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Hey yall, ok... this is a long story, but it is a weird one..... so hang tight with me..... So... my tmj. It had been acting up for a few months up to the point that I stayed in serious pain for a couple of weeks, to the point i was walking the floors, pacing back and forth, holding a cold pack on my jaw, crying, moaning..... no sleep.... went on for 2 weeks, maybe more. I had been having issues for a few months, but it dramatically got worse, these past 2 weeks specifically. Finally, 1 trip to er for the severe pain (and i never go to the er for pain, ever)..... I was given morphine, it didn't do anything for the pain. Was sent home still crying in pain. The next day, doc appt with DO doc, went well, but pain was back by 11 that night, called her back the next day crying in pain (and folks, i dont cry... i just. dont. cry..... so this was serious pain), after a second trip to the er for the pain. Another morphine shot, did nothing, was sent right back home stil in severe pain. Back to DO doc after that night at er. Prescribed percocet and flexeril, and we decided it was best not to do anything more on manipulating the jaw, etc and try to let things 'calm'. Got home, took the perc, felt a tad better finally. Got an hour or so of sleep that night, again, walked floors, pain, crying, and the percs were not even affecting to the point, i think i was over taking them.... but i was very delerious in pain, very very delierious in pain, constant pain, neverending pain. ***I have never, ever in my whole life, ever experienced pain on that level, nor ever though it existed on such a severe level.... so i was totally floored*** As morning came, i happened to glance in the mirror and go the shock of a lifetime.... my jaw and that side of the face was swollen so big that i was unrecognizable. I was running fever, that side of face was hot to the touch, pain was unreal.... started vomiting profusely for hours..... cried for hours, moaned, even screamed some..... by 3 pm, my face was double the size and i could not keep any percocet down at all the whole day.... pain unreal.... called my mom and told her everything and i said 'something is bad wrong.... bad wrong'..... mom was picking up the kids but was here to get me to the er for the 3rd time within mins. Ok.... er. Thankfully i had the same er doc, who had seen me the first 2 times. I was laying on the swollen side when she walked in and she was like oh no, still in pain? I was crying, moaning, and rocking back and forth. I could not talk. My face, neck, bottom lip was so huge, so swollen that my lip was literally splitting into in places..... and, the inside of my mouth, under the toungue was so swollen that my tongue was forced to roll to the unswollen side.... even the inside of my cheek/gums where swollen times like 10. (I have pics.... man i wish i could share them on here so you could see). Anyhow.... that lovely pretty doc was like, 'still in pain huh?'..... then i turned around and she seen the face and she literally bout dropped her clipboard and said 'oh my god' as if she had never seen anything like it. She was like..... ok, we have GOT to find out what's going on here. This time, she gave me dilaudid, through an iv they started and were also giving me fluids and phenergan because i was severely dehydrated because all i could do was vomit. Ok.... so, she and a doc from my primary doc's practice decided regardless of not really knowing what was causing this, they realized, i had a fever, my jaw was hot.... and everything else.... so they started i bag of iv antibiotics. And then..... they were going to release me with a script for antibiotics and send me home.... even though i was still in severe pain (the dilaudid only would last 2-3 hours at most)..... my mom raised cain, BIG TIME. I could not talk, I had no fight, i had no will left in me, i was tired, pain.... i just had nothing left in me.... so my mom was my advocate and she fought hard. She said she wasn't taking me anywhere and that they better get a doc in there to admit me and keep me and find out what's wrong and treat me. Good job mom..... cuz they admitted me. However, during the admitting process, i get to a room and they change my iv antibiotics to by mouth.... my mouth was SO SWOLLEN that i could not swallow, not even water. We were both mad as you could imagine. It was about 12 am when i finally got to my room and i happened to get up a couple hours later to pee and i happened to rub my inside of my gum cuz i seen a puss pocket at the base of a tooth, i pushed on it and puss came out.... i immediately got mom in there and showed her.... we called the nurse... the nurse called the doc at like 3 am