I find folks reactions quite interesting -
The differences between the two sides of my face are the result of severe nerve damage to the nerve that controls the facial muscles that resulted from a blow to the side of my head. I got the blow - not hard enough to put me on the floor - while martial arts sparring (I never was much good) many years ago. Unfortunately the nerve was bruised, swelled and crushed itself to death where it passes through bone...
I spent one night in hospital then rejoined the ML re-validation course I had been on - but wearing an eye-patch as the initial slumping of my face prevented the eye closing - I had to wear a dressing over my eye for a while (especially at night) to hold it closed to prevent it drying out.
These days the effect is not so bad and apart from my left eye weeping a lot, my right eye drying out to compensate (!), snoring (even when awake sometimes) a bit of dribbling and occasional neck cramps plus a poor blink reaction, things are great. I chew gum constantly to prevent the saliva flow on the duff side from drying - as I was a smoker I use Nicotine gum
. Before I started the chewy I had some dental issues - now I don't...
It did put an end to my lead climbing, caving, coasteering and martial arts fun but I kept canoeing, initially wearing a pair of squash goggles: If I get anything in my duff eye it closes - and takes the good one with it, so keeping carp out of my eyes is important and in the activities mentioned life can get a bit too interesting if you are effectively blind.... running the odd grade 3 rapid just from instructions shouted from the bank, after getting splashed in the eyes, was quite fun though
Most Adults do not notice the differences - though it shows up noticeably on film - but young children see it immediately - and there is an interesting theory as to why...
Infants are still effectively learning to see, with the most important thing in their lives being faces (this continues, to a degree, throughout life and is why we see "faces" in clouds, rock formations etc) and they see the whole face: Adults only quickly look at a whole face and concentrate on one eye as their focus during conversation - usually the right (my unaffected) eye.
Hence Adults do not see my droop as much as Children do - until they see movie footage of me, where due to the scale of things, everyone tends to see the whole face as a focus.
As far as injuries go this one was just bad luck - but others I have sustained (broken neck, dislocated knee, dislocated shoulder, busted jaw etc) have come back to haunt me with much longer term pain and reduction of ability but are less visible
Bodies are weird things but you gotta love 'em...
The differences between the two sides of my face are the result of severe nerve damage to the nerve that controls the facial muscles that resulted from a blow to the side of my head. I got the blow - not hard enough to put me on the floor - while martial arts sparring (I never was much good) many years ago. Unfortunately the nerve was bruised, swelled and crushed itself to death where it passes through bone...
I spent one night in hospital then rejoined the ML re-validation course I had been on - but wearing an eye-patch as the initial slumping of my face prevented the eye closing - I had to wear a dressing over my eye for a while (especially at night) to hold it closed to prevent it drying out.
These days the effect is not so bad and apart from my left eye weeping a lot, my right eye drying out to compensate (!), snoring (even when awake sometimes) a bit of dribbling and occasional neck cramps plus a poor blink reaction, things are great. I chew gum constantly to prevent the saliva flow on the duff side from drying - as I was a smoker I use Nicotine gum
. Before I started the chewy I had some dental issues - now I don't...It did put an end to my lead climbing, caving, coasteering and martial arts fun but I kept canoeing, initially wearing a pair of squash goggles: If I get anything in my duff eye it closes - and takes the good one with it, so keeping carp out of my eyes is important and in the activities mentioned life can get a bit too interesting if you are effectively blind.... running the odd grade 3 rapid just from instructions shouted from the bank, after getting splashed in the eyes, was quite fun though
Most Adults do not notice the differences - though it shows up noticeably on film - but young children see it immediately - and there is an interesting theory as to why...
Infants are still effectively learning to see, with the most important thing in their lives being faces (this continues, to a degree, throughout life and is why we see "faces" in clouds, rock formations etc) and they see the whole face: Adults only quickly look at a whole face and concentrate on one eye as their focus during conversation - usually the right (my unaffected) eye.
Hence Adults do not see my droop as much as Children do - until they see movie footage of me, where due to the scale of things, everyone tends to see the whole face as a focus.
As far as injuries go this one was just bad luck - but others I have sustained (broken neck, dislocated knee, dislocated shoulder, busted jaw etc) have come back to haunt me with much longer term pain and reduction of ability but are less visible
Bodies are weird things but you gotta love 'em...
