Tag: TMJ

When Is Enough, Enough?

I had not posted anything about my surgery on March 3rd until after I went to my follow-up with my surgeon which was the 31st. Unfortunately, it was not good news. The surgery was unsuccessful. I have advanced joint disease on both sides of my jaw, extensive fibrillation (fibrous adhesions) on both sides, a perforated disk on the left side, an edema in right temporomandibular space (excess fluids), Chondromalacia (this is breakdown of the articular cartilage which covers the jaw bone), Myofacial Pain Syndrome, Inflammation, and hyperemia (buildup of blood). Whew! That was a lot to understand. No wonder the simple washing out around the bone and disk during the last surgery did not work.

This means, that sometime in the future, I will have total joint replacement on both sides of the jaw. They cut from the top of my ear down under my chin. It will be painful, but I cannot help but thinking not as painful as having my guts cut out, 100s of staples inside of me, and multiple incisions in my stomach from the surgery in November. This surgery itself is 8 hours. My mind cannot grasp being in surgery for that long. That is a days work, a day in the field, a nights worth of sleep. The surgery is rough. They have to saw the condyle off which is the jaw bone itself. Replace the disk on both sides with an artificial one and I will be put back together with a metal plate and bracket. I will stay in the hospital for three days or more. My jaw will be wired shut for two weeks. Not quite sure how I am supposed to take all of the medications that I take in a day, guessing grinding them up in a shake. The surgeon said 2-3 months of healing and I should feel like a new person without this pain, the shrill shreaking noises, and all of the popping and crackling. It should also repair my jaw popping in and out of place every time I try to chew.

The last surgery took three months to get approval from the insurance company and then scheduled. This surgery they will first get approval from insurance, then I will have allergy testing done to make certain I am not allergic to the artificial disk they will put in and the metal plate. Next, I will have a CT scan, then they will be able to custom make the parts. After all of this, they will schedule the surgery and I will have another Covid test. It will be 3-5 months at the very minimum. Three surgeries in a matter of months is a lot for a person to take.

My immune system has been so compromised from all of the mold I was exposed to for years. It makes the good cells think they are in a fight or flight response and they attack each other. My body has a ton of arthritis and inflammation in it. I will be dealing with immune system issues for probably the remainder of my life. It is just sad that these issues could have been avoided. I am still mad. I cannot seem to to get the forgive and forget stage. I keep saying why me? Why did I have to go thru all of these health issues? Why am I still sick? Why can’t I have an entire day, week, or month without issues? I do not know the answer. God and I have had many conversations about this. Rainy gloomy days are the worst. The cold rain makes my jaw bones hurt down to the very core. I am almost totally incapacitated on days like this. Today it is rainy and gloomy. Today is a pain day. Today I have not been able to do much. Today I have been crying a lot asking God why me. Today I am struggling.

I want to feel normal again. I want to see my friends and family. I want to be able to go out to eat normal foods. I want to feel like doing things, anything. I may have a few good hours in a day in which I try to do something outside as it seems like if I am outdoors, my ears do not bother me as bad as they do inside. I do what I can when I can then I come back inside and wrap my head in a heating pad and lay until some of the pain subsides. I hate being down and sounding like I am having a pity party. I do not want to sound like that. I guess this is my outlet to vent. Getting my frustrations out helps me with my healing journey.

I am not looking forward to another surgery, I just cannot bring myself to go thru it YET. Therefore, I am doing what I can to try to avoid this surgery even if in the end, I still have to have it. My bite is way off from my jaw issues, so I am getting Invisalign again. Unfortunately, my dental insurance does not pay for this, but my teeth and jaw are both shifting, so I have no other choice. Additionally, I am going to try some pressure point therapy to alleviate the pain in my jaw and head. The surgeon says nothing but surgery is going to help, but I am going to try and I am going to pray. I believe in the power of prayer, so I am praying without ceasing that by some miracle, my issues are healed or become not so prevalent that perhaps I can tolerate them. I pray for God to relieve the inflammation that has attacked my body. I pray for the relief from pain that arthritis has caused. I pray for my ears to calm down and I hear sounds of nature versus loud buzzing.

So, I guess that is it in a nutshell. I sound like I am rambling. I guess it is brain fog today and I have not been able to get any pain relief today, or yesterday. But tomorrow is another day. Hopefully, tomorrow it is sunny and nice and I can be outside. I need to get the scripture at the beginning of my post tattooed on my hand so I can say it over and over and believe it.

Here are a few pictures of this next surgery if I have it. And of course there are many You Tube Videos showing the entire surgery. I probably should not be watching those, but I like to know what I am getting myself into. I know I have many many pray warriors who are praying for me. Keep up the prayers. I believe.

This is what it looks like after the disk an joint are replaced.

Another picture not so graphic.

A picture showing where they will cut.

