Well said, Mark.
PS: Bell's is probably not as greater problem as some of the other
potential, though less frequent post zoster-related pathology. Like I got
carotid arteritis myself (confirmed by Duplex doppler) during 1997 post
cervical root zoster, and took Famvir - not that I though it made the 1
week of carotidynia any shorter at all - but I would certainly take it
again. And like all good herpes viruses it will probably recur in one form
or another.
Jon Wilcox
PS: I didn't manage to get admitted and only just avoided an MRI
----------
From: Mark O'Connor <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bell's palsy
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 1998 1:01 PM
I have been following the Bell's thread with interest....
About 7 years ago whilst on an SHO medical rotaion in my third job I
developed a right sided facial palsy, whilst on call.
This was my first proper medical problem. I was scared++ (stroke .. MS...
Cancer... etc..) despite _knowing_ quite a lot about it and making the
diagnosis myself ( and reading the threads so far not much seems to have
changed in the what causes it and shall we shant we give steroids acyclovir
argument.)
My on call registrar (Pissed off as he would now be doing the work (Ha Ha))
thought I had vesicles on my ear drum (no symptoms and later proved to be
wrong) and admitted me for IV aciclovir and IV steroids!..honest. I has a
three day admission (!) despite being well and in the next bed to someone I
had admitted earlier that same evening!! I received vistations from no less
than 5 Consultants (current and previously worked for on rotation). 2 said
stop everything and 3 said take everything going. The ENT surgeon said stop
drugs the neurologist said take drugs. I took drugs.
None of them(consultants or drugs) made me _feel_ better.
I learned a great deal from this episode. That illness can strike any of us
randomly, surprise at my irrational fear despite my scientific knowledge,
the uncertatainty of clinical medicine, that making people _feel_ better
(like the nurses did and doctors didn't) by sharing honestly the
uncertainties with them and just by being with them thorugh an illness is
more important than getting your knickers in a twist about whether a
perfectly constructed EBM search will prove your decision right or wrong.
I give my Bells patients 30mg prednisolone od and 200mg *5 od for a week
and I like to think that I give them a little something extra if you get my
drift
Apologies for the long sentences and nostalgic ramblings.. but I think
Human Faced Medicine is sometimes a whole lot more important than EBM)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|