Bristol Palin Reveals ‘Painful’ Facial Paralysis: ‘I Look Crazy’

Bristol Palin is suffering from facial paralysis, and doctors believe it might be caused by Bell’s palsy.

“I woke up nine days ago with a little weird sensation in my face. My mouth was pulling this way, and it just felt a little off,” Palin told her followers via an Instagram Story Wednesday (Jan. 29).

The 34-year-old said she noticed her face was “looking a little weird” when she looked in the mirror.

“Within a couple of hours, the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed. I couldn’t really blink my eye [and] definitely had no movement on the side of my face. So crazy,” she recalled.

Palin subsequently went for a CT scan, and was prescribed “steroids and other medications.”

“Nothing came back, they think it’s just a case of Bell’s palsy maybe brought on by stress or lack of sleep… I think it was brought on by stress. I know I look crazy right now, but this has been such an improvement from what I was looking like. I’m finally starting to get some of the sensation back,” Palin shared.

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The daughter of former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin added the paralysis is “a little painful,” but that the discomfort is “a sign or indication it’s starting to get better.”

According to John Hopkins Medicine, Bell’s palsy is “an unexplained episode of facial muscle weakness or paralysis. It begins suddenly and can get worse over 48 hours. This condition results from damage to the facial nerve (the 7th cranial nerve). Pain and discomfort usually occur on one side of the face or head.”