I looked like a damned fool during our walk this morning, making all sorts of weird facial expressions as we tottered around Lake Ella. It was early, as I have moved up my alarms (for reasons I might explain some other time) so we were thankfully alone. Still. It was weird and it felt weird and I am sure probably would have appeared somewhat ludicrously horrific to any observers.
The point here is that I finally put the facts together and figured out that I am suffering from TMJ. This is a new and unexpected thing in my life, and I’m not happy about it. I assume it is stress related, but I already wear a mouthguard at night to combat tooth grinding, so I can only imagine how bad it must be for me to develop TMJ.
This would, though, explain the recurring low-level headaches I’ve been dealing with for the past month as well as the exhaustion, which are all symptoms of TMJ in addition to the sore and locking jaw.
Hence the facial exercises making me look a little deranged on our walks, not that Keely cares. There isn’t a lot to be done for TMJ aside from mouthguards, muscle relaxers, and facial exercises (which loosen the muscles us and stretch them out, countering the retractions experienced while asleep) so here we are. Seriously, doing these exercises sounds like rice krispy treats inside my head. Ugh.
This is me later this morning, double masking at the bus stop, where at least no one can see me trying to open my maw like a python:
