Thursday, September 27, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
A Day in the Life of Someone With Bell's Palsy
Today I was thinking back to before I was diagnosed with BP (Bell's palsy). Life was easy to be certain. Everyday living is so different right now for me. This is a day in my life with Bell's palsy.
Everyday just like before I wake up at 5:30 am and get myself ready for work. I pull myself out of bed after being so rudely awakened by my God forsaken alarm clock. I drag myself to the kitchen to start the coffee pot.
Once back in the bathroom, this is where the "fun" begins. I start by trying to shave. This is probably the hardest part of my morning. What I once was able to do by moving the muscles in my face I now have to do with my hands. One of the hardest things about shaving is try to relax the good side of my face enough to be able to shave it without hacking it up.
After shaving I move on to the shower. The shower isn't too bad if you like getting soap and water in your eye that doesn't close completely. While washing my face and hair I do my best to use one of my hands to hold my eye closed while I wash with the other. Before BP I used to love taking a shower. I would spend half my morning in the shower, now, I basically try to get in and get out.
So at this point I have shaved and cut my face in three different places, and shower which now has made my one eye blurry and painful. At this point the back of my head in throbbing from a painful nerve.
After a few minutes I can finally see again and I continue my morning routine. After finishing in the bathroom I move back to the kitchen to make my breakfast of two fried eggs and two pieces of toast. Nothing hard about that other than I can only see out of one eye because the other one is watering so bad it looks like I am crying.
After breakfast I pack my lunch and head to work. I always hope for a cloudy morning when I head to work. Have you ever tried to drive into the sun when your eyes are watering. Yeah, not a good idea, basically because there isn't so much seeing go on when your eyes are watering. When the sun is shining I have to wear sunglasses otherwise I can't see. I remember going to church last weekend I when we were going out to the car I had to hold someones hand because I couldn't see enough to find the car.
Finally at work I deal with my watering eye all day long which also basically rubs my eyelid raw because of always wiping my eye. I use eye drops a few time a day to make sure that my eye doesn't dry out. By mid morning of work my jaw feels like it is going to kill me from talking to much. I have to communicate with the customers, but it really takes a toll on my jaw.
Leaving work I deal again with the watery eyes which by the end of the day has given me a wonderful headache. The nerves on the back of my head are screaming at me by this point. My evening continues with dinner which Renee usually creates. Eating after a day of overusing my already sore jaw makes eat very painful.
The rest of my evening is spent trying not to talk and trying to rest up to do all of this again tomorrow.
And that is a day in the life of a person with BP.
Everyday just like before I wake up at 5:30 am and get myself ready for work. I pull myself out of bed after being so rudely awakened by my God forsaken alarm clock. I drag myself to the kitchen to start the coffee pot.
Once back in the bathroom, this is where the "fun" begins. I start by trying to shave. This is probably the hardest part of my morning. What I once was able to do by moving the muscles in my face I now have to do with my hands. One of the hardest things about shaving is try to relax the good side of my face enough to be able to shave it without hacking it up.
After shaving I move on to the shower. The shower isn't too bad if you like getting soap and water in your eye that doesn't close completely. While washing my face and hair I do my best to use one of my hands to hold my eye closed while I wash with the other. Before BP I used to love taking a shower. I would spend half my morning in the shower, now, I basically try to get in and get out.
So at this point I have shaved and cut my face in three different places, and shower which now has made my one eye blurry and painful. At this point the back of my head in throbbing from a painful nerve.
After a few minutes I can finally see again and I continue my morning routine. After finishing in the bathroom I move back to the kitchen to make my breakfast of two fried eggs and two pieces of toast. Nothing hard about that other than I can only see out of one eye because the other one is watering so bad it looks like I am crying.
After breakfast I pack my lunch and head to work. I always hope for a cloudy morning when I head to work. Have you ever tried to drive into the sun when your eyes are watering. Yeah, not a good idea, basically because there isn't so much seeing go on when your eyes are watering. When the sun is shining I have to wear sunglasses otherwise I can't see. I remember going to church last weekend I when we were going out to the car I had to hold someones hand because I couldn't see enough to find the car.
Finally at work I deal with my watering eye all day long which also basically rubs my eyelid raw because of always wiping my eye. I use eye drops a few time a day to make sure that my eye doesn't dry out. By mid morning of work my jaw feels like it is going to kill me from talking to much. I have to communicate with the customers, but it really takes a toll on my jaw.
Leaving work I deal again with the watery eyes which by the end of the day has given me a wonderful headache. The nerves on the back of my head are screaming at me by this point. My evening continues with dinner which Renee usually creates. Eating after a day of overusing my already sore jaw makes eat very painful.
