Sunday, December 18, 2011

Little did I expect, I was diagnosed as a victim of bruxism and temporomandibular joint and muscle disorders just last week.

It has been a terrible nightmare for me. I had been waking up on many nights with throbbing pain in my teeth and sore swelling jaws (with similar blue-black pains) the next morning.
I was unable to work, sleep and eat well.

Condition worsened on Friday night when the pain on my front tooth refused to go away and stayed with me throughout the night. I knew that something bad had happened and I was crying badly because of the pain.

I visited the dentist on Saturday again. He told me that the nerve in the tooth was dying. The last resort to stop the pain would be to do a root canal treatment. Because such treatment tends to weaken the teeth further, he gave me a strong medication for treatment instead, in hope of reviving the nerve at the same time. Still, there is a chance that the nerve will die away. The dentist and I have come to a consensus to monitor the situation for a week and hopefully things will get better with the medication and the use of splint. I would like to avoid root canal treatment if possible. I am praying hard!

Because of this whole drama, I was on medical leave two days this week and tomorrow I will be on another again. I can't wait to collect my splint tomorrow. With that, I do hope that I'd stop the clenching and grinding at night. I couldn't believe how much time and money I've spent on this. The bills are close to 1grand. I believe that I've exceeded the dental insurance coverage under my company's scheme. If money could help to resolve all these dental problems, then I am sure that the money was well-spent. Otherwise, I guess I just need to resign to fate.

The dentist asked what do I do for a living and if I was under a lot of stress/frustration. Hmmm, part of it must be because of work but I wouldn't say that all of it was caused by work. I took some time to think of objects in life which created stress for me in one way or another. It wasn't just work. Friends, family and relationship played a part as well.

The biggest lesson learnt from this is to try to take things easily going forward.

Besides that, I definitely need lessons on stress management.

I've got to admit that I've been much more stressed out at work lately. My manager is currently training me to cover a new desk's work. Work is more challenging and dynamic. Things move a lot faster and volume is higher. Trainings are short due to manpower and time limitations. The upcoming public holiday coverage tells me that they expect me to cover the new desk independently. I have a month's time to go.

I do think I can do it.. but it depends on how well I can do it.
Of course I don't want to do a bad job.

It happens. When people have a high expectations of you, your stress levels increase without fail.
That's what I am going through at work now.

Everyone seems to have high expectations of me at work.

There I go again, worried and stressed now again.

Yikes!

Time for my medicines - anti-inflammation, anti-swelling, muscles-relaxation, pain-killers...all of them thrice a day!