Facing the Consequences

I woke up this morning feeling like I had gotten punched in the face I knew it couldn't have been Ross (this time, at least) because he was off saving Richmond last night. I spent all day trying to figure out exactly why it hurt to both open *and* close my mouth.

See, I have the TMJ. Well, actually, we all have the TMJ. For some reason, having a problem with your TMJ is described by simply stating that you have the particular joint causing you aches and pains. It's like instead of saying you have a headache, you would just say you have a head. I actually have TMJD which is far worse than just having the joint. I developed this in college with it first making its appearance in the form of me waking up at 3:00am in a complete panic because I couldn't open or close my mouth. Seriously, it's like someone comes along, wires your mouth shut, and kicks you in the jaw just to make sure you've been completely crippled by the pain.

TMJD tends to be pretty cyclical with it's symptoms and mine hasn't flared up in quite a long time. Episodes come along with stress...or with eating anything chewy like gum, gummi bears, gummi worms, really anything that might have gum in it. Basically anything fun and wonderful.

Well, I realized I had gum yesterday. Actually, approximately 40 hours ago and I probably chewed it for all of 10 minutes. And I'm still experiencing throbbing, soul-splitting pain in my jaw. I mean, come on. Is this really necessary or in anyway proportionate to what I did? It's like slicing the skin between someone's toes with a dirty screwdriver because she wore flip-flops.

So, I will spend much of today and tomorrow with a heating pad on my face, cursing the good Lord for creating the gum tree whose sweet, sweet nectar taunts me so.