking like,” Palin explained on Wednesday. “I’m finally starting to get some of the sensation back. It’s been, like, a little painful the last two days, which is a sign [and a] good indication that it’s getting better, so praise the Lord.”
Bristol, who is the eldest daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, further revealed that she will be grateful for “a normal functioning face” when the paralysis fully goes away.
“This has been wild,” Bristol added. “Also if you know anyone that has any of these symptoms, I would highly suggest going more of the Eastern medicine [route], as well. I’ve been getting acupuncture multiple times and that’s helped speed up the process of recovery tremendously.”
In a series of follow-up videos, Bristol shared that her paralysis worsened over the course of a full week.
“There’s absolutely zero movement on the left side of my face,” Bristol said in a throwback video taken on Day 3. “My nose hurts because it’s a little crooked. So crazy.”
According to Bristol, her face was “still completely numb” by the sixth day of her health scare. Two days later, she thought “it was getting a little better.”
