I'm sorry I don't know a good physician in Englewood/Centennial. However, I've had Bell's Palsy twice; once on each side. The first time the doctor put me on Prednizone (a steriod) and that did help the muscles tighten up a little faster. Also, for night, I taped (light medical tape) my eye closed, if needed, and wore a patch to help keep it closed during sleep. Straw to the back of the mouth to drink a beverage. I would sometimes hold the muscles up when I talked just so it didn't feel so wierd.
The second time, they didn't put me on any meds. The muscles started to tighten back up toward the end of the first week. Better during the second. Again with the patch and straw.
Here's the general information that I learned about Bell's Palsy:
-It is usually caused by the chicken pox or measles virus which would be sitting dormant in your system for some reason (for me, I was on antibiotics after surgery when I got chicken pox in the 2nd grade so the virus had been sitting dormant because it never got to run it's course - or that's the speculation anyway).
-Usually some extreme stress will be the trigger point for the virus to essentially attack your optic nerve, only affecting one side of your face.
-Since it is nerve related, it will take up to 10 months for the nerves to heal as much as they are going to.
-Not to scare you, but some people have a slight visible, permanent nerve/muscle damage as a result. For instance, a former co-worker's mouth on one side of her face didn't curve up or down when smiling or frowning after getting over BP. For me, there is no visible damage but sometimes my mouth won't seal around a glass properly, 9 years later.
-If you can learn to laugh at the way you look (or at least make an odd joke here or there) for a couple weeks, it'll help a lot. It'll also make others not feel so insecure about what they can say to encourage you.
-Remember that it is temporary! Doesn't matter if you get meds for it or not. It goes away.
Mostly, I would say, figure out what stress triggered it and work on reducing the stress so that it doesn't happen again. I understand that it is incredibly rare for someone to get it a second time. Hope that helps. If you want anything more, please feel free to message me back via MamaSource.
