The herpes virus that causes chicken pox and shingles lives in the nerve path and follows the nerve. The facial nerve on each side exits the skull thru a tiny opening behind and below the ear lobe. If you have the virus in that specific nerve, when it is active it causes the nerve to swell in this opening pinching off the nerve and causing facial paralysis. This is Bell's Palsy. Sometimes the nerve regenerates fully and sometimes it doesn't. Wasn't fun but you get thru it. I have a droopy eye lid and lopsided smile and loss of some cheek feeling because of it but those things are not debilitating. Much worse for a woman emotionally.