First Day back

[cornerofmadness]

And no one died. I'm tired though but mostly that's because of what came after, a 2 hour appointment with an orthodontist and that was NOT me sitting and waiting. Her and her staff were thorough.

But before I get into that Run over here and check out my amazing news. My book is up for preorder. Dances Kanda around the room (Kanda is unimpressed) Thanks again to evil_little_dog, havocmangawip & mamculuna for all their help in getting this to this stage.

I know I've mentioned my jaw pain and trigeminal neuralgia (nerve pain radiating down my jaw and into my ear) and masseter spasms (muscle that closes the jaw). The dentist thought this might be from my open bite. My front teeth don't even come close to touching each other. There's nearly a 3 mm gap there and mostly what is there is my tongue. I can get the whole tip of my tongue out without opening my jaw like a snake. What this does it put pressure on the back of the teeth which SHOULD have space between then and then of course the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). I grind my teeth big time.

I have never been to an orthodontist before. I had no idea they were going to hand me two metal retractors and tell me to use them to pull my lips and cheeks away from my teeth so they can take pictures. Then they ran very hot water over this tapered spatula thing and jammed that in there too like a mirror. Nothing like pulling off your lips and sucking on hot metal 0_o I'm beginning to see why kids don't like dentists. Then came the x-rays. I asked if they scared kids with these. One reminded me of a mammogram. You have to hold onto these metal bars and clamp a toggle in your teeth. Three clamps fasten onto your head and it takes a panoramic pic. The second machine had two Frankenstein monster-like things that go in your ears and again clamps fasten to your head.

I talked for about 40 minutes with an assistant who is also a massage therapist. She pointed out that my jaw pretty much doesn't work in the front. Yeah I've known that for years. I didn't really know that could be fixed with braces. It can and this is the part that scared me for weeks now, the cost of it.

THen I met Dr. P. She's around my age, maybe a tad older. As always I tell them I'm a doctor up front (and now an anatomist) and she takes my history and asked me what I think it is. She agrees with me, I probably need TMJ films taken (which we didn't set up). We're both afraid I've broken or displaced the articular disc (think of it as a meniscus in your jaw). Then she looks at me funny and said do you have gallbladder issues?

I answered yes and said 'and now I want to know WHY you asked that question?' Turns out she's a holistic healer and into the energy meridians and that sort of thing. Her eyes lit up when I knew about them and reiki etc. We spent nearly an hour talking about it. Instead of highly expensive braces (which she thinks my tongue thrusting (since the tongue doesn't go where it's supposed to in my goofy-ass jaw) would only break the work down again, she gave me a three holistic medicine things to try and see her in a few weeks for a laminar plate to wear at night (it's about 200$) but I don't even have to do that unless I want to. She wants me to keep coming back for the holistic treatments and wants to come talk to the students.

And this is FREE. So was the consultation AND the x=rays. Wow. I'm very impressed. I didn't exactly want to hear I'm getting arthritis in my jaw but this was interesting. I swear I thought she was going to invite me to go to her training sessions. Also her opinion was I should go elsewhere for my diabetes (I've been saying that for a while) and suggested a job elsewhere. Interesting, no? Did I mention she works mostly in Charleston WV? Who knows this could be the start of something interesting. At the end I got my notes and pictures of my teeth. Like I wanted that mess.




Day 13 of the snowflake challenge where I talk about my fandom goals


declutter day 182 item tossed-Ultram why kept=For pain why tossed -Made me vomit Long expired