# @yahoolifestyle on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CuwlcQ0N7F2
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/12303002-yahoolifestyle-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/188809fe6c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-07-16T13:00:37.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Yahoo Life (@yahoolifestyle) — https://gondola.cc/yahoolifestyle

## Caption

#Bellspalsy, also known as idiopathic facial paralysis, affects about 40,000 people in the U.S. each year. Writer Elena Sheppard was diagnosed with the condition in her last week of pregnancy after a "sudden collapse of the right side of my face," which she thought was a stroke. ⁠
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Sheppard struggled with eating and drinking in the beginning: “Drinking water — it dribbles out of your mouth. While eating, I bite my tongue and cheeks a lot. It’s just like everything is in the wrong spot.” The biggest challenge she faces is dealing with her right eye, which doesn’t close all the way. Simple things like taking a shower and washing her face are tricky and uncomfortable, “Or when it’s windy out, your eyes squint to protect yourself but your eye doesn’t."⁠
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Sheppard, who describes herself as “generally a very smiley person,” wrestles with the fact that she couldn’t smile in any photos with her newborns. She says, “I think if I didn’t have two humans to keep alive right now, I’d be totally fixated on this and destroyed. But because I’m so busy, I do think about it but it’s not a preoccupation.”⁠
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Link in bio for what causes Bell’s palsy. ⁠
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✏️: Yahoo Life⁠
📷: Elena Sheppard via Instagram

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## Tags

bellspalsy

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