The rest of my evening is spent trying not to talk and trying to rest up to do all of this again tomorrow.
And that is a day in the life of a person with BP.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
This is Where We Are
Hey everyone, I know it has been a very long time since I have written a post for you, but the Sutter family has been extremely busy this summer. To bring everyone up to speed on what we have been up to I will backtrack a few months.
June:
In June Renee and I met with my parents (Jim and Mary Sutter) and we became marketing executives for Melaleuca The Wellness Company. We have been working to build our business and we aren't doing to bad with it. So far we have made just over $50 with the company. I know that seems low, but if you consider that we spend only a few hours a month on it, we aren't doing too bad. I was also promoted to store manager at Gift and Bible Center in Lansing, MI.
July:
The month of July was a much busier month for us. We signed up our first customer with Melaleuca and we also purchased our first home. Up until this point we have always rented. We just didn't have the money to purchase a home, but with Renee getting a raise from her job and me getting a raise from my promotion we were able to save just enough to purchase a really nice home in downtown Lansing. We love owning our own home. I (Aaron) have already started working on a few things that needed fixing around the house. My friend James and I worked on getting some doors to latch, and I have been working on resealing the glass panes in our wooden windows on the first floor. I love being able to do whatever I want to the house. If I want to paint a room a different color I can do it without having to ask a landlord for permission. We want to give a big thank you to all of the people that helped us move from Grand Ledge to the big city!! You all are the bomb!!
Renee and I also ran in our first ever 5k race at our church. Renee and I have both lost about the same amount of weight which is about 40 lbs each. Running is our exercise of choice.
August:
In August we enrolled another two customers to Melaleuca our friends Mike and Faith Fischer and my cousins Nathan and Rebecca Sutter. We are so excited for them to start using the best products known to man.
September:
And this brings us to the month of September; and what a month it has been so far. The first weekend in September Renee found herself in the ER with an unknown pain in her side. Nothing came of the pain, but it does seem to be gone. We are so thankful for that. The next weekend we took a family vacation to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. We had a wonderful time. It was a week of complete bliss and relaxation. We had been there before when Marcus was just 9 months old, but we had horrible weather and Marcus was too little to enjoy it. This time Marcus had a blast. We took our bikes up with us so we could ride around the island. We actually rode around the island twice in one day. Once when we arrived on the island and again when Marcus needed a nap. It is 8 1/2 miles around the island so you can imagine that we slept great that night.
We took Marcus to a lumber jack show while in Mackinaw City. He loved it! Ever since all he wants to be is a clain saw. We also visited a working water powered saw mill that has been fully restored. I really enjoyed that one. It was amazing to see how people figured out how to harness the power of water to power such a huge operation.
We also visited the U.S Coast Guard Ice Breaker Mackinaw Museum in Mackinaw City. When we arrived on the icebreaker we ran into a man who Renee works with at Jackson National Life who lived on the Icebreaker Mackinaw back in the 80s. I really enjoyed this museum and the history of the ice breaker.
While in Mackinaw we stayed at a campground called Mill Creak Campground. They had wonderful cabins to stay in which is what we chose to do. The only drawback was that the bed's were so hard that after the first night I had a pretty sore back and eventually needed icehot to help with the stiffness.
All of this brings us to this week. On Thursday September 12th I woke up with half of my tongue feeling numb and one side of my lips loosing some of their feeling. I didn't really think much of it. I thought maybe it had something to do with the way I slept the night before or something I ate. Thursday night after the numbness getting worse (and at the urging of Renee) I decided to go to urgent care to see what was wrong. I went in having a pretty good idea of what was wrong, but I wanted to be sure. After seeing the doctor my thoughts were confirmed, I have Bell's Palsy.
It is affecting the right side of my face. Bell's Palsy is basically nerve damage and is usually not permanent. In fact 80% of those who have Bell's Palsy make a complete recovery. So a few days into my diagnosis and there really hasn't been any change other than it seems to have gotten slightly worse. It seems that the paralysis is worse in the morning and slowly relaxes a bit as the day goes on, but when I say slightly I do mean very, very slightly, hardly noticeable in fact. I am optimistic however that I will make a full recovery. I am doing some exercises and things to stimulate the nerves on the right side of my face to help with the paralysis. I am hoping that it will be healed quickly because it is rather annoying. My right eye waters almost constantly because my eyelid doesn't completely close when I blink. I also have frequent stabbing pains in the back of my head behind my right ear. Today when we went to church it was super sunny out and I could hardly see my way into the church because I can't squint my right eye and consequently both of my eye started watering as though I was crying.
I will be tracking my progress with BP on youtube to hopefully help others who are struggling with it.
