Bristol Palin’s Battles Facial Paralysis: ‘Nothing Has Helped’ She’s currently dealing with the challenges of her recent facial paralysis.
On February 24, the daughter of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin updated her followers on her health during a Q&A session on her Instagram Stories.
“If I keep my mouth closed, it is less noticeable. Today marks day 35, officially five weeks, since the left side of my face became paralyzed,” she explained. “There is still no muscle movement on that side, and I do not experience much sensation.”
“I have tried every possible option to fix this,” she added. “I’m not sure what else I should do. For the past 35 days, I have been working daily to address this issue, but nothing has worked so far. So, I remain unsure about what the future holds.”
In a follow-up post, a follower asked if she had thought about acupuncture. The mother of three shared a photo of herself receiving the treatment, showing that she has been getting facial acupuncture four times a week.
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Palin first revealed her struggle with facial paralysis in an Instagram post on January 29.
“Nine days ago, I woke up with a strange feeling in my face,” she recalled. “My mouth was pulling to one side, and it felt a bit off. When I looked in the mirror, I thought, ‘This looks a bit strange.’”
“I feel like everything is being drawn to the left,” she mentioned in the video. Hours later, she reported that her condition had worsened, and the left side of her face was showing a “delayed” response.
“Within a few hours, the entire left side of my face became numb and completely paralyzed,” she described at that time. “I couldn’t blink my eye and had no movement on that side of my face. It was quite astonishing.”
Palin shared that she went to the doctor’s office, where she underwent several tests and a CT scan. The results, however, showed no significant issues, prompting the doctors to prescribe “steroids” along with “other medications.”
The medical team speculated that Palin’s facial paralysis could be due to “a case of Bell’s palsy,” which is marked by temporary paralysis or weakness of the facial muscles on one side. This condition can be caused by various factors, including infections, high blood pressure, diabetes, and exposure to certain toxins, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. In her case, the doctors indicated that it might have been triggered by “lack of sleep” or “stress.”
In another part of her discussion, Palin talked about other symptoms she faced, like having a “dry” eye because she struggled to blink her right eye and felt discomfort in her nose.
She reflected, “The next time I look in the mirror and find myself critiquing my appearance, thinking, ‘My nose is long. I want a nose job. I want to change this or that,’ I will remember this experience and feel immense gratitude for having a normally functioning face, as this has been quite an ordeal.”
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