"I actually experienced what it felt like...to be handicapped..." Paul gives insight to his experience with an idiopathic facial paralysisis known as Bell's Palsy, and its relation to Lyme Disease. This is Paul's story.

My name is Paul Miller and I'm from Warren, NJ.



I started experiencing a pain behind my left ear. I took it just as a headache. I took Advil and went about my business. That night, my left side and my face was swelling up and I began talking funny, slurring my words. I seriously didn't know what -what was happening, so I had one of my house mates drive me to Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick. The doctor had said that I had Bell's Palsy. I felt really scared. I didn't know what it was.



I experienced what it meant to be, for a time, handicapped. I couldn't close my left eye for two weeks, lost the taste buds in my mouth, I couldn't swallow, I couldn't talk very much. I went to see my family doctor, they were able to pinpoint the Lyme's disease in my blood stream; 90 percent of people who get Bell's Palsy in New Jersey over the past ten years has been the cause of Lyme's disease. I had to go and get physical therapy to -to get the muscles going back. Through family support, through friend's support, I was able to accept my disabilities. Don't be scared, there are great doctors out there, reassured that you will get better from Bell's Palsy.