A few weeks ago I woke up and could only open my mouth a quarter of an inch. Running to the bathroom, I looked in the mirror to see my cheeks swollen like a chipmunk’s. It was not a cute look.

I have experienced TMJ pain off and on for a few years, but it had never been this bad. TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint. It sounds fancier than it is. Your TMJ is the joint that connects your jaw to your skull. TMJ pain is typically caused with the muscled that surround the joint and control jaw movement become tight. This can be due to a number of reasons including grinding your teeth and clenching them.

I fall on the clenching side of the spectrum, an action typically associated with high levels of stress.

As I rode the subway to the hospital, gently massaging my jaw in a vain effort to get my mouth to open further, I tried to figure out how it had gotten that bad. I had been really busy, but hadn’t noticed that I had been more stressed than usual. I had been waking up earlier than normal to attend a conference, but had been going to bed early to compensate. I had been working out hard, but had been balancing hard classes with yoga for relaxation and flexibility. I had even recently left school to allow myself to focus on work.

When I got to the hospital I was ushered into the emergency room (quiet at 7am on a Sunday) and spent the first 5 minutes trying to convince the nurse that I was not punched in the face. The next 5 minutes were spent determining if, somehow, my jaw was actually dislocated. When, a few hours later, the doctor finally accepted that my body had simply rebelled and decided I needed to shut-up for a day, I was prescribed steroids, pain meds, and a week-long soft foods diet.

Even chocolate pudding can lose it’s allure after 3 days straight.

I had made the mistake of thinking that I could, for the most part, stop taking care of myself.

Since then, I have tried to relax more, spend more time with friends, and better manage my work so that I am not rushing to get things done at the last minute.

We only get one body, I am working on taking care of it.