Friday, January 14, 2011

Ever Had One Of Those Days?

I've been having one all week. I try not to whine about it but I have had a more-or-less constant headache since the autumn of 1996 and the last couple of weeks, thanks in part to weather and in part from some dental work -- she rebuilt a tooth, very pretty but not quite the same shape, which is a big problem if you grind your teeth in you sleep. Add in what the cold does to my knee and my pain level's been pretty high all week. This makes me short-tempered and no fun to be around -- heck, I don't wanna hang around me -- and it's all downhill from there. Getting anything done is like running in a nightmare:, huge effort for little progress.

Cherry on top: halfway through previous paragraph, my headache ramped up to the stabbing-pains-behind-both-eyes, all light is too bright level. A hot shower will help a little, as will the OTC pain meds I took when I got up. This kind of thing used to worry me -- fifteen years and endless doctoring later, I am confident it's just another damn headache. So, hey, that's actually something good.

11 comments:

Joseph said...

Roberta, I hope to hear you are feeling better....starting NOW!

og said...

I have the knee thing, and most of the time, the hand thing. I went though the migraine thing years ago, and while some things helped others didn't. I don't think about headaches all too often because there is often a dull one there, but the real whanging ones will occasionally cause me to veer off the road looking for a dark spot or at least a place where I can close my eyes for ten minutes. At first, Chronic pain is debilitating, but eventually, you learn to live with it, like liberals. I hope it all tones down to a low roar for you, mine made the translation this morning to vertigo, which will make it a fun friday. feel better soon!

Drang said...

Broke a toof last weekend. Got in to see dentist on Tuesday--very little discomfort, thank Ghu, so I could wait.
My dentist actually grinds on teefs to make them work and play well together.

Then on Wednesday, as I was pulling into the driveway, I got a stabbing pain in the right hip. Have had pain in left hip, this was new. My wonderful HMO that I get to pay for as part of my Army retirement--bet you thought it came free, di'n't ya?--couldn't get me in until this afternoon. Pain is still there, but no longer makes me think dark thoughts.
Or no darker than usual, anyway.
I think I've said it before, but Mrs. Drang sometimes gets relief from migraines by drinking a beer. Doesn't always work, and obviously is often a Bad Idea anyway, but...

Jennifer said...

I'm sorry. No fun. Make yourself a cold pack to put over your eyes and lay down in a dark quiet room. I keep one of those gel filled eye mask things in the freezer for just such occasions.

The Freeholder said...

On the teeth grinding thing--I do it too. My dentist had me try one of those "Doctor's Night Guard" things to see if it helped and it did. Then we went to a custom fit guard, which is far more comfortable. Yeah, it's pricey, but less than 25% of the last root canal/crown combo.

Only bad thing is that I lipth when I have it in and try to talk.

Ruth said...

I 2nd Freeholder, go down to the pharmacy and pick up one of the do it yourself fit night guards (if you have a small jaw like I do it'll require additional fitting in the form of a sharp knife or scissors). It made a HUGE difference in the overall feel of my head.

og said...

Freeholder:

Doeth it make you thnore with a lithp?

Roberta X said...

Teeth, bite guards, etc.

My dentist knows what she is up against and does the alignment-check thing with that carbon-paper stuff very carefully. It's just almost impossible to get a perfect match to the complex wear patterns on the old tooth.

And a nice, custom bite guard is how I got into this mess in the first place! I wanted to Do Something before I ruined my teeth. Instead of stopping the grinding, it let sleeping me get a really, really good purchase on my teeth and work a couple of roots of adjoining molars right up through the bone. ...After which, I could hardly sleep at all, as I'd nod off, start to gnash and grind, and the pain would wake me back up, over and over and over. I'm quite sure they usually work, just my bad luck they don't for me.

Not a happy outcome.

Underground Carpenter said...

Hi Roberta X,

So what happened in Autumn '96?

Dave

Roberta X said...

That's when I started sleeping in that bedarned bite guard.

og said...

the engineer in me says, maybe you could rig up a sensor that would detect the muscles tensing in your jaw, and beep, waking you up. Eventually, the loss of sleep would probably cause you to either chainsaw your lower jaw off out of sheer self preservation, or learn not to grind.

This, incidentally, is why engineers make piss poor doctors. If you've ever take muscle relaxants, have they had any good effect on the grinding bit?