The week in review...
Sorry I haven't been posting lately... I haven't been myself.
A couple of weeks ago I started having toothaches... not surprising because it's been a while since I've been to my dentist and I haven't been good about flossing. So I was taking ibuprofen and using Oragel to get through til I could see the dentist.
Apparently the top of one of my molars had chipped and had a cavity, the rearmost molar next to it had a crack running from one side to the other and there was a small cavity between teeth on the tooth on the other side of the first tooth. So i had three teeth in a row that needed work. The recommendation was to put a crown on the two molars and fill the third, but that was more money than I had put aside on my flex spending plan. So instead I opted to get one crown on the cracked tooth, fill the chipped tooth and fill the regular cavity. This meant an hour in the dentist's chair with my mouth open as wide as I possibly could. I have a fairly small mouth (who'd have guessed?) so it was pretty uncomfortable and somewhat painful on my jaw to do this.
But immediately the teeth felt better. My whole jaw was sore as hell but the teeth stopped hurting. Then a couple of days later my gums and jaw were aching. More Ibuprofen and Orajel but the Orajel wasn't helping much. Then last Friday afternoon the pain came back with a vengeance. My gums and teeth ached, my jawbone ached, my cheekbone ached from next to my nose all the way to in front of my ear. It sucked bad. I was living on Ibuprofen all weekend and into Monday. Finally Tuesday I went to see a doctor about it. Apparently I have TMJ (which means the muscles where the jawbone hinges to the skull were out of whack and that's what was causing me pain.
So now I'm on muscle relaxants and megadoses of Ibuprofen until the end of next week. The muscle relaxants are taking their toll on me. I'm usually not that sensitive to medicine, and the ones that warn they make you drowsy usually don't affect me. But these are definitely making me groggy and drowsy. Yesterday afternoon I was nodding off at my desk and when I told my boss I was going to go home a half an hour early she insisted that someone else drive me home and slashspouse was kind enough to do so. (and his dad followed us so he could get home)
So please understand if I haven't been that active posting here or replying to comments the past few days. I've been doing a lot of going home and napping and stuff... The good news is that since I've been on the muscle relaxants I've been sleeping through the night, something I haven't been doing since my teeth started bothering me.
A couple of weeks ago I started having toothaches... not surprising because it's been a while since I've been to my dentist and I haven't been good about flossing. So I was taking ibuprofen and using Oragel to get through til I could see the dentist.
Apparently the top of one of my molars had chipped and had a cavity, the rearmost molar next to it had a crack running from one side to the other and there was a small cavity between teeth on the tooth on the other side of the first tooth. So i had three teeth in a row that needed work. The recommendation was to put a crown on the two molars and fill the third, but that was more money than I had put aside on my flex spending plan. So instead I opted to get one crown on the cracked tooth, fill the chipped tooth and fill the regular cavity. This meant an hour in the dentist's chair with my mouth open as wide as I possibly could. I have a fairly small mouth (who'd have guessed?) so it was pretty uncomfortable and somewhat painful on my jaw to do this.
But immediately the teeth felt better. My whole jaw was sore as hell but the teeth stopped hurting. Then a couple of days later my gums and jaw were aching. More Ibuprofen and Orajel but the Orajel wasn't helping much. Then last Friday afternoon the pain came back with a vengeance. My gums and teeth ached, my jawbone ached, my cheekbone ached from next to my nose all the way to in front of my ear. It sucked bad. I was living on Ibuprofen all weekend and into Monday. Finally Tuesday I went to see a doctor about it. Apparently I have TMJ (which means the muscles where the jawbone hinges to the skull were out of whack and that's what was causing me pain.
So now I'm on muscle relaxants and megadoses of Ibuprofen until the end of next week. The muscle relaxants are taking their toll on me. I'm usually not that sensitive to medicine, and the ones that warn they make you drowsy usually don't affect me. But these are definitely making me groggy and drowsy. Yesterday afternoon I was nodding off at my desk and when I told my boss I was going to go home a half an hour early she insisted that someone else drive me home and slashspouse was kind enough to do so. (and his dad followed us so he could get home)
So please understand if I haven't been that active posting here or replying to comments the past few days. I've been doing a lot of going home and napping and stuff... The good news is that since I've been on the muscle relaxants I've been sleeping through the night, something I haven't been doing since my teeth started bothering me.