my jaw hurts

A phrase once uttered with regularity when I was about a junior in high school. My parents brushed it off, until one night at dinner my mom was like, you have TMJ. She took me to a dentist specializing in TMJ (temperomandibular joint/muscle disorder) and the first thing he did was apply pressure to my right shoulder and a shooting pain went all the way up my neck and into my jaw. Evidently I had torn one of the two muscles that hold the ball portion of your jaw into the cup of the joint. So, I got a fancy retainer to wear at night that would direct any pressure away from my jaw caused by my tense self clenching/grinding at night. Also I had to take some pills that looked like they could have been given to horses to loosen up the joints. It felt better.

Flash forward to summer before senior year in college. In pain again. At the cottage though, so no jaw doctor to see. We go to the walk in urgent care facility and a Dr. who realllly likes to give our prescriptions puts me on muscle relaxants by night and STEROIDS by day. This does little other than to have one of my boathouse co-workers tell me to lift a 13-foot boat on my own cause he thought I was "juicin' it". Riiight.

Later that fall...back to the home jaw doctor where my retainer is adjusted, and I am told I have arthritis in my jaw. I get a prescription from an apothecary that is topical and also Vioxx. Literally the following day, while eating breakfast, having just taken my Vioxx, I see on TV that Vioxx has been recalled. Awesome. In place I am prescribed Celebrex which is also later recalled. Meanwhile, I feel like a senior citizen.

So now, following the removal of my 3 wisdom teeth and thus much overstretching of my delicate jaw, it's tighter than ever before and I can't wear the retainer because it hurts too much but I'll get it fixed on Tuesday and maybe more drugs for that. Go team

Just another installment of if there are weird ailments to have, I have them.

Also, tonight I was napping on the couch with one dog nesting in my curled knees and the little one as the small spoon, but that was not good enough for her - she grew restless, licked every part of my face and then basically draped herself over my head. We've only had her for 2 full days, but I think she's settling in just fine. And she has us wrapped around her little dew claw. How cute.

fo sheezy

I normally haul my freaking umbrella everywhere, but for some reason, I decided to switch bags during finals (had 2 today - the two harder ones so woooo hoooo) and now it is POURING down rain. I am in the lab waiting it out, I guess. Not much else I can do since it's quite a hike to my car and also I am wearing my suede/cork clogs. Apparently I can only focus my intelligence toward book learning or common sense - never the two at the same time.

During my econ final, the sky got really dark when I was around question #12 out of 50. The tornado siren started blaring and our prof was like, um, I'll go check on that. He comes back and says, "Just keep taking the test - someone will come in here if...ya know..". Awesome. I can see the headline now..."75 students perish while taking Micro-econ final while on the FOURTH FLOOR OF A BUILDING during a tornado".

There are these pretty flowers on this bush we have outside of our house and also they were outside of the Winter Palace. They look like they are made of frosting (sounds weird, I know), but they smell heavenly. I have no idea what they are but I think they might be my second favorite to lilies of the valley - a scent which apparently is the only floral scent that no one has succeeded in replicating as a perfume.

Ahh, these tidbits:)

Ummm still raining.