Bristol Palin Says Face Is 'Still Crooked' 1 Year After Paralysis Battle

Nov 29, 2025 - 07:00
Bristol Palin Says Face Is 'Still Crooked' 1 Year After Paralysis Battle

Bristol Palin has shared a health update nearly one year after she first detailed her battle with facial paralysis.

Palin, 35, took to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, November 27, to share a Thanksgiving “fit check” alongside her 5-year-old daughter, Sailor Grace Meyer, whom she shares with ex-fiancé Dakota Meyer.

“Black skinnies, black long sleeve, same denim shirt I wear all the time, vintage Louis Vuitton,” the Teen Mom OG alum said.

Palin then added, “And still a crooked face,” hinting that she’s still recovering from what her doctors believe may be a case of Bell’s palsy. (According to Mayo Clinic, Bell’s palsy is “a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face.”)

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Bristol, who is the oldest daughter of former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin and ex-husband Todd Palin, first revealed her health battle in January.

“I woke up nine days ago with a little weird sensation in my face,” she said via social media at the time. “My mouth was pulling this way and it just felt a little off. So I went, looked in the mirror. I’m like ‘Wow. This is looking a little weird.’”

The Dancing With the Stars alum added, “Within a couple hours, the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed … Couldn’t really blink my eye. Definitely had no movement on [the left side] of my face. So crazy.”

Bristol said her doctors “ran tests, did a CT scan [and] put [her] on steroids,” as well as other medications.

Bristol Palin Gives Update on Health 1 Year After Face Paralysis
Bristol Palin Courtesy of Bristol Palin/Instagram

“Nothing came back with all the results. They think it’s just a case of Bell’s palsy, maybe brought on by stress or lack of sleep. I’m not really sure. There’s nothing that I was super stressed out about, but I think it was brought on by stress,” she explained.

In February, Bristol shared that she had tried “everything imaginable” to treat her condition, but nothing seemed to work.

“I’m not sure what else I should do. But I’ve spent the last 35 days doing something every single day to try and fix this and nothing has helped so far. So, I’m not sure what the future holds,” she continued.

In another update that month, Palin said, “We’re on day 23 of this, which is absolutely insane. I can’t move the left side of my face at all. It’s really hard to blink, I can’t blow out a candle. I look crazy. Cannot believe it’s been over three weeks. I’ve been doing all the things. I’ve been doing acupuncture, lymphatic massage, oxygen chamber treatment, red light therapy, cutting out almost all of the processed foods, eliminating most caffeine — I’ll still have a cup of coffee in the morning.”

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Bristol’s condition did eventually improve, as she revealed in a July Q&A that her face was “probably 70 percent back to normal.”

“I feel like I’m handling it well,” she added. “I can’t look at pictures of myself [right now].”

Bristol continued, “It *could* be permanent, but I don’t think it will be. It is slowly improving. My doctor thinks it will be another three months before I’m *hopefully* back to normal.”