Celebrity

Bristol Palin Reveals Facial Paralysis: ‘It’s So Bad’

“I woke up nine days ago with a little weird sensation in my face,” Palin revealed. 

Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Bristol Palin is recovering from facial paralysis. The 34-year-old daughter of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday, Jan. 29, revealing that she woke up nine days prior with a “little weird sensation” in her face that quickly spiraled into something more severe.

“My mouth was pulling this way and it just felt a little off. So I went, looked in the mirror. I’m like ‘Wow. This is looking a little weird,’” Bristol remembered, noting that “within a couple hours the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed,” she “couldn’t really blink [her] eye” and she had “no movement on [the left side] of my face.”

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The former Teen Mom star continued to share photos of the progression of her facial paralysis, revealing that at 10:30 a.m. the first day, it felt like “everything is pulling to the left,” but at 5 p.m. it felt like the left side of her face was “just numb” and having “delayed” reactions. “It’s so bad, dude,” she said.

Bristol ultimately went to see a doctor, but after tests, a CT scan and X-rays, “nothing came back,” so she was put on steroids and “other medications.” She continued that doctors believe she could be suffering from Bell’s palsy, an unexplained episode of facial muscle weakness or paralysis caused by damage to the facial nerve, according to John Hopkins. Bristol’s doctors told her the paralysis in her case may be caused by a lack of sleep or stress, which is her working theory.

In addition to her prescribed medication, Bristol credited “eastern medicine” with helping to ease her symptoms, including “multiple” rounds of acupuncture she feels have “helped speed up the process of recovery tremendously.”

bristol palin

“I know I look crazy right now, but this has been such an improvement from what I was looking like,” she explained. “I’m finally starting to get some of the sensation back. It’s been a little painful the last two days, which is a sign. It’s a good indication that it’s getting better. Praise the lord!”

She added, “But the next time that I look in the mirror and I pick myself apart where it’s like, ‘Oh my nose is long. I want a nose job. I want to do this. I want to do that,’ I am going to remember this and I am just going to be so thankful for a normal functioning face cause this has been wild.”