what colours have you seen today?

Wednesday was work as usual. Meetings and all that. But towards the end of the day, I was grabbing a Subway Meal for dinner and then I suddenly realized that there was this sharp pain in the left side of my mouth - quite like the same way you'd feel when your wisdom teeth started to appear. I guess it came from this wider-than-normal yawn that I had before going for dinner. But then, I just brushed it aside. And then, the pain progressed, and in just a matter of minutes, I couldn't chew anymore! It was painful as hell, but I told myseld that it would probably subside after I take painkillers. After all, Ibuprofen Paracetamol has never failed me before. 

I walked back to the office, and then my jaw suddenly "popped." I thanked God for what I thought was the end of the problem. But, boy was I wrong. It was only the start. It just kept on painfully popping the whole night - all the way until the morning. I searched the internet and the first search result for "lock-jaw" was tetanus. But then the article said that if it was indeed tetanus, then I would be in so much pain that I wouldn't be able to read that article anyway. So the next best thing was that it was TMJ (temporo-madibular joint) problems - which they advised for me to put a hot compress on it for the inflammation to subside.

The next day, I took the morning off to go see the doctor - and she said that my jaws were inflammed. Supposedly, this was common and that it would take a couple of the days for the inflammation to subside. And until then, I should stick to a liquid diet - soups, fruit juices and soft bread at the most. My initial reaction was - "are you kidding me!?" But then the pain was so unbearable. haha And this would do wonders for my plans for weight loss anyway. And so, I had Cedele soup for lunch and distracted myself from the pain by focusing on the work that I had to do.

Anyway, I told Oana about this through messenger - since she was working from home that day. And we had tennis plans that night - but in now way am I letting that go - the pain was just in my mouth, not the whole body so I could still play. Anyway, I walked over to her Condo right after work. And She cooked Romanian chicken soup for me. It tasted really yummy - sour quite like our own sinigang, but definitely something i've never tried before. She also gave me some homemade alcohol she brought back from her recent trip to Romania - which was really strong, and she claimed that it would really help. It was like 60-70% alcohol, definitely strong, parang paint thinner. haha! Anyway, I felt really nice after the mea. God, I'm really thankful for friends like Oana. It's just that without my actual family here, it seems that great friends really are excellent surrogates.

Anyway, I'm feeling loads better today. It still pops once in a while - but the bulk of the inflammation has subsided now. *sigh* Thank god for modern medicine and the comfort that great friends give us while the medicine is doing its magic.