Tiffany Chen is opening up about a scary postpartum health complication. The 45-year-old has revealed to Gayle King that after welcoming her child with Robert De Niro, she experienced a total loss in facial function.
Tiffany was ultimately diagnosed with Bell's palsy, which is more likely to occur during the last trimester and in the postpartum period.
"When I got home, it was like everything was starting to just fall down on itself," Tiffany explains. "Like, my face was melting on itself. 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.'"
She was directed to go to the hospital right away, and shared that she lost "all facial function" the minute she got there. Bell's palsy is when someone experiences an unexplained episode of facial muscle weakness or even paralysis. It's a result of damage to the facial nerve.
More from LittleThings: Everything We Know About Tiffany Chen, The Woman Robert De Niro Just Had A Baby With
According to the National Institutes of Health, the exact link between Bell's palsy and pregnancy is unclear, though "the majority of cases occur in the third trimester and immediate postpartum period." The full interview is set to air on Friday.
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