Round #2 – Here I go again

I thought after my surgery in November that I would never have ANY surgery again, but I was wrong. However, this surgery is nothing compared to the last one. I am not sure when this problem with my ears and jaw began. I kept having bad ear infections all of 2020 and most of 2019. Antibiotics and prescription ear drops were not helping with the pain in my ears. After multiple rounds, my ENT finally put a tube in my right ear; that was last July. He thought the Eustachian Tube was closed. It did not help. My ears had begun this shrill screeching noise. It sounds like locust and crickets with a continuous background noise that is like when a microphone is being adjusted. They also make this clicking and popping noise whenever I move my head. The pain feels like an ice pick in my ear that is coming out of the top of my head. The pain and noise are continuous. It grates on my last nerve; however, it seems everything bothers me now; music, the TV, loud talking, clanking of dishes, and even closing the chain on a gate. Smells bother me. I am acutely aware of all kinds of smells now. I used to be able to have those Wallflower type plug in things, but I cannot now. I get an immediate headache and sometimes nauseous. Certain colognes and perfumes smell like Chlorix to me. Laundry soap smells sour or smelling the scent of them will send me into an immediate reaction. Lights and noise such as in Wal-Mart, bother me. These reactions or hypersensitivity are part of my mold sickness and issues I have been dealing with.

Because I have so many things in my environment that bother me, I have begun clinching my teeth. This in turn has caused me to have TMD (Tempromandibular joint disease). I have ground off the top part of my teeth (Bruxism), my jaw has shifted, and my teeth are misaligned. I have to get new Invisalign and have surgery on my jaw, and that is why I am writing this post.

The procedure I am having is Arthroscopy and Arthrocentesis to both sides of the jaw which is basically cleaning out around the jaw joints and taking a sample of the fluid buildup. I have severe degenerative changes to my joint or the condyle, spurring, lesions, and bone-on-bone. Basically, I have misplaced disks, irritation, inflammation, and arthritis. I only want relief. The surgeon wanted to put an ATN block on both sides and inject Botox into the muscles of mastication; however, insurance would not pay for those two procedures. Come this fall, it will be eight years I have been fighting health issues. I am thankful I am still fighting although many days I am tired of the fight. I feel as though so much of my life has passed me by while I have been in pain, lying with my heat pad, or crying; many times all three.

BUT, I am alive. I am so much better off than many others as I have said before. If I am outside, I do not seem to notice my ears as much as I do when I am inside. Pain pills, muscle relaxers, and Xanax do not come close to even touching the pain and the anxiety I get when I cannot get my ears to calm down nor the pain to ease up. I fake feeling good so much of the time.

I have to go to KC on Monday, March 1st for bloodwork and a Covid test, come home and quarantine (which I have been anyway) then have surgery on Wednesday, March 3rd. They had me scheduled for April 7th and I wrote a long letter to the surgeon explaining how long I have been dealing with this and what steps I have gone thru to get to this point. I begged for empathy. Apparently, he granted me that as he moved up the surgery. It has been a nightmare with me having to call my insurance company every other day to first of all get a MRI approved last fall then to get this surgery approved. The days I was not calling the insurance company I was calling my surgeon at University Health Oral Surgery. Of course, I was in tears partially from pain, but mainly from shear frustration that there is nobody but myself to advocate for me. I have been on a soft diet since last May. I cannot eat steak. I was eating chicken for the longest time, but now, when I open my mouth to chew, my joint pops in and out of place. Needless to say I am selective about what I eat. Ice cream and Malt-O-Meal have become my best friends, but too much of either one affects my stomach.

Below are the medical definitions of what I am having done. There are some really good videos on YouTube if anyone is really curious to watch the procedure. I will be knocked out, thank goodness. I get to go home the same day, so that is great news.

Arthrocentesis is done by injecting fluid into the joint. The fluid washes out any chemical byproducts of inflammation and can help reduce pressure that causes the joint to be stiff or painful. This can help regain some of your jaw’s range of motion. This is a minimally invasive procedure. You can usually go home the same day. The recovery time is short, and the success rate is high. According to a 2012 studyTrusted Source, arthrocentesis averages an 80 percent improvement in symptoms. Arthrocentesis is usually a first-line treatment because it’s less invasive and has a high success rate when compared to some of the other, more complicated procedures.

Arthroscopy is done by opening a small hole or a few small holes in the skin above the joint. A narrow tube called a cannula is then inserted through the hole and into the joint. Next, your surgeon will insert an arthroscope into the cannula. The arthroscope is a tool with a light and camera that’s used to visualize your joint. Once everything is set up, your surgeon can then operate on the joint using tiny surgical tools that are inserted through the cannula. Arthroscopy is less invasive than typical open surgery, so recovery time is faster, usually several days to a week. It also allows your healthcare provider a lot of freedom to do complex procedures on the joint, such as:

A couple of pics that shows some of what they will be doing.

As you go thru your day on Wednesday, if I could ask for a little prayer for a successful surgery and healing process. Pre-Op is 1 1/2-2 hrs, surgery is 2 hours, and recovery is 2 hours. Then home to ice cream, my heating pad, and hopefully eating steak again.

Thank you for your prayers,

DeAnn