Bell's Palsy and Neck Pain - Part 3

Part 3 - Antibiotics Round 3

Okay, on Monday February 6, I called the specialist and requested a second round of azithromycin. They did fill it, but they weren't convinced that the Bell's Palsy and the infection are connected.

Well, as I've mentioned in parts 1 and 2, my experience implies something different. For the first time since all of this began, my headache pain has virtually disappeared. I say virtually because the nerve is still mildly inflamed, but I don't feel the pain traveling along the nerve through the back of the head. Painkillers weren't working on the pain.

Taking in the entire picture and going by my own personal experiences with migraine headaches, I pretty much figure this latest head pain was tied directly to the nerve.

Now, considering my past experience - when I've had sinus infections, the migraines wouldn't go away until the infection had been dealt with. No amount of painkillers would or could touch them, not even Imitrex.

While I felt crappy earlier (around 7pm last night, I haven't slept yet), I notice that right now (5:47am, Feb 8), my neck only feels mildly stiff but overall breathing is better, my left ear doesn't hurt, and the pressure in my right ear has diminished. It's not completely gone yet, but it's getting there.

So, I've seen improvement in the infection, and I've seen a reduction in the head pain caused by the 7th nerve. The reduction in head pain implies that the nerve isn't as inflamed as it had been earlier.

Okay, so considering this, one can deduce that the improvement in the infection correlates directly with the reduction in head pain. Therefore, it can be said that the improvement in the infection correlates directly to the reduction in inflammation of that 7th nerve.

This brings me to my conclusion that the infection is responsible for all of this, and it will go away when the infection is cleared up. 

So far, I can say that the infection isn't completely gone, and neither is the facial paralysis. It's about 90-95% gone.

I hope that this third round will do the trick. If not, I'm not so sure they'll be willing to give me another round. However, I'm not seeing improvement as fast I had last week, but I'm seeing improvement, so that is good. Whatever infection this is, it really dug in deep.

To give you an idea of some of the weirdness I've noticed - when I massage the area around the nerve (muscles, etc), I feel thick fluid move into my throat and some movement in my ear. In fact, when the fluid moves, my right ear gets a little itchy. Seriously, the fluid has been so congested for so long I'm surprised it's moving now.

How do I know I still have an infection in my sinuses?

Well, I am still seeing dark yellow mixed in with the stuff I blow out of my nose. The chunks aren't that big and they've gotten smaller as the infection improves, however they still remain to gunk up the works.

I've got 3 days of meds left, so I hope I see some more improvement soon. If the discoloration of the mucus/phlegm doesn't change to it's normal clear color by Friday, I will phone again and ask for the round to be extended. I don't want to give this infection any more days to grab hold of my system. I just want to knock it out and be done with it already. I've had it longer than a month. I mean, I sat on it for awhile (at least a couple of weeks before the facial paralysis started) trying to let my body deal with it. I think it's more than proved it can't deal with this one on it's own. I'm off for some sleep now.