Sickness & Health
I barely write in this thing anymore, but I figure if nothing else I should use it to chronicle the journey of fixing me.
TMJ
So Monday we started PHASE 2 of my TMJ treatment. What does that mean? Well it means that I am back in braces. At the moment it's just 6 teeth in the back of my mouth. 2 on each side on top, and 1 on each side on the bottom with rubber bands attaching them. The point is that the pull from the upper teeth to the lower teeth will pull my lower teeth up forcing them to grow into my upper teeth, so they will meet again while retaining my new/current bite. I still have my retainers, but they've been cut down (they don't go as far back in my mouth) to make room for the brackets. So far I've only been wearing the rubber bands at night, mainly because my mouth is all torn up and I just can't make myself get in there and deal with them during the daytime, when I can't even eat solid food.
Other Stuff:
About a month or so ago I got hit with a serious pain in my eye, like an ice pick stabbing me. At the same time I had the black floaty things and visual disturbance usually associated with the onset of a migraine... at the time that's what I assumed it was. I drank more diet coke that day than I have in the last year but the headache didn't go away. I had an appt the next week with my neurologist and told him about it. He did a cursory look and didn't see anything but told me if it kept up to go see my eye dr for a better exam. As luck would have it about a week later my eye dr called to see if I wanted to schedule an exam (it's been about 18 months since I was last there so I guess they figured I was due). Good timing, they saved me a call.
When they checked my vision it had decreased in the right eye (the same one with the stabbing pain). While the optometrist didn't really see anything wrong in my eye, the pain combined with the vision loss was enough to make him think I might have Optical Neuritis, so he sent me to an ophthalmologist for a closer look. A week later (and another sinus/viral thingy that kept me out of classes for a week) I finally made it there. Again she didn't see anything that really stood out, just said that something "didn't look right" on my optic nerve, took pictures and did a ton of tests and sent me back to the neurologist.
So back to the neurologist and he tells me that all signs point to Optical Neuritis, the good news is that it goes away on its own, just like it came. The bad news is that a) there's no treatment, and b) it's very often connected to MS. So more tests. First and foremost another MRI. He'd just done one on me (looking for MS) 6 months ago. Luckily, this one (like the one 6 months ago) was clear, no signs of MS. More tests to come next week on my optic nerve.
That said, all these things combined with smaller things like the managing to get every single virus that comes near me, the fatigue and other things... combined with reading up on the Optical Neuritis and finding that if not MS then it is typically associated with some other auto-immune disorder (disorders where your immune system attacks you)... there's only about 30 of them or so. The consensus (between myself, Paul, my chriropractor and close friends who have dealt with me both before and since all this started) is that there is something else going on. Those who know me tend to agree. Prior to all this with the TMJ I was pretty healthy, now it seems like I'm constantly sick. I'm a flake who cancels on my friends and rarely makes it to things I want to do because I'm always sick. It's frustrating and I'm tired of it, so I'm going to dig and I'm going to find a dr who will dig (since my current dr won't even see me when I'm sick, I doubt she'll dig). I'm going to start with my neurologist who I will see again in a couple of weeks after those other tests on my optic nerve. Depending on what he says then, I may check out this other dr that I've seen once or twice and see what he will do.
MORE
I'm back in Physical Therapy Again. It's been like a year and a half since I tried it, and since we were at the end of Phase 1 I figured it was a good time to give it another go. Last time I was in PT they didn't even know what was wrong with me (as far as the TMJ). This time, I don't know how well it's going... I've had a different therapist every time I've gone, which is a bit frustrating. Then last time I got to see just how much pain I ignore. When they do that old "tell me when it starts to hurt", he had to do it 3 times before I remembered to tell him when it STARTED to hurt... which meant paying serious attention to something I usually try to ignore. Truth is it hurts about as soon as you start doing THAT, I just don't usually say anything until it gets to a point of pain I'm not willing to tolerate... like when you do that think in the back of my neck that makes me feel like you just shoved your entire finger through my head! Yeah That! Thanks, now I'm going to hurt for 2 days. I'd like to say I believe this time it will help, but when it seems like they are diagnosing things every day I have a hard time believing it.
Todays Symptoms:
Nausea (worse when my stomach was empty but did not go away when I ate) - 5/10
Headache - 3/10
Neckache/ Tightness - 3/10
Eye Pain - 3/10 until I laid down then 7/10 (not sure if it's the reading or the heating pad that cranks it up)
Fatigue - 0
Insomnia - 10/10
Body Aches/Pains (flulike) - 0/10
Chills - 0/10
Fever/ Hot Flash - 8/10
Irritablity - 8/10
Lack of Concentration/ Focus - 0/10
Yesterdays Symptoms:
Nausea - 3/10
Headache - 3/10
Neck ache/tightness - 3/10
eye pain - Eye Pain - 3/10 until I laid down then 7/10
Fatigue - 8/10
Insomnia - 0/10
Body Aches/Pains - 2/10
Chills - 0/10
Fever/Hot Flash - 0/10
Irritability - 10/10
Lack of Concentration/ Focus - 10/10
TMJ
So Monday we started PHASE 2 of my TMJ treatment. What does that mean? Well it means that I am back in braces. At the moment it's just 6 teeth in the back of my mouth. 2 on each side on top, and 1 on each side on the bottom with rubber bands attaching them. The point is that the pull from the upper teeth to the lower teeth will pull my lower teeth up forcing them to grow into my upper teeth, so they will meet again while retaining my new/current bite. I still have my retainers, but they've been cut down (they don't go as far back in my mouth) to make room for the brackets. So far I've only been wearing the rubber bands at night, mainly because my mouth is all torn up and I just can't make myself get in there and deal with them during the daytime, when I can't even eat solid food.
