u/ElementalBucky

Hi all! I'm currently on treatment pathway for TMJ disorder and Psoriatic Arthritis (I'll just call it TMJ and PsA), but after reading about my symptoms I wanted to get the opinions of some of you folks here about whether there's potentially TN involvement, whether anyone had similar experiences, and what my next course of action should be as to whether I just follow the TMJ treatments or approach my GP/Oral Surgery dept about TN and potentialyl a referral to neurology.

I am UK based, not seeking private care, so on the NHS. Just wanted to mention since it is a system of referrals and fairly rigid pathways so I have fewer options to do tests and approach clinicians on my own time, but I will be seeing people soon and can always approach my GP and Specialists and they can help!

SO! Last year I had a filling around February. For about 3 months I suffered from a series of symptoms and was diagnosed with TMJ, suspected from having my jaw held open for a long period. These included:

• Pain around my right TMJ and right massater
• Electric shocks radiating out along my trigeminal nerves on the right
• Sporadic non-dental toothache on the right

I could eat, talk, do everything normally. There was no correlation between my action and the pain. After 2 months it just kinda went away. Since then, I had experienced flares of these symptoms for a couple weeks at a time, usually spaced around 2 to 3 months apart. TN was brought up, but dismissed and I agreed with that assessment. The electric shocks sounded like TN, but I thought it more likely my nerves were irritated by my TMJ.

This May, I ate some pastries that were quite chewy and partway through it felt like my face was getting worn out, and eventually just gave way. Imagine the feeling of your back giving out, but with your facial muscles. It hurt like hell, eased off, but since then I've been dealing with the following symptoms:

• Bilateral burning pain across my lower jaw and cheeks
• Bilateral Masseter aching
• Non-dental toothache
• Occasional electric shocks radiating from behind my jaw, sort of under my ear and by my hairline, through my lower jaw, kinda feels like sucking a super sour sweet but x100

These symptoms are occasionally just there regardless of what I do. They also can be triggered very reliably when talking for too long, chewing too much regardless of whether its soft or tough food, laughing too much, tensing my head, face and shoulder muscles, and anything that causes blood to rush to my head (This one weirds me out. When I get flush, it hurts! This goes away after a little bit, but it's still bizarre).

There are 3 very big differences between the pain I'm feeling now, and the pain I felt last year.

1. It's often bilateral
2. My TMJ itself doesn't hurt whatsoever, just the nerves and tissue around it
3. Touching my jaw and face after a flare feels sensitive and slightly painful, almost as if I was sunburnt

I have been prescribed a custom soft night-guard for grinding, although I don't feel soreness in the morning. I wear this, it offers no help but doesn't worsen things. I take tramadol for my Psoriatic Arthritis* whilst I am waiting for treatment that's incoming this month, this helps the aching in my masseter, but every other pain remains.

*I am considering a link between the two, and am curious if my DMARD treatment for PsA impacts the facial pain.

I am seeing the Oral Surgery Dept in Sept, despite the name it's not simply a surgical department, but encompasses all manner of maxillofacial diagnostics and treatment including things like dental surgery, TMJ, cleft palettes and oral cancer, that kinda stuff.

I wanted to get some opinions before that appt on whether anyone here thinks TN involvement might be present so I can have a good thorough chat with the specialists, and I'm really specifically looking for input from anyone who has PsA like myself, AND has TN in case they have had similar experiences to me.

I'll hopefully be able to get some answers, and get some more tests done next month, but thank you in advance to anyone reading this far and for any help <3 It sucks, I'm fed up and want to eat pizza again, but I'm hanging in there and my friends have been angels in helping me manage and accommodating all the weird symptoms!

Hi, I have a couple of Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards that were dented, had a tremor whilst handling and gripped awkwardly. One is a minor dent across the right edge a few mm long, the other has two substantial dents across half the body. Both cards are playable in sleeves as none of the damage is visible on the open-facing edge.

Where would that place them? There is no wear to the cards, just damage. Best I can figure is Played. Poor seems too low, I figure they'd have to be dented to the point that they're probably not legal anymore for Poor. Light Play feels too lenient, especially for the one with two dents. Maybe LP for the one with the smaller dent, but I feel like damage is damage no matter how big and both should be Played.

Thank you!

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I've been having arm and hand problems since February when all my symptoms started getting worse, prompting an actual start on DMARDs but christ it's flared up like nothing else.

