Ugh! New Symptoms

What I have been trying to ignore for the last 6 months reared its ugly head yesterday. I have a new "tender point" and it's set up shop in my right jaw, of all the places it could pick.

For those not familiar with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS), people with FMS suffer from tender points (among other things) that basically is a muscle or a section of muscle that is hard to the touch, tender like you wouldn't believe and usually inflamed. There are a lot of theories behind tender points. Some believe it's neurological, with synapses and nerves causing the muscle to seize. Others believe it is chemical within the muscle cells itself, where phosphate, which is used to key the cell to contract, never returns to it's holding tank and remains active in the cell, causing the involuntary muscle contraction.

The key words there are seize, contraction, and nerves, which are all elements of pain. I don't know what labor feels like, but I believe these pains could be relative to them. Regardless, they are not pleasant.

The other side of tender points is the exhaustion they produce. Your muscles expend energy when they are used, whether you voluntarily use them in running a marathon or you involuntarily use them in biological processes like digestion. This is why you're sleepy after lunch. Digestion is mild, however. If someone has FMS, they usually feel like they've climbed a mountain or run two dozen miles because their muscles have been contracting for that period of time, even if they've just been sitting at a desk or more likely just lying down.

Tender points show up wherever you have muscles and usually stay there. This is why I'm concerned about my jaw. Last night, my face was swollen and my whole right side of my head felt like it had a migrane. Finally, I was able to get my wife to use trigger points and pressure to cause these muscles to physically relax enough. Suddenly, I felt a rush of drainage and the migrane-like pain began to subside. I don't know what it was, but my suspicion is that I now know what TMJ feels like. I'll let my doctor decide if that's what it was.

This is not fun and I don't like playing "Guess the Syndrome." I'm very frustrated that this has shown up. I'm fighting it through prayer and faith that God can keep this from happening again. You have to fight. You don't have a choice. It's either fight stuff like this or lie down, make out your last will and testament and then simply languish. I choose life, and I'll fight.