I'm struggling with pain this week. This is residual pain from my dental surgery a month ago. I've seen the surgeon twice since then and my regular dentist once (yesterday). The surgeon ruled out any sort of complication with the surgery. The dentist thinks I have a jaw strain, which sounds like it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But when it flares up, the pain is intense. The good news is I'm having fewer and fewer days with the pain. The bad news is any time I have the pain, it's as bad as it ever was. I may have a small tear in a ligament, which would explain the pain. Anyway, I did something to trigger a bout of pain earlier this week. It exhausts me and I swear it feels like I lose IQ points with the pain. I do have a treatment plan now. So that is encouraging. I'll keep doing the recommended things, and I know I'll be fine at some point.
In other exciting news around here, my daughter thought she saw a mouse in the house the other day. She wasn't sure, so we dismissed it. Then the next day she positively saw a mouse. We cleaned up all of the possible hiding places, bought and set several spring traps, then this morning we got the little furry critter. I do feel badly about using the spring traps. But it had to be done. We can't co-exist with mice indoors. One daughter went to Ace Hardware to pick up the traps. In the rodent trap aisle, there were two other customers also buying traps. One man told my daughter that his wife sent him out to "buy every trap they have." Fortunately, this gentleman didn't follow his wife's instructions to the letter, and my daughter was able to buy the 2 packages we wanted. This must be rodent-in-the-house season.
Today was an almost spring day. The sun was out for a little while. The crocuses and daffodils are coming up. And we went outdoors this evening to see the planets, without putting on jackets. Some pretty good moments in a day that began a bit rough.
How has your week been so far? I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow afternoon.
Pain is indeed exhausting. I'm sorry that you are dealing with it. We get mice in our house occasionally, and I would rather they stay outside. The worst is when they get stuck in the walls and die. The stink is bad and takes a long time to dissipate. Currently, we have one stinky bedroom from that.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Live and Learn.
DeleteUgh, I hope the mouse stink dissipates very soon!
My dad gets mice in the winter too. I have my brothers set traps and empty them. Dad also has a cat but she runs to one end of the room then the mouse scoots to the other end so the cats just runs back and forth. She needs a buddy.
ReplyDeleteWe had another water issue in the house. No sump pump but a drain in the basement floor that accepts water from the furnace and water softener discharge. When I used my washing machine the drain backflowed due to a blockage forcing it to go down the drain. Plumber came and pulled out a golfball, a rubber ball, a marble, a clothespin, a pencil, a spool of thread, and some old PVC piping. None came from us when we moved in there in 2013 because there was a drain cover the entire time we lived there. He used a plumbing snake and cleaned out all the drains.
Alice
Hi Alice,
DeleteThat's funny about the mouse and the cat.
Oh no! I hope that the drain issue is now taken care of. What a lot of odd things in the drain.
Ugh, mice! For over a decade I lived in an older apartment in Europe, and mice were a fact of life for pretty much everyone in the city. It was impossible to get rid of them. I do not like indoor rodents. I used traps, and put steel wool in every possible hole I could find. That helped.
ReplyDeleteAs for jaw pain, I'm just going to mention something. I am a massage therapist and am certified in an intraoral technique that helps with jaw pain (for TMJ issues, for example). There are physical therapists that perform this technique too. I just wanted to mention it to you as a resource if your doctor's treatment plan does not solve the problem. Good luck.
Hi Tina,
DeleteThank you for mentioning massage. Both exterior and interior massage were described to me when I feel the pain return. I've been massaging my jawline for the past two days and it does help. If I can't get a good handle on the pain, I'll look into pt for this. Thank you!
To echo Tina, ugh, mice! We've had more issues with mice in our house in recent years. I'm not a fan. The darn critters can squeeze through tiny holes. I hope you only have one to contend with. We had a litter of mice a couple of years ago. That was way too much excitement for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry about your continued pain. I'm interested in the intraoral technique for jaw pain. Have you found anything that doesn't involve medication that helps to relieve it? Heat or cold? Hope you feel some relief soon.
Hi Kris,
DeleteI'm sorry you've had to deal with more mice than previously. It's such a nuisance, and I worry about diseases.
Thank you for the support. I have good days and bad. So, there's always Tylenol and Advil. But I prefer not to take those unless really needed. The warm and cold compresses do help. Hot on for 30, ice on for 30, repeated for a total of 2 hours. I ordered a head wrap to hold the heat and cold packs against my face, the sort of thing sold for wisdom tooth removal. I've been using massage, too. One thing that does really help is to be mindful of what I'm doing at the time pain returns, am I clenching my jaw or is my head turned or tilted in such a way that the muscles and ligaments are being pulled? I can often put a stop to the pain by switching positions, getting up and walking around, or just relaxing my jaw. But I usually have to nip the pain in the bud to get these efforts to do any good. It was also recommended that I stay very hydrated, as dehydration could slow healing. If I don't see improvement in two weeks, I'm supposed to call back. There's a type of dental plate that can be fitted that would help. But we're trying the "free" methods first.
I've had a neck pain that took a year to get better. I couldn't turn my neck to see behind. It just disappeared on its own. Hope you recover soon.
ReplyDeleteLaura
Hi Laura,
DeleteThank you. It does seem that as we get a little older, our bodies take so much longer to heal. That must've been awful when your neck was injured! I'm glad it just disappeared on its own, though. Did you ever consider acupuncture for it? My husband has just begun acupuncture treatments for chronic nerve pain. I was a little skeptical, but we both thought he might as well give it a try. After the one treatment he said the pain was dulled and definitely felt different, in a positive way.
I have not thought of acupuncture though I would be willing in the future if nothing else works. Im glad your husband is finding relief from his chronic pain through acupuncture. It's tough to live with pain, and I agree we're more apt to have pain as we age. I needed PT for my right shoulder/rotator cuff. If I skip my exercises for a week, I feel it. My back is ongoing too (spondylitheosis), so I can work only a few hours or I will pay for it next day. It's tough getting old.
DeleteLaura
Hi Lili, so sorry you are experiencing this pain. I will pray!
ReplyDeleteI had an oral surgery large tooth extraction some years ago and the pain persisted for a solid month. OTC pain meds did not really help. Plus, they make me sleepy. Our bodies will heal, it just takes time, and oral surgery is quite a traumatic ordeal for our body to cope with.
Now, as a Christian who has taken acupuncture and since renounced it, I will leave you these quotes: "when you are laying on a table being treated by an acupuncturist, you are opening yourself to a practitioner who believes in a universal life force which is akin to a god in many religions." "Although Taoism does not have a god, per se, Tao is considered to be the universal life force or the underlying nature of all things that exist in the world and the path one must follow. Christians believe the path we must follow is the Will of our Creator, not the Tao!"
There is a lot of mixed online commentary about this issue. I'm just sharing my take and my resulting decision. No offense intended...
Jo
Hi Jo,
DeleteThank you for your prayers. Some of the things my regular dentist recommended have been helping.
Thank you for your thoughts on acupuncture. I shared them with my husband. No offense taken at all.