and the doc was like, ok, give her such and such antibiotic pill form.... ?????????? so i left it at that.... took it.... pill form.... took it again the morning dose while still at hospital.... seen many docs... no one knew what was going on..... mri with contrast dye did not show any abscess at all, so everyone was scratching their head. They kept saying they would get an oral surgeon in to look at my jaw.... we all truly still yet, kept thinking the tmj was causing all this..... even i thought that too. So, im well into the day and my mom was rreally (in a respectful and nice way) she really let the doctor on call have it for a good hour. I was still making no progress, fever going up, swelling getting bigger and bigger..... even the nurse was really scared and shared that with the doc herself, because now, my neck was so swollen that it was quiet scary. So... another doc from my office came in around 3 and she took ONE LOOK AT ME THE MOMENT SHE SAW ME and said 'that is not tmj.... that, is an infection and a bad one at that'..... it was in my blood stream because my skin was red and it was traveling/spreading down my neck, down my chest and you could see a difinitive line of it.... it was scary..... So... this awesome doc, put me back on mega iv antibiotics and she told nurses "do not take her off of it the whole time she's here." Sigh, finally..... someone who is getting somewhere. (That day alone, i had over 12 doctors to come in and see my face, they all kept saying, 'yea, we've all been discussing this together'.... no kidding.... (of course one was my pyschologist and she had heard about my face and wanted to make sure i was ok, which was so sweet that she came and talked with me a bit....and another one was my DO doc herself, she was so worried too and felt so responsible and cried when she saw me.... i do have some amazing doctors really, i felt so very loved by them.... and since my primary care doc couldn't be there, he sent them since i had ongoing relastionship with them as a doc/patient and they knew me pretty good by now)..... Oh, and also, going into that day, the early morning male doc, came in and took me off the dilaudid and put me on pill form percocet and morphine.... WHICH DONE NOTHING BECAUSE I COULD NOT SWALLOW.....plus, i would get chocked cuz my mouth was so swollen i could not swallow.... DUH!!! i was furious.... so when this good doc came in at 3 and said that is a bad infection and put me on the iv antibiotics for good, she was pretty upset that they took me off of the dilaudid and she put me back on it to where i could have it every 3 hours and i could also have a percocet every 6 hours.... that was a perfect combination for me and with that, i was able to make it the whole stay and be for the most part comfortable. (keep in mind, i had never had dilaudid until this hospital stay) Now comes another mind blowing part. Day 3 in hospital..... the docs kept saying they would get an oral surgeon to come in and look at me. Well, that just could not be done. So an ear, nose and throat specialist came in.... he happened to be the one who took my tonsils out about 7 years ago, but he didn't remember me of course. Now.... all of this happened in less than 5 mins..... he looked in my mouth at my gums, which where mushy and you could tell there was puss in them.... he hands me a qtip swab with numbing stuff on it and said 'go rub this on your gums'.... and i was like 'um... ok'..... so i did. Then he said sit down on the end of the bed. I did. Then he gave me one shot in my gums to numb, BUT he IMMEDIATELY grabbed a scalpel and DID NOT let the gum numb AT ALL PEOPLE!!! He said open your mouth.... (i was like, WAIT?????? IM NOT NUMB!!!!) and then, there he went!!!! He sliced and diced my gum open with me shacking uncontrollably, with tears rolling down my face and i could feel the crunching of my gums..... AND THEN he took the scalpel and DUG very hard a hole in my gums to where the puss could drain. He handled my face and jaw so rough that it was unreal. Then he left.... all in under 5 mins....... I literally sat there, rocking back and forth while blood was pouring from my mouth on the bed and my body, head, teeth, arms, legs, everything was shaking like i was convulsing uncontrollably..... all i could do was stare straight ahead, let the tears flow, and shake uncontrollably.... i was in that much shock. The nurse came in and mom came in and they saw me like that and almost cried. They petted me, rubbed my back..... but i was seriously in shock for about 20 mins, i could not calm down, i could not stop shaking with the tremors, i could not respond...... it was aweful. Finally, after that.... things got a bit better. My face started to go down