Grumpy

 

Feeling a bit ornery this morning as I am having a TMJ flare-up.  TMJ is the acronym for my tempormandibular joint disorder.... which simply means I was doing a helluva lot of grinding and clenching of my teeth last night even though I wore my bite splint and used my bite sock as well.  

I did notice that I had spit out the bite sock sometime during the night, for some unknown reason.  I awoke around 4:00am and started using it again in an effort to relax my jawline.  When I finally got up around 6:00am, I could tell I was still feeling some of the effects.  

For someone without TMJ it may sound like something innocuous and non-concerning.  But, it really is a significant deal.  My jawline is, of course, sore and tender.  But... it also effects my ears.... they feel inflamed, warm, and itchy, and my sinuses feel irritated as well, even though they are 100% clear (so it is not allergies, which I rarely experience).  Chewing on food aggravates the symptoms in both the jawline and especially in my ears.  I acquiesced (threw in the towel) and took two aspirin about 30 minutes ago.  Hopefully it will prove helpful.  

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Bulleted List:

• Tried to "run out of" my TMJ this morning.  I ran 11.1 miles (~18km).  My theory (that sometimes seems to work) is that I typically adopt a posture of having my jaw being loose (not clenched) while I run, and that some days, this can help dissipate any of the "clenching" pain I may experience.  It did not help a helluva lot today. 

• Students are taking an exam today in my class.  So, I can anticipate a host of e-mails.

• When I was listening to Fr. Dan's homily while I ran (I was listening to the Capuchin Mass), he spoke of the fruits of our work, and talked about how we want our fruits to be good fruits.  He admitted that he and many of us will sometimes create sour fruits instead with our efforts.  I am not really doing justice to the way he said this, but it gave me food for thought in regards to my efforts to continue to work to forgive that person who horribly hurt me at work.  The sour fruits that we can make do not help us nor others.  I am thinking the sourness I still can feel for this person is something I can still improve upon and become a better person.   
  

• I am not sure what is up with the mosquitoes this Summer, but they have come out in their usual full-force numbers in our region as of this week.... and yet, in the three bites I have been unable to avoid thus far, all three of them were extraordinarily itchier than usual... and two of the three would develop a very tiny fluid (plasma) filled bubble at the point where the damnable beast inserted its proboscis in me.... in addition to the larger raised red bump I normally get.  Scratching the bite leads to the tiny bubble bursting and leaking out a tiny droplet of plasma.  

• My PCS is a relatively manageable 4 today.  

• My wife and I made a large number of batches of my "banana cookies" that I eat as part of my lunch at work.  I have described them before, but they are basically over ripe banana and oatmeal with some flavorings added and they are baked.  They do taste and feel like cookies to me, but they are a healthy food option I can (and do) eat every day.  I have taken the original recipe my wife found online and modified it to create a large array of different varieties....... chocolate, peanut butter, coffee, molasses, and almond are my favorites.  Well, unfortunately, our dog (who is rather smart and able to often open closed doors.... "snuck" into the kitchen and proceeded to eat about 1 dozen of the chocolate cookies.  The chocolate cookies have a VERY SIGNIFICANT amount of pure cocoa powder in them because I like the dark "bitterish" taste of pure cocoa powder.  But, cocoa is very BAD for dogs.  So, I had to use the old veterinary trick I learned long ago of giving the dog 1-2 tablespoons of home use (3% by volume) hydrogen peroxide.  As you may know, my dog does not take pills well, so I have a large (10cc) syringe (without the needle, I leave those at work) that I use to convert pills to a liquid form to force her to swallow it.  I used the same syringe to get her to swallow the hydrogen peroxide.  It is magical in a horrifying way..... within about 10 minutes or so of giving her the hydrogen peroxide, it makes her vomit the entire contents of her stomach.  As dogs often do not chew food that is soft (especially I think, if they are being sneaky about it)..... out popped 11 relatively intact dark chocolate cookies and a bunch of fluid that had what appeared to be the remnants of the one she did apparently chew a bit to decide initially if she liked them.  

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Still thinking more about my "lost adventure".  My opinions are not yet fully formed, but I am thinking perhaps tomorrow I will try to talk through them a bit.  I was wondering in the back of my mind, however, if perhaps the bar was actually some sort of small electronic casino of sorts?  I was thinking this might be a possibility last night.... it could be the video game monitors I saw people at WERE various video games.... but, possibly they may have been electronic slot machines or some such thing for all I know.  Both casino gambling and video games actually bore me to death, so I knew whatever was happening there was not of interest to me.