I am in a lot of pain right now. I have TMJ dysfunction. For those of you who don't know what TMJ is, it's the joint that connects your jaw to your skull. People who have TMJ dysfunction experience such symptoms as popping or clicking when biting food, lock jaw and excruciating pain. Whereas I've never had my jaw lock, I do have the crunchy noise sensation when I chew and at least once a day I am beset with horrifying pain which radiates from my right jaw up to my eye and down my neck. This only happens on the right side of my face.

I've had this problem for about four years. I'd had headaches for a long time, but I always thought they were sinus related. Then I noticed how my jaw was popping when I ate my buttered roll for breakfast. I told Kyle and he said "Sounds like TMJ". TM-what? I'd never heard of it. A quick search on the internet confirmed his suspicions. According to what I read about this disease, it sounded like I had it.

So I went to my doctor. He sent me to a ear nose and throat guy. The ENT guy didn't do much, other than write me a prescription for Valium. That was fun, but definitely not the answer to my problem. I was then sent to get X-rays of my entire head, from every angle, which was really annoying because I had to remove all of my jewelry and at that time I work seven earrings in one ear and one in the other. It was a pain in my ass. Then there was the period when this really nice oral surgeon would shoot Lydacaine into a jaw muscle on the right side my face. This happened every week. He would then make me soak a rag in boiling water and put it on my jaw. He also prescribed anti-inflammatories. At one point the dose was so high I was getting heartburn from all the pills. I continued with the treatment for months before I decided enough was enough.

Then came a long period of self-medication and avoidance. My drug of choice was Aleve, which is foolishly advertised as a wonder drug that will stop pain for eight hours. I've proven that statement wrong. At first I took two pills at a time. That lasted until I started getting hearburn from drinking milk. I went to another doctor and he gave me Prilosec (the purple pill) for the heart burn and told me to stop taking the Aleve. He said take Tylenol, it wont upset your stomach. But what if I have to take four Tylenol caplettes every four hours? That won't be too good for me either. In fact, that's a sure way to poison yourself.

I then cut my dose down to one Aleve at a time. I still needed to take about three or four a day. After reading that Aleve causes bleeding ulcers that have killed people, I decided to stop cold turkey. This weekend, I ran out and I didn't buy more. I spent the weekend lying on the couch, popping Tyleonl like they were "M&M's" and holding a hot compress to my face. Believe me, this is no way to live.

I'm looking into some alternative therapy now. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.