Mark,


I was on prednisone and valtrex, not an anti biotic. I have no other symptoms of Belles, like fever or other evidence of a viral infection. Two days into the prednisone treatment the pain went away. Now that I am down to the last pill, it is back. The facial paralysis has not changed. According to the staff neurologist who saw me it was my 7th nerve that was being affected; my wife found something that said damage to the 7th nerve can cause sensitivity to light(!) which is my second most troubling symptom. When I was on the presnidone (or at least during the high dosage phase, it was a 6 day course that started with 24 mg and tapered off from there) it seemed like the light wasn't as big of a problem for me. Not much was, really, for 3 whole days. I felt great, in fact for 3 days.