Sunday, January 21, 2007

Soup and ice cream

My mouth hurts. More specifically, my jaw. On the 11th I went to the dentist to have an old filling removed and replaced and then a small cavity filled. They were both on the bottom left. No problems. All went well. I got home and the numbness wore off and it was hurting pretty badly. With my other filling and when I had the one tooth pulled a few weeks back, I didn't really even have pain. I found that I couldn't eat well because my jaw was hurting so badly. I thought it would go away by the next day.

It didn't. My jaw kept hurting, but only when I tried to open my mouth. The thing was, I could only open my mouth a small bit. It's been so bad that I can only eat soup or ice cream and flat things like chips or cheese. I can talk fine and I can even chew, but if I try to open my mouth to take a bite or yawn, I have severe pain. It's almost like I need to "POP" it so it will loosen up. But OH MY GOSH that scares me. The pain is so bad sometimes it brings tears to my eyes.

Friday night was the high school basketball game between the two schools in town. It is a huge rivalry. I went because Brianna was performing in the guard for the pre-game and half-time. Anyway, if you knew me in the past, I was SUPER FAN when it came to high school basketball. (I'm from Indiana. It's a big deal here.) I kind of get into it. A little. Well, there was a major instance of traveling and I jumped up yelling, "TRAVEL!" OH.MY.GOOD.GRAVY. PAIN shot through my jaw. Big time! It was so bad, I had to come straight home after the game and take a vicodin. (left over from my tooth extraction)

Here's the thing. I am NOT a weenie when it comes to pain. Though I never had to go through labor, I DID have 3 c-sections, the last of which I had to ignore the pain and travel out of town to be with my sick baby. I do not whine when I hurt. I power through usually no one knows how much it hurts. But this? It's killing me! You seriously have no idea how much you open your mouth bigger than a half inch every day! I can not even get my toothbrush in between my teeth, that is how bad it is.

So, anyway, I've been researching it a bit and I think it might be called "trismus." Sometimes known as lockjaw. Nice. I'm getting a little worried reading some of the info online about it. I'm really scared that I will not be able to open my mouth fully ever again. It's the paranoia in me.

I go back to the dentist tomorrow at 12:45. I'm not sure what she will do, but it's a start. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

I can't get a good shot of just how little I can open my mouth, but I can barely get my finger between my teeth if that is any indication. Here's a lovely shot of my cheeks, nose and teeth as proof. :)

Labels: dentist jaw pain

posted by Angie @ 9:21 PM

4 Comments:

At 11:46 PM, Erin said…

Ugh - sounds incredibly painful - I sure hope it gets better soon!!!!

And yes... you did hear the screams in Indiana...lol. I promise I'll root for Indy though to win the superbowl - TOMORROW :(
At 8:51 AM, Anonymous said…

my poor Angie!!

Will keep my fingers crossed about the dentist. Hope it all works out! make sure you post something to let us know.
At 10:45 AM, Anonymous said…

Tooth pain is the absolute worst!
At 5:45 PM, Anonymous said…

Ow. I hate tooth and jaw pain. Get more vicodan and see the oral surgeon.