Palsying down

I think I´m in the lucky category of those people for whom Bell´s Palsy doesn´t last all that long. It´s now been almost 4 weeks and I can fortunately say that most of the effects have now worn off. A full on smile still feels a bit weird, as part of the face muscles are still reluctant, but I just realised I can wink again with my left eye, and the tear duct seems to be in good working order again as well. I still feel flutters and ripples all over the left side of my face, betraying neural recovery, but I´m definitely on the mend. Last night we went out into Lisbon with friends, and nobody felt that there was much untoward, really. The picture, by, the way, shows and through that explains, how it all works (and fails to work if the nerve going through the little holes in the skull get infected for some reason).

The facial nerve's nuclei are in the brain stem (they are represented in the diagram as a „θ“). Orange: nerves coming from the left hemisphere of the brain.　Yellow: nerves coming from the right hemisphere of the brain. Note that the forehead muscles receive innervation from both hemispheres of the brain (represented in yellow and orange).