Selfies saved my smile: Woman, 27, whose face was paralysed by Bells Palsy took daily photos to re-train her muscles

A woman who woke up one morning to find half her face was paralysed has taught herself to smile again.
Anna Robinson suffered with social anxiety and avoided being in photos after she was struck down with Bell's Palsy - which she said felt like she had been 'punched in the face.'
The pretty 27-year-old was terrified when she woke one morning in August to find she couldn't move her face.

She thought she had suffered a stroke - but she had actually been struck down by Bell's Palsy, which causes paralysis of facial muscles.
But after throwing herself into physio and documenting her progress with daily selfies , Anna finally has her smile back.
She said: "My main target was to smile again by Christmas, which was four months away - and I'm thrilled that I've managed it in half that time."
Anna, from Nottingham, was told by medics that she might not recover - and that one in 14 people never regain movement.
She set herself a target of being able to smile by her Christmas party - and incredibly, Anna was back to her old smiley self again just two months after her diagnosis.

Anna, a clinical project manager, said: "One night I was driving home from work, and one eye felt a little dry and the other felt a bit droopy - I just thought maybe I was more tired than usual.
"I went out for dinner with friends, and everything was fine.
"The following morning I woke up and felt no different to usual - I got up, had a shower and put my make-up on, and didn't notice anything different in my face.
"As I went to leave the house, I went to put lip balm on - I tried to rub my lips together, but I couldn't do it.
"I realised the left side of my face as completely paralysed. I was completely in shock."Anna rang the doctor but they didn't have any appointments until the evening. so she hoped it would just get better as the day went on.

But then she started Googling her symptoms - and the first thing that came up was a stroke.
She said: "That's when I really started panicking - I was scared and didn't know what to do.
"I rang my mum, and she said it sounded like Bell's Palsy.
"I'd never heard of it before, but I Googled it and it seemed to match my symptoms - no movement in the left side of my face, streaming left eye because I couldn't blink, dry right eye.
"I didn't have a clue what Bell's Palsy was, and the more I looked into it the more scared I got - but at that stage I'd only read that it was reversible paralysis, I didn't know there was a chance I might not recover, so I tried to stay positive."
Anna rang an NHS helpline, and got a call-back from a clinician as she got into work - and they told her to go straight to A&E.

She met her mum at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, where she had a full neuro assessment, bloods and an ECG.
She said: "I'd been there for around four hours when a nurse said to me 'right, you've got Bell's Palsy' - and the first thing she said was that I might never recover."
Shell-shocked Anna was prescribed a 10-day course of steroids and sent home, after medics told her it would be a waiting game to see if she would regain any movement in the left side of her face.
Anna said: "After reading up on it, I discovered it takes some people weeks to get movement back, some months, some years - and some never recover.
"On the first day I don't think it had really hit me - part of me was relieved it wasn't a stroke or anything worse.

"But over the next two to three days my symptoms started getting worse and worse.
"I tried to stay positive, but as it progressed my face became swollen and painful, and the drooping looked more pronounced and visible.
"My whole face ached, right across my jaw and ear, to the point where it would wake me up in the night - it was like being punched in the side of my face.
"I felt I always had to explain myself to everyone I met - as soon as I introduced myself, I would say 'this isn't how I normally look'.
"I developed a social anxiety I'd never had before - I'm normally very confident, but I just wanted to hide away from the world and dig myself into a hole."
Although doctors had told Anna she would have to be patient to wait and see if she would ever regain movement, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
After throwing herself into physio and daily exercises, she decided to document her progress with daily selfies - and now, 10 weeks later, Anna finally has her smile back.
She said: "Every day I would wake up and think 'surely there's movement today' - I'd run over to the mirror, but there'd be nothing there.
"I read up on Bell's Palsy, and although there was nothing the doctors could do other than the initial 10 day course of steroids I started taking supplements and seeing a private physio.
"I practised my facial movement exercises every day - and 17 days after my diagnosis, I had a turning point.

"The support from my family and friends also kept me going - they were so encouraging and kept telling me they could see little improvements every day, even though they probably couldn't," she continued.
"The thought of big life events, like getting married, without looking like myself terrified me - and I was determined to get back to myself.
"That's why I decided to take photos of myself - when you see the same reflection every day it's hard to see the subtle changes, so I took selfies so I could look back and check on my progress.
"When I started seeing proper progress, I can't even put into words how it felt - it was amazing, I was just completely ecstatic and over the Moon."
Anna still doesn't know why she got Bell's Palsy - but it could be down to dormant viruses in the nervous system, that can activate and cause facial nerves to inflame.