My Stupid Mouth.

Sorry for the absense. I've been busy, lazy, thinking about other things, doing other things. I really do apologize. But whatever I'd had to say would have been boring anyway.

So. The news of the day is that I'm having a TMJ flare up. It's the news of the week, really. I was diagnosed maybe almost 2 years ago now. My dentist said the treatment was to use warm heat, eat soft foods, and take advil. He said the cure was to see a psychologist and get a job I loved.

Well.

I have had it pretty much under control ever since then, aside from minor flare ups brought on by eating a chewy dinner roll, or having a sub (or hoagie, or whatever you like to call it). Or eating too much hard meat (that's what she said). By hard I mean chewy, like steak, porkchops, overcooked chicken breasts. Basically, anything that requires more chewing than a noodle.

That's an exaggeration, the noodle thing, but I do have to be careful about eating too many things that are hard to chew in a short time span. One sourdough roll will give me a headache for a day. Having pizza, then a roll, then a sandwich on anything other than soft bread, then some steak, in a short time frame, let's say 4-7 days, leads to an extended bout of this nonsense. Throw in some building stress and a natural predisposition to clenching my jaw and I'm out of luck.

I've really done myself in this time. What can I say. Sometimes that Italian sub is just too good to pass up. So, starting today, I'm on to soft foods, hot compresses, and regular dosing of advil. The headaches that this crap brings on, while no wher enear debilitating, piss me the hell off. They get in the way of everything just enough that I'm not functioning normally.

Here's hoping that the soft foods diet leads to some weight loss.