and i was responding to the antibiotics. After 4 days in the hospital, my face was down considerably and my pain was more in control with just percocet. I asked to stay one more day to make sure the infection had not spread any further and since my chest still has a line going across it where you literally could see the infection traveling.... they agreed it would be the smartest thing to do to keep me over and still on iv antibiotics. So they did..... I done well, improved more and was released the next day. Now, the day after i get in to see the oral surgeon. He xrays my mouth. Finds an abscess under one of my molars that had no rotting or cavity, it was a good tooth, but under it was trapped in infection/abscess. His solution? Pull it. I cried. It was a good tooth. Plus, i had been through so much trauma that i was just, i just couldn't take no more. And when it comes to my teeth, i can't stand for them to be messed with, especially one pulled.... id rather give birth to babies than have a tooth pulled. So, i had to make a quick decision and say yes, but i told him.... look, ive been through so many traumatic experiences this past week that i just cant handle this... i need something for my nerves. He suggested the happy gas and i was like ok. I wish i had known about the happy gas before now, because that stuff works miracles. After 1 min of breathing it in, i was like, BRING IT ON BABY!!!!! lol...... so he pulls the tooth and i beg to keep it, cuz its a good tooth and all. And in the hole the tooth came out of was white cottage cheese looking puss and i could also see bone too.... so that was down in my bone..... wow. How on earth does that happen???? So.... the tooth was pulled on tuesday.... im resting at home, feeling so much better. Im wore out to the gills but i feel so much better. My TMJ has calmed down too and only aches every now and again. So.... on this tooth.... in my middle school years, i had this tooth filled with a mercury filling.... 9 mths ago, i had the mercury filling taken out and a porcelain??? filling put in there. Ever since that happened, i had pain from that specific tooth and for 9 mths i have not been able to eat on that side of the mouth and that tooth was so super sensitive.... yet, there is no indication of any decaying, etc on it. So, any theories on that???? Anyways.... that's my story..... if i had a way of posting the pics of my face and how unreal it looked i would so love to share them. Basically, docs were scratching their heads because they would look at my teeth and they all looked perfect, so then i guess they though the tmj was the whole problem..... so did I. I would have never thought i had an abscess held in by a tooth but not caused by the tooth???? Weird. thanks for putting up with my story, but i wanted to share it.... lots of love tennille

I've been having pretty severe bouts of i TMJ pain. It is intense, constant, but also spiking to points where i almost blackout or i quickly vomit unexpectedly. I have been going to my osteopathic doctor (a DO) in my doctor's office (he has many specialists in there, and he's an integrative doctor) and have had excellent results from their treatment, pain free for 2-4 weeks with no pain meds whatsoever. But I took prednisone for the first time, high dose, taper down, totall 2 weeks on it.... have been done with for about 3 days i think..... during the taking of the prednisone i had no pain whatsoever, and i felt pretty good of course, even my legs felt strong again. But once i tapered off, the jaw pain is unreal. It is in my ear, the jaw joint, my lower jaw into my teeth, same with the upper, my lower skull in the back, i mean it's intense, like an ice pick being hammered at. Its as if i can feel every single nerve that produces pain itself. I finally went to er today. Got a shot of toradol, and valium. That did not work. Then a shot of morhpine, but i think a low dose, because I did not get loopy or really feel anything...... just an easement in the pain to a tolerable level, it never 'got rid of the pain' in order to give me a rest. I see the DO doc in the morning, but i can't always easily see the DO doc, and when i have flare ups like this, I just don't know what to do but lay and pant, and cry, and moan in pain. I am in so much physical pain that i never in my life thought possible. And you guys, i have a high tolerance for pain, i really do, i always have. But this is just unreal. Do any of you know of anything hollistic, or natural , or even conventional that has helped you decrease the jaw/face/jaw joint pain? Is there any type of herb or anything i could apply typically? thanks for any advice with it we do think it could be connective tissue disease related tennille