My father is sick. He has facial dystonia which effects movement in your face. It causes uncontrollable movement of muscles in your body, his being in his face. It started about 8 or 9 months ago, in his eyes. He would flinch his eyes, open and shut them and had no control over them. It has since moved down his face and now is effecting his mouth. He is having trouble speaking, he drools, and has a hard time keeping his food in his mouth when he is eating.

My father and myself have had our difficult times, but I am just heart sick about how this is effecting him. He is very depressed, when he gets the nerve up to speak I have to really listen closely and I still don't understand much of what he is trying to communicate.

They use botox to treat this illness. It freezes the muscle so they won't twitch. He has had four treatments so far with little success. The next move will be them going into his throat area with a scope and injecting the botox into his larynx and the inside of his throat. This next treatment will be in Dec because you have to wait three months between each set of shots. The last treatment in Sept. they wanted to go into his throat but he was scared and told them to just put the shots in his face. Ten shots to his face, five on each side, and it didn't help.

I communicate with my father through the internet most of time. Through emails and IM's. I was shocked on Labor Day when I saw him. He is still his prickly self online! You have to be careful of him and what he can say to you! I find myself guarding my heart from him most times or he can slice me with his words. He is my father and I love him dearly, no matter what hard times we have had. I feel sick to my stomach at how ill he is, how this has effected him, and there is no cure.