Shingles cost me my smile
A ONCE happy-go-lucky mother has been left looking “miserable” after a severe bout of shingles partially paralysed her face.
Lisa Beardsley, 41, cannot smile because the virus damaged nerves in her facial muscles.
After tiny marks developed on her neck, her face started to droop.
Fearing a stroke, the mother-of-two called an ambulance and was taken to hospital, where she lost the ability to talk, eat and drink.
Lisa could only drink through a straw, could not blink for six months and wore an eye patch.
The support worker, of Scunthorpe, who is now slowly recovering, says the nerve damage means she “winks” when she tries to smile.
“Everywhere I go, people think I’m moody, which is annoying because I was known for being smiley and happy-go-lucky,” she said.
Lisa was terrified to leave her home but says daughter Megan, 17, and son Connor, 16, keep her going.
“My confidence has been completely shattered. I was outgoing and bubbly but now I hide my face and have my head down,” she said.
Doctors think the dormant chicken pox virus left her with Ramsay Hunt syndrome – post-shingles nerve damage.
Lisa blames three tragedies in December 2016, the month before her symptoms, when her stepfather was told he had a brain tumour, her daughter’s friend died in a car crash and her ex-partner’s sister died of brain cancer.