The following in the first video I did. Also I will be doing another post with pictures we took while on our vacation.
So, I hope everyone has a great day and keep our family in your prayers. God Bless
June:
In June Renee and I met with my parents (Jim and Mary Sutter) and we became marketing executives for Melaleuca The Wellness Company. We have been working to build our business and we aren't doing to bad with it. So far we have made just over $50 with the company. I know that seems low, but if you consider that we spend only a few hours a month on it, we aren't doing too bad. I was also promoted to store manager at Gift and Bible Center in Lansing, MI.
July:
The month of July was a much busier month for us. We signed up our first customer with Melaleuca and we also purchased our first home. Up until this point we have always rented. We just didn't have the money to purchase a home, but with Renee getting a raise from her job and me getting a raise from my promotion we were able to save just enough to purchase a really nice home in downtown Lansing. We love owning our own home. I (Aaron) have already started working on a few things that needed fixing around the house. My friend James and I worked on getting some doors to latch, and I have been working on resealing the glass panes in our wooden windows on the first floor. I love being able to do whatever I want to the house. If I want to paint a room a different color I can do it without having to ask a landlord for permission. We want to give a big thank you to all of the people that helped us move from Grand Ledge to the big city!! You all are the bomb!!
Renee and I also ran in our first ever 5k race at our church. Renee and I have both lost about the same amount of weight which is about 40 lbs each. Running is our exercise of choice.
August:
In August we enrolled another two customers to Melaleuca our friends Mike and Faith Fischer and my cousins Nathan and Rebecca Sutter. We are so excited for them to start using the best products known to man.
September:
And this brings us to the month of September; and what a month it has been so far. The first weekend in September Renee found herself in the ER with an unknown pain in her side. Nothing came of the pain, but it does seem to be gone. We are so thankful for that. The next weekend we took a family vacation to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. We had a wonderful time. It was a week of complete bliss and relaxation. We had been there before when Marcus was just 9 months old, but we had horrible weather and Marcus was too little to enjoy it. This time Marcus had a blast. We took our bikes up with us so we could ride around the island. We actually rode around the island twice in one day. Once when we arrived on the island and again when Marcus needed a nap. It is 8 1/2 miles around the island so you can imagine that we slept great that night.
We took Marcus to a lumber jack show while in Mackinaw City. He loved it! Ever since all he wants to be is a clain saw. We also visited a working water powered saw mill that has been fully restored. I really enjoyed that one. It was amazing to see how people figured out how to harness the power of water to power such a huge operation.
We also visited the U.S Coast Guard Ice Breaker Mackinaw Museum in Mackinaw City. When we arrived on the icebreaker we ran into a man who Renee works with at Jackson National Life who lived on the Icebreaker Mackinaw back in the 80s. I really enjoyed this museum and the history of the ice breaker.
While in Mackinaw we stayed at a campground called Mill Creak Campground. They had wonderful cabins to stay in which is what we chose to do. The only drawback was that the bed's were so hard that after the first night I had a pretty sore back and eventually needed icehot to help with the stiffness.
All of this brings us to this week. On Thursday September 12th I woke up with half of my tongue feeling numb and one side of my lips loosing some of their feeling. I didn't really think much of it. I thought maybe it had something to do with the way I slept the night before or something I ate. Thursday night after the numbness getting worse (and at the urging of Renee) I decided to go to urgent care to see what was wrong. I went in having a pretty good idea of what was wrong, but I wanted to be sure. After seeing the doctor my thoughts were confirmed, I have Bell's Palsy.
It is affecting the right side of my face. Bell's Palsy is basically nerve damage and is usually not permanent. In fact 80% of those who have Bell's Palsy make a complete recovery. So a few days into my diagnosis and there really hasn't been any change other than it seems to have gotten slightly worse. It seems that the paralysis is worse in the morning and slowly relaxes a bit as the day goes on, but when I say slightly I do mean very, very slightly, hardly noticeable in fact. I am optimistic however that I will make a full recovery. I am doing some exercises and things to stimulate the nerves on the right side of my face to help with the paralysis. I am hoping that it will be healed quickly because it is rather annoying. My right eye waters almost constantly because my eyelid doesn't completely close when I blink. I also have frequent stabbing pains in the back of my head behind my right ear. Today when we went to church it was super sunny out and I could hardly see my way into the church because I can't squint my right eye and consequently both of my eye started watering as though I was crying.
I will be tracking my progress with BP on youtube to hopefully help others who are struggling with it.
The following in the first video I did. Also I will be doing another post with pictures we took while on our vacation.
So, I hope everyone has a great day and keep our family in your prayers. God Bless
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