This is me by Molly Simpson.
This is me by an MRI machine. I promise I have a nose.
I find the online world of Facial Pain to be largely unhelpful and bewildering so I started this diary in order to chronicle my experience in the hopes that it might make someone else with it feel slightly less alone in addition to helping me keep my thoughts straight.
Also, honestly, I'm trying to find ways to not fall into the pit of despair that this condition wants to push me into and having a project in which I feel a certain amount of responsibility to keep my head up and to observe and explain my experience could be the ticket. Or at least a ticket.
My pain came on the heels of two separate but back-to-back traumatic dental procedures in 2008. When I woke up from the second procedure I was in the most pain I'd ever been in (and I've given birth to a 9.2 pound baby without meds, so I know something about pain). It took me 4 years to get a diagnosis. Since then, I've gone through several years of remission and several 3-5 month long stints of face hell.
I am an interior designer in Oakland, CA, the wife of this cute guy, the mother of a very tall and handsome young man, and a rabid feminist. I will most likely offend you here because I’m not gonna not write my truth, which involves swearing (a lot of it) and atheism (a non-belief I notice is not commonly held by chronic pain sufferers).
All words and images featured on this site are mine and boy would I appreciate it if you didn't use them without my permission.