My RHS Story

It was April of 2019. I was 36 years old and had been in the best physical shape of my life prior to getting pregnant with my third child. I was 36 weeks pregnant (just 4 weeks away from giving birth) and life was equal parts excitement and stress as we awaited the arrival of our newest addition to our family. I kept myself active running a busy chiropractic office with my husband, seeing patients and caring for our two young daughters.

The pain began as an earache. A nagging little pain in my left ear that seemed to be the onset of an ear infection. After a couple of days, the ache morphed into a searing pain, which soon evolved to what felt like being stabbed in the head with an ice pic.  I had helped numerous chiropractic patients navigate ear infections through the years so I knew ear pain could be especially intense. I had my husband check my ear with an otoscope (the device doctors use to see inside an ear canal) many times but there was no sign of a typical ear infection or any inflammation at all. Since I was so close to giving birth and hurriedly preparing for the baby’s arrival, I went on with my life, trying to ignore the fact that the pain was worsening with each passing hour.

In the early morning hours of April 15th, I had so much pain radiating from my left ear and down into my neck that I couldn’t sleep. I decided to get up and play games on my phone to distract myself and pass the time until I could hopefully fall back asleep.  I noticed something strange, though. As I concentrated on the little screen in front of me, all the words began to look blurry. I tried blinking a few times but still, the words on the screen blurred and no matter how much I squinted or blinked, nothing changed. I also started to become aware that my mouth felt funny, almost numb on my left side.  Now I was starting to get worried. I decided to take a drink of water to help calm me down but when I held the glass to my mouth to drink, the water just poured down my face. Wondering what in the world was going on, I finally took a look in the mirror and saw as clear as day that my left eye was stuck wide open and my mouth was sagging downward––my muscles were paralyzed.

Panicked, I ran to wake my sleeping husband. As a chiropractor, he knew to perform a stroke screening on me to quickly tease out if that was the cause of the paralysis. Since I had no cognitive problems or weakness in any other part of my body, we determined the paralysis was an issue with just my facial nerve.  Being the middle of the night and that we had 2 sleeping kids, I decided the best course of action was to see if getting some sleep helped the paralysis and we would reassess in the morning. *In hindsight, I should have gone to the ER as my husband had insisted. I would have had my antivirals and steroids sooner and perhaps the shingles would not have done as much damage as they did*.

As you probably guessed, the paralysis had not improved by morning so we headed to my primary care doctor as soon as they opened. By this point, my outer ear was clearly red and inflamed and little blisters had begun popping up in my ear canal, though none of that had been there the day prior. I was so fortunate that my doctor accurately recognized the shingles in my ear and promptly diagnosed me with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. He started me on prescription antivirals and steroids right away. However, because I was pregnant and going to be breastfeeding, I had to forego any form of pain medication.

My journey with RHS has been a long one. My face was paralyzed for three entire months and it was several more months of regaining mobility afterward. Not only does facial paralysis have a very real physical toll, but it comes with a high emotional toll, too. In addition to my facial paralysis, I had days where my vertigo was so bad I couldn’t get out of bed. I had almost constant tinnitus (ringing in the ears) that sounded like a train barreling down its tracks.  My hearing was so sensitive that even the sound of lighting the gas burner on my stove would send me across the house, crying in pain. And the pain, how do I begin to describe the pain? While the shingles sores were still in my ear, it felt like a firecracker being lit off every few seconds. In between the “firecracker blasts”, I would feel like I had an ice pick stabbing into my skull about every 10 seconds. My ear and face were so sensitive that even a strand of hair running across them would cause searing pain. And because I was 37 weeks pregnant at diagnosis, my doctor and I decided it was safer for me not to take any pain medication. All this while having a 7 year old, a 4 year old and giving birth/caring for a newborn.  

Every individual case of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome is different and everyone recovers in varying ways to varying degrees. I think I had a particularly severe case because I was pregnant and too stubborn to seek help sooner.

Online Introductory Support Session

1 hour – $165

Sometimes the most helpful conversations are with those who have been in similar situations. In our introductory session, I can answer any questions you may have about RHS, provide day to day tips, discuss lifestyle and nutrition, review natural treatments best suited for your personal case and simply lend an empathetic ear––the choice is yours. I will help coach you through your journey as only another Ramsay Hunt Warrior can.