I'm between medications atm. Can't wait to start a new one because I'm going mad. What I could do was already limited, but the past week has felt like someone was burning my nerves with an iron.

The numbness too. I hold my phone for a couple minutes and my hand is falling asleep.

I can't even wear compression gloves right now because the compression hurts. Phorpain helps a bit, but I'm trying to limit my NSAIDs, even topical. I cannot wait to see my Rheum in a couple weeks.

I tried getting advice elsewhere that I though might have more specialised help. That was a mistake. Between the victim-blaming, people diagnosing me with other conditions, and DM's soliciting all manner of books, software and "cures" (If I hear another person tell me I just need peptides and Doctors are scamming me I'm going to lose my mind) I ended up feeling worse. I couldn't bare to read the rest of the responses I got.

I love the community here, genuinely. I'm grateful how everyone here understands how heartbreaking PsA can be, and how much work the mods must do to keep this subreddit free of bad actors (And if there aren't that many to begin with... hooray! Even better!).

Still, I'm staying strong and looking forward to getting through this, it just feels like I'm being put through the wringer right now.

Based in England.

Hi. At the start of July my bath cracked, rendering it unusable.

A stop-gap solution was found by covering the crack in waterproof gorilla tape and using an accessible bench across the bath so as to not put pressure on the bottom of the bath. I thought this would be fine as we'd get it sorted within a month, I knew this would hurt me due to my own unique disabilities if it was a long time, hell it half the reason I never take a bath any more. This was me finding this solution, not my landlord.

The landlord investigated at the start of July, went on holiday for 3 weeks, and last week came back with 2 contractors to get estimates for a replacement shower unit. He's now chosen a contractor, and the start date will be the 7th September.

I've had to stop using the shower altogether. As hard as it might be to imagine, my own mobility needs make using a bench or seat in the shower difficult. Standing is by far the best thing for me. I think, unfortunately, I oversold this at the start of July as "I can still shower". Now, using the bench physically hurts. I've been washing myself with a flannel at the sink for the past few days.

I texted my landlord asking if it could be brought forward at all as the bench was no longer easy for me use and was hurting my back and hips, but he responded saying it was the earliest he could get someone in, and by the time he found another contractor another month would've passed since he's away for 2 weeks in August.

I am renting privately straight from the landlord, no agency in between.

I feel like an idiot for thinking this would've been solved quicker. I thought the bench would be fine and he'd get someone in during July.

Any advice here? I can still wash myself I guess because I have a sink, but I'm struggling to believe that's okay. The fact that these have been delayed because he went on Holiday for most of July also frustrates me, and the fact that maybe we could get another contractor in before hand if he wasn't going on Holiday again.

Given everything that's happened the past week, I thought we were seeing the end of this and a contractor would be in at the start of August, but being told he'd agreed to the 7th September really threw me.

I don't know. I'm frustrated and tired.

Heyo. So my TMJ at the moment seems to be mostly muscular. Lots of facial/cheek pain, spasms, tightness, that kinda thing. Compared to my last flare up which was very joint oriented,

This flair has been going for a month or so, it's made talking and eating very painful.

What exercises should be doing to get my jaw back to as normal as I can on my own?

Please no suggestions of physicians or professional treatment. I am on waiting lists, I am enquiring, so please no "Go see, x, y or z" or "Go get a scan" or whatever. Trust that I'm doing that, and I'll no doubt get more help soon enough, I just need some guidance on what I can do myself to ease pain and get back to eating better and talking more with less pain :)

Thank you!

I've gone back to regular foods. I'm in twice as much pain, but I stopped caring. Rotating the same 4 items for months made me want to kill myself. Soup, ramen, soup, soup again, oh look, more soup, but with mushy carrots!

Maybe if I end up in enough pain I'll actually get some helpful medication or something. The fact that there are Dentists out there who can get away with saying "Just eat what you can eat" without doing anything to allow us to eat more when "What you can eat" is essentially liquid is fucking ridiculous.

I refuse to be hungry, go without nutrition, and drop my QoL this much. Being free of pain, but having so few calories is not worth the trade off. How the hell am I expected to recover without any vitamins or proteins? My muscles are just going to get weaker and weaker, the pain will get worse and I'll never recover. By the time I'm finished with these meal replacements, my blood sugar is going to be so high they'll discover a new type of diabetes. I'll probably end up with scurvy or something.

My face is killing me right now, but at least my belly is full.