I had Bell's Palsy back in August. Even though most people fully recover, it's very difficult to feel any optimism when you're looking in the mirror and your face can't move at all.

Thankfully, I do now seem to have just about fully recovered. I started getting tiny movements back around 3 weeks and by 6 weeks it was substantially improved. By day 33 I regained the ability to fully close my affected eye, and some time thereafter normal blinking resumed. Today, only yawning continues to feel like I have weird asymmetric facial pressures.

It is emotionally scarring though. I'm still less socially outgoing than I was before, and I now live in the constant fear that it could happen again. The slightest tingle in my ear has me racing to take anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).