Macclesfield News - written by local people

I am a photographer living in Macclesfield, Cheshire and have been working towards my Licentiateship with the Royal Photographic Society for the past three months or so.  On Sunday 22 Feb I was due to have my panel of 10 images reviewed by judges at the Focus Show in Birmingham when I fell ill on the Saturday.  I was driving my daughter to Chester Zoo when I felt decidedly unwell with numbness in my mouth and face.  I decided to try and make it back home but had to call my childminder to come out and help me from Knutsford.  Rachel ended up driving me to the hospital for checks.  I spent three hours in A&E to be sent home to take some paracetamol.  My husband was out of the country at the time but had called my parents, who live in Scotland, to warn them what was going on. I later spoke to them and told them the hospital said it was best not to drive so I had resigned myself to the fact I would miss my distinction.  Late that night my parents called back to say they had decided to drive down early morning to take me to the show.  After getting up at 3am and a four hour drive, they arrived the next morning at 8.20am ready to head straight back out to Birmingham at 9.30am.  The good news is I passed my distinction and we drove home happy.  I went back in to the hospital as the condition had worsened and it was confirmed to be Bell's Palsy, a paralysis of one side of my face, given a course of steroids to take for 5 days with a visit to the doctor at the end of the week.
 
I am very grateful to my parents and my childminder for all their help this weekend.  Without it I would not be as happy as am I now, even though I can only smile on one side of my face!