Saturday, January 9, 2016

Happy New Year, 2016...Updates, TENS Units, & more

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope you all had a wonderful, pain-free  New Year's celebration (or at least numbed by champagne). My only new year's resolution is to lose 10 pounds, (or maybe 5...ok, 3, whatever, I'm working on it!). What about you?

I am glad to see 2015 end...In a nutshell, it was nasty; I finally found a new job in 2015 (yay!), which led me to I relocate to a new town 5 hours away. I sold my house and left my friends behind to move to a new life in a new city, and within ONE WEEK of starting the job, my new boss was fired (boo!), and that company basically just went berserk with multiple restructurings and layoffs...ultimately after a few months, I was let go, too. Unemployed again, and now in a strange town. :/

Fortunately, I still have an active Real Estate license obtained in 2005, which has served as a nice fall-back position... the tricky part is finding customers, and there is no salary, it's 100% commission, so no customers = no $$.  Back to the grind of sending job applications all day long and resumes, resumes, resumes...ad infinitum...

MY INJURED STATUS, SIX YEARS LATER...
December 30, 2015 marked the 6 year anniversary of my lingual nerve injury. When I went to have a cavity filled just before attending a New Year's Eve party, back in Dec, 2009, I never dreamed that I would end up permanently injured, and blogging about it for six years, just trying to help others through the terrifying and excruciating months/years that I experienced at first.

In retrospect, it has been immensely helpful having all of you to listen to my my advice and encouragement. It helps to know that I may be helping others. This injury can be very isolating; no one's ever heard of it, or can see it, or knows what to do about it. So, having this little meeting place on the Internet for all of us has been a great outlet with unexpected benefits.

WHAT ABOUT A TENS UNIT FOR PAIN?
A new doctor recently suggested I try a TENS unit on my face, where I have still have deep, aching pain on the left side. Hmmmm...you know I'm not excited about possibly making something worse.

TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation... TENS machines are small and easy to use, and you can easily have one in your home. They work by sending stimulating pulses across the surface of the skin and along the nerve strands to help prevent pain signals from reaching the brain, as well as stimulate endorphins, your body's own natural painkillers.  

But, here's the catch: sometimes, TENS can actually make pain worse. Not usually, but it does happen. Feel free to comment if you have any knowledge of this treatment. TENS units are often used for lower back pain, so some of you may already be familiar.

What are you doing for pain that's working? I hope you are seeing some progress. xo - jane :)