Other Stuff:
About a month or so ago I got hit with a serious pain in my eye, like an ice pick stabbing me. At the same time I had the black floaty things and visual disturbance usually associated with the onset of a migraine... at the time that's what I assumed it was. I drank more diet coke that day than I have in the last year but the headache didn't go away. I had an appt the next week with my neurologist and told him about it. He did a cursory look and didn't see anything but told me if it kept up to go see my eye dr for a better exam. As luck would have it about a week later my eye dr called to see if I wanted to schedule an exam (it's been about 18 months since I was last there so I guess they figured I was due). Good timing, they saved me a call.
When they checked my vision it had decreased in the right eye (the same one with the stabbing pain). While the optometrist didn't really see anything wrong in my eye, the pain combined with the vision loss was enough to make him think I might have Optical Neuritis, so he sent me to an ophthalmologist for a closer look. A week later (and another sinus/viral thingy that kept me out of classes for a week) I finally made it there. Again she didn't see anything that really stood out, just said that something "didn't look right" on my optic nerve, took pictures and did a ton of tests and sent me back to the neurologist.
So back to the neurologist and he tells me that all signs point to Optical Neuritis, the good news is that it goes away on its own, just like it came. The bad news is that a) there's no treatment, and b) it's very often connected to MS. So more tests. First and foremost another MRI. He'd just done one on me (looking for MS) 6 months ago. Luckily, this one (like the one 6 months ago) was clear, no signs of MS. More tests to come next week on my optic nerve.
That said, all these things combined with smaller things like the managing to get every single virus that comes near me, the fatigue and other things... combined with reading up on the Optical Neuritis and finding that if not MS then it is typically associated with some other auto-immune disorder (disorders where your immune system attacks you)... there's only about 30 of them or so. The consensus (between myself, Paul, my chriropractor and close friends who have dealt with me both before and since all this started) is that there is something else going on. Those who know me tend to agree. Prior to all this with the TMJ I was pretty healthy, now it seems like I'm constantly sick. I'm a flake who cancels on my friends and rarely makes it to things I want to do because I'm always sick. It's frustrating and I'm tired of it, so I'm going to dig and I'm going to find a dr who will dig (since my current dr won't even see me when I'm sick, I doubt she'll dig). I'm going to start with my neurologist who I will see again in a couple of weeks after those other tests on my optic nerve. Depending on what he says then, I may check out this other dr that I've seen once or twice and see what he will do.
MORE
I'm back in Physical Therapy Again. It's been like a year and a half since I tried it, and since we were at the end of Phase 1 I figured it was a good time to give it another go. Last time I was in PT they didn't even know what was wrong with me (as far as the TMJ). This time, I don't know how well it's going... I've had a different therapist every time I've gone, which is a bit frustrating. Then last time I got to see just how much pain I ignore. When they do that old "tell me when it starts to hurt", he had to do it 3 times before I remembered to tell him when it STARTED to hurt... which meant paying serious attention to something I usually try to ignore. Truth is it hurts about as soon as you start doing THAT, I just don't usually say anything until it gets to a point of pain I'm not willing to tolerate... like when you do that think in the back of my neck that makes me feel like you just shoved your entire finger through my head! Yeah That! Thanks, now I'm going to hurt for 2 days. I'd like to say I believe this time it will help, but when it seems like they are diagnosing things every day I have a hard time believing it.
Todays Symptoms:
Nausea (worse when my stomach was empty but did not go away when I ate) - 5/10
Headache - 3/10
Neckache/ Tightness - 3/10
Eye Pain - 3/10 until I laid down then 7/10 (not sure if it's the reading or the heating pad that cranks it up)
Fatigue - 0
Insomnia - 10/10
Body Aches/Pains (flulike) - 0/10
Chills - 0/10
Fever/ Hot Flash - 8/10
Irritablity - 8/10
Lack of Concentration/ Focus - 0/10
Yesterdays Symptoms:
Nausea - 3/10
Headache - 3/10
Neck ache/tightness - 3/10
eye pain - Eye Pain - 3/10 until I laid down then 7/10
Fatigue - 8/10
Insomnia - 0/10
Body Aches/Pains - 2/10
Chills - 0/10
Fever/Hot Flash - 0/10
Irritability - 10/10
Lack of Concentration/ Focus - 10/10