‘I brushed it off as a cold but mystery illness has left my face numb for weeks’
When Caoimhe Reddy woke with one side of her face numb, she thought it was a bad cold. Doctors ruled out a stroke but weeks on they still don’t know the cause
A woman who thought she had a head cold was rushed to hospital after she woke up to find half her face had become paralysed in the night.
Caoimhe Reddy, 26, thought her cheek was just numb from “sleeping funny” until she couldn’t sip her morning coffee.
When she looked in the mirror she realised the left half of her face was slumped - and 111 operators told her she might be having a stroke.
But seven weeks of tests came back clear and doctors are still uncertain exactly what caused her paralysis.
Their best guess is she is suffering inflamed facial nerves caused by an infection - and she just has to wait it out.
Meanwhile, she is struggling to eat, drink and talk - and has lost the use of the taste buds in half her tongue.
Caoimhe, an account manager originally from Smithfield, Ireland, said: “It is just so shocking - the universe has decided to freeze half my face.
“I’m still working on eating and drinking, and talking is really laboured.
“At first I was like, ‘okay, cool. It’ll go away after a couple of days.’
“Then, when it got to two weeks and it still wasn’t better - it was almost like I had to keep learning how to deal with it.”
Caoimhe, who is now based in West London, went to bed on August 19 with what felt like a mild head cold - by the next morning, the left side of her face was completely frozen.
But - despite friends assuming she had numbness and pain - she didn’t actually realise until she went to take her first sip of coffee.
When she realised she couldn’t hold it in her mouth, she rushed to a mirror - and found her face was paralysed.
She said: “There was nothing really that started it.
“I wasn’t sick at the time - there was no indicator this was going to happen. I woke up in bed - my fiancé had bought a cup of coffee and left it beside me.
“I went to drink it and it spilt all out of my mouth.
“My rational brain - I didn’t think anything of it at first, just ‘oh, that’s a bit weird’.
“I looked in the mirror and found my face was paralysed - but there was no numbness, no tingling - it felt just the same as it did the night before.”
Caoimhe’s fiancé, 29, a financial advisor, told her she needed to call 111.
After thinking she’d be told to “just walk it off” Caoimhe was shocked an ambulance was coming in case she’d had a stroke.
“I literally felt my soul leave my body,” she added. “Maybe I’m naïve but I didn’t even realise it could be a possibility. I’m only 26, and I’m healthy.
“While waiting for the ambulance, I sat down on my bed and had a bit of a cry. But I also thought, if I’ve had a stroke, I just need to go to the hospital and deal with it.
“It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life.”
Caoimhe was rushed to Charing Cross Hospital - with paramedics unable to work out whether she’d had a stroke, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or an infection.
She added: “They were able to ascertain I hadn’t had a stroke through MRIs and neurological tests - but then they said they ‘weren’t really sure’ what had happened - and sent me home with steroid tablets.
“But they kept needing me to come back in for more tests - I went back six times in seven weeks.
“They thought it might be a palsy related to some kind of infection, but all my bloods came back clear.”
Caoimhe was eventually told by doctors her facial nerves “may be inflamed” - and is on antibiotics, antivirals and steroids.
But seven weeks on, the paralysis hasn’t improved.
She says she no longer feels comfortable eating and drinking in public - and talking, particularly pronouncing “P” and “B” words, can be a struggle.
“I’m trying to win a mental battle with myself over eating and drinking in public,” she said. “It’s just not an elegant process, I can’t close my mouth.
“It’s even affected half my tongue - because half my tongue is paralysed, I’ve also lost half the use of my taste buds.
“Everything I was doing before the paralysis just felt so un-doable at first - even going to the coffee shop and having to ask for a straw.
“I thought it was mortifying. Like, what if they ask what’s happened? What if they know I’m sick?”
Now, Caoimhe is trying to face her condition head-on, with as much positivity as she can.
“I just want to be as happy and healthy as possible,” she added. “I’m going running for the first time in my life, trying to improve my fitness.
“I also started acupuncture on Wednesday (4/10), just trying to keep on top of my mental health as well as the paralysis.”
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