Friday, May 30, 2008

omg I thought I was the only one

Sometimes when I drink certain things I get a shooting pain around my jaw joint. (The TMJ, if you prefer.) Usually it's sweet alcoholic drinks. Hard cider can be lethal, and last night's May Punch started stabbing me toward the end of drink #2, particularly when I ate the alcohol-soaked strawberries. But it doesn't have to be alcohol. I've had it happen with orange juice, too.

Today for the first time it occurred to me to google this thing and see if I could come up with any explanations, and the *only* thing I could find was this. It's a forum on some kind of health site where basically everyone says, omg I thought I was the only one! Which I did. But people seem to be describing a variety of different pains and anyway, nobody has any idea what it is. Well, people have many ideas (allergies! blocked salivary glands! Hodgkin's disease!) but no evidence.

Ever heard of this? What the heck?

7 comments:

towwas said...

Oh and tonight it happened to me when I was just eating strawberries, no alcohol involved. Anyone? Anyone?

MonkeyMom said...

I'm going with some kind of acid reaction. Like when you eat a really super sour candy (does it happen then?)... It may have something to do with an acid/sour/something something reaction...

...but I've got absolutely zero science to back it up. I just know you favor girly drinks (i.e. fruit = sourlike, acidic tendencies)... So maybe?

Anonymous said...

I don't know if it's related, but really acidic things make me sweat - orange juice, pineapple, ketchup, ummm....battery acid.

towwas said...

Hm. Is hard cider acidic?

MonkeyMom said...

I would think so, yeah... Apples are fruit. Fruit generally has some acid going on...

towwas said...

Ok, next question: if it is the acid that does it, why does it cause pain right in that joint?

MonkeyMom said...

Oh, I can play the "I don't know squat but can proffer theories" game all day! Yay!

...because there's a nerve on/near that joint that is connected to/closely linked to the...thingy (neurotransmitter...or something?)...that experiences the sour sensation. When the nerve flares, you experience it in the jawbone.