Robert De Niro’s partner, Tiffany Chen, is opening up about a frightening postpartum symptom she experienced following the birth of the couple’s daughter Gia Virginia.
In an interview with CBS’ Gayle King, Chen revealed her tongue “felt strange” almost immediately after returning home.
“It felt a little tingly, just starting to get a little bit numb. And then I realized my face just felt weird. I didn’t know what the feeling was that I was having. It felt weird.”
The 45-year-old was eventually diagnosed with Bell’s palsy.
Chen explained how her symptoms rapidly worsened.
“When I got home, it was like everything was starting to just fall down on itself. Like, my face was melting on itself,” she said. “And then a week after giving birth, that was when it all hit. And I called my doctor, and I … was trying to eat.”
“I went to put a fork of food in my mouth and everything came out. I couldn’t eat. And then I was starting to slur. So I said, ‘There’s something really going on here.’ “
Her doctor told her to go to the emergency room.
“I lost all facial function the minute I got into the hospital.”
She was eventually diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a temporary neurological disorder that causes paralysis or weakness on one side of the body. Symptoms typically appear within 48 to 72 hours and generally improve after several weeks with or without treatment.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bell’s palsy affects 40,000 people in the U.S. each year. And while risk factors include pregnancy, preeclampsia, obesity, hypertension, diabetes and upper respiratory ailments, the disorder can affect anyone.
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Bell’s palsy as a postpartum symptom is something that is rarely talked about. Hopefully Tiffany Chen’s story will bring some awareness to this frightening condition.
