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Jun. 27th, 2011 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seiberwingIf you're tired of my medical angst, just wait a few hours and I'll have happy pictures from the Pride Parade up. Pride was fucking awesome and despite my lobsterface I am so glad I manned up and went. But right now I just need to vent.
We're still working towards a treatment for my jaw pain, which has now become complete facial pain as it moves up to my cheeks and temples. It's also become chronic at this point, and the divide is not so much pain/nonpain as bad/not so bad. My actual functioning isn't too interrupted, but I've been self-medicating with gallons of hot tea and hotpads to lessen the inflamation.
I dropped Swindle, the vaguely slimy TMD specialist mentioned in this post, and started conferring with First Aid, the oral surgeon he sent me to so I could get a CT scan of my neck. Turns out I've got some calcified ligaments there, but since they're not inhibiting my motion and I'm so young he doesn't want to go surgical about it. First Aid is a very nice guy who listens to me and is very confident we're going to find a solution at some point, so I felt better.
We went to muscle relaxants, which were about as effective as a shot of cough syrup. The next step up is Gabapentin, a drug often used in treating nerve pain, and he told me to get a nightguard for my mouth. I've been taking it for a few days and I think it's at least lessened the pain a little. Also he wants me to get a better posture chair and desk, and to start doing some yoga, and even if it doesn't help the pain I figure it can't be too bad for me either.
Today I went back to Red Alert, the dentist who sent me to Swindle in the first place, and asked to get my bite checked and have a nightguard made. She was a little upset that I'd swapped doctors without anyone telling her, and won't even touch me without an okay from an actual specialist rather than an oral surgeon like First Aid. So she's going to call around and see if there's other specialists in town besides Swindle, even though she thinks highly of his skills, and I'm going to ask First Aid to do the same when I see him tomorrow.
I just want this fixed. The pain's turned into such a major part of my life and just thinking about the fact that it might not ever stop makes me cry. I know we'll find some kind of solution somewhere, it just...
I'm so tired of doctors and dentists. I'm tired of taking the 40 minutes of bus into the city every couple of days. I'm out of school and about to finish my thesis and then have total freedom outside of the job hunt, and now I'm tied down again because of this stupid fucking jaw. If it was anywhere less vital on my body I'd sincerely consider just cutting it off and saving myself the trouble.
I know there's other people in worse pain than me, people without copious amounts of parentally-induced medical insurance. I'm not noticeably impaired by this, I can even eat crunchy foods if I'm willing to deal with the aftereffects. I should be grateful I can even still eat and talk. It's just in the forefront of my mind every waking minute and my schedule is covered in doctor's appointments and I can never quite get away from thinking about it. I want my fucking life back.
We're still working towards a treatment for my jaw pain, which has now become complete facial pain as it moves up to my cheeks and temples. It's also become chronic at this point, and the divide is not so much pain/nonpain as bad/not so bad. My actual functioning isn't too interrupted, but I've been self-medicating with gallons of hot tea and hotpads to lessen the inflamation.
I dropped Swindle, the vaguely slimy TMD specialist mentioned in this post, and started conferring with First Aid, the oral surgeon he sent me to so I could get a CT scan of my neck. Turns out I've got some calcified ligaments there, but since they're not inhibiting my motion and I'm so young he doesn't want to go surgical about it. First Aid is a very nice guy who listens to me and is very confident we're going to find a solution at some point, so I felt better.
We went to muscle relaxants, which were about as effective as a shot of cough syrup. The next step up is Gabapentin, a drug often used in treating nerve pain, and he told me to get a nightguard for my mouth. I've been taking it for a few days and I think it's at least lessened the pain a little. Also he wants me to get a better posture chair and desk, and to start doing some yoga, and even if it doesn't help the pain I figure it can't be too bad for me either.
Today I went back to Red Alert, the dentist who sent me to Swindle in the first place, and asked to get my bite checked and have a nightguard made. She was a little upset that I'd swapped doctors without anyone telling her, and won't even touch me without an okay from an actual specialist rather than an oral surgeon like First Aid. So she's going to call around and see if there's other specialists in town besides Swindle, even though she thinks highly of his skills, and I'm going to ask First Aid to do the same when I see him tomorrow.
I just want this fixed. The pain's turned into such a major part of my life and just thinking about the fact that it might not ever stop makes me cry. I know we'll find some kind of solution somewhere, it just...
I'm so tired of doctors and dentists. I'm tired of taking the 40 minutes of bus into the city every couple of days. I'm out of school and about to finish my thesis and then have total freedom outside of the job hunt, and now I'm tied down again because of this stupid fucking jaw. If it was anywhere less vital on my body I'd sincerely consider just cutting it off and saving myself the trouble.
I know there's other people in worse pain than me, people without copious amounts of parentally-induced medical insurance. I'm not noticeably impaired by this, I can even eat crunchy foods if I'm willing to deal with the aftereffects. I should be grateful I can even still eat and talk. It's just in the forefront of my mind every waking minute and my schedule is covered in doctor's appointments and I can never quite get away from thinking about it. I want my fucking life back.
