A bout with Bell’s palsy has been a blessing

I assumed acupuncture helped some people because most “treatments” do something, including placebo therapies given to experimental test subjects, but I knew acupuncture was not for me. My perspective changed the day food started falling out of the side of my mouth.  An emergency CAT scan and ultrasound ruled out stroke, and I was told I had Bell’s palsy, which characteristically left the left side of my face paralyzed and would do so for weeks, perhaps months, could be years. I adapted. To be understood when I talked, I stuck fingers in the dead side of my mouth to move my lips. To eat, I clamped my hand over my mouth to hold back food that thrust out as I chewed. I told myself I would learn to live with people looking at my droopy face. My daughter’s chiropractor said acupuncture would help. When you must manually blink your own eye, you look at things differently, so despite thinking I would never do it, I made the appointment for acupuncture.  For that, I am grateful. The idea that having half my face paralyzed can be a blessing is simple truth. Acupuncture changed my life.

It was not just the paralysis of my face that began to correct immediately. After two and one half weeks during which I had five acupuncture sessions, the paralysis completely resolved. During that time, I also completed a round of the anti-inflammatory drug Prednisone, so I cannot scientifically declare reversal of Bell’s solely the result of acupuncture, but relief from half my face stuck frozen and dysfunctional is actually the least that resulted from the acupuncture treatments - a long list of chronic ailments have gone away as a result of acupuncture. 

When I began acupuncture for facial paralysis, I was also old, obese, diabetic, and for years walked with pain and stiffness. My feet hurt, my knees were weak and wobbly, and when I tried to take daily walks I gave up because my hip hurt. I had a few winter falls and often toppled putting on pants. Surges of numbing pain in my hands and fingers frequently left me unable to effectively use my hands and fingers. I pulled myself up and down stairs grabbing hand rails. It hurt to hold my arms up to shampoo my hair or move through hangers in the clothes closet.  I was anxious, fearful and forgetful. I could not sleep. All this and more has been relieved as the result of acupuncture. As I said, acupuncture changed my life I am still older than middle-age and need to lose weight, but after a few weeks of acupuncture, I walk easily and want to walk.  I move my arms, hands, fingers through daily tasks without halting in pain or hampered by numbness. I dress without cursing, put in earrings, and even step into pants without losing balance. Balance has also come to my mind --- I no longer try to cancel out stress of the day with candy and carbs.  At night, I go to sleep and in the morning, wake up. I do not have chaotic inner dialogue.  

The acupuncturist says I had a “major invasion of ‘Wind,’” the pathogenic in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  He explains, too, that acupuncture does not “stick-pin-here-fix-that,” but rather works to restore the body’s balance of energy. Thus, in the process of relieving the paralysis of Bell’s palsy, ailments ruining my life, stopped.  Invasion of Wind?  I do not understand it, but I do not care.  Acupuncture changed my life.   My acupuncturist is Mark Siegrist, L.Ac., Seven Star Acupuncture at The Spine and Wellness Center of Dr. Patrick Borja in Exeter.

Leslie Ann Leinbach lives in St. Lawrence (Exeter Twp.) and teaches in the Boyertown Area School District and as adjunct faculty at RACC.