(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

Current health whatever update, so I am actually keeping track of this somewhere I can see it again --

It hasn't gotten better and it hasn't gotten worse. It's also not consistently the same throughout the day or from day to day -- last night I was mostly...not fine, but capable of concentrating enough to write (I made word count!), but that kind of pressure/pain at the top of my cheekbone was bad enough that it didn't go away in the shower and I went to bed with it still hurting. I can't recall if I slept badly about it, but I think I did wake up a couple of times -- I slept for about twelve hours, which is, uh, not ideal. I got up at 3:30 pm, thinking about calling Student Health, but then it was 5 pm and they were closed. For most of the time after I woke up today (I can't call it morning because, like I said, 3:30 pm) I was definitely feeling it along my left eye socket, cheekbone, and the left side of my nose, and enough at the joint of my jaw on the left side of my face that I'm now wondering if it's tooth-grinding again. Because...all the weird stuff happens on the left side of my face: this is the side I woke up temporarily deaf on last year, the side I cracked a tooth on the year before that, and come to think of it, I think I had something really similar to this kind of pressure/pain five years ago on this side? I remember going to Tulane Student Health about it and they were like "we have no idea, but we're going to watergun your ears just in case." (It didn't help. I mean, it didn't hurt because I also have an ongoing earwax issue, but it didn't solve that particular problem, which eventually just went away.) (No, I've never figured out why I woke up deaf in one ear. It went away over the course of the day. Within the week my wrists and elbows flared up on both sides, though, so I just assumed stress.) (I assume everything is stress.)

It kind of faded over the course of the day but never went away entirely -- I'm feeling it in the jaw joint, top of cheek, and left side of my nose at the moment. Eyes are still scratchy, no idea how that plays in or if it's completely unrelated. (Humidity is back up in Atlanta, since we've had on and off rain -- yes, we've had pressure changes too, I'm probably just lucky I didn't have the joint pain I also sometimes get with pressure changes.) I did take ibuprofen at one point today and got nauseous afterwards; I don't know if it helped or if the nausea was related or if I just hadn't eaten enough food to balance out that much ibuprofen. (I never actually threw up, I was just slightly icky -- and was out on a walk at that point, so it's a good thing nothing happened.) Right now my right eye is hurting more than my left, but the left side of my face is where all the other stuff is hurting so my eye may not be registering. I think as I type this I'm also starting to get some upper cheek / eye socket pressure on the right, but who knows.

Added into this is the fact that I get sick every time the weather shifts (which it does CONSTANTLY in Atlanta, so I'm basically always slightly sick), every time I'm stressed (I'm always stressed), and oh yeah...the plague. I do have a covid test scheduled for tomorrow so I can be cleared to return to campus, so I guess the outside chance this is a weird covid symptom will be cleared up. (Of course, this involves a two hour hike because it has to be done through the university, but, well, sigh.) Anyway, ibuprofen does nothing, acetominophen does nothing, the eye drops (I've got Refresh Tears, currently) do nothing, nothing seems to be having any affect one way or another. I'm hesitant to try any other OTC medications because I'm not sure what the actual problem is and I react weirdly to some stuff (I can't take cold medicine, for example -- it doesn't do anything for cold symptoms but it makes me really loopy). I know several people said migraine, but I'm not hitting anything on the checklist except location and some earlier brightness sensitivity; my best guess is sinus? BUT HOW DO THE EYES PLAY IN?

anyway, I got nothing, suggestions welcome. I wouldn't mention it if I wasn't hoping someone would go "ah, this is the problem!"

I'll call Student Health on Monday, I guess -- there's a 24/7 telehealth option too but I'd rather just go through Student Health since I'm in Atlanta. I should probably also call an optometrist, which, well, the options are the one twenty minutes from me or trying to get an appointment with one up at Emory University Hospital (I'm not...super keen on going to a hospital right now, of obvious reasons, but Emory Eye Center is covered under my university insurance; the other place isn't). the term also starts Monday and that's going to involve looking at screens -- which, like, I can do, though I cut back a lot over the past week to absolutely no results.

Comments

[resolute]

Tooth problems can lead to the sorts of symptoms you describe. An infected tooth nerve can create sinus pain ...

[bedlamsbard]

oh god that would be all I need. I assume that if I was having a tooth issue I would be having tooth pain, though? and so far I am not having any more tooth pain than the normal baseline stuff that comes from being a night-time tooth-grinder. ("your teeth are great!" said my dentist a couple years ago. "except for the part where they're the teeth of someone twice your age!" this is an actual quote.)

[rthstewart]

I'm sorry, Bed. Bad sinus pressure/pain/infection can impact a lot of thing, including causing vertigo, migraine like pain, and eyesight -- I'm assuming because of pressure on the ocular nerve. Have you tried pseudoephedrine? it's what's in Sudafed and you could try the immediate release little red tablets, rather than the long acting stuff. A full does is tablets 4-6 hours. You could try one pill and see if it does anything. It's a stimulant, so there's that. For me, the cough suppressant part of cold meds -- the dextromethorphan, can cause really serious loopiness and it makes me really sick. Good luck and I hope you can get into the health service.

[bedlamsbard]

Thank you! I had so many people say with complete certainty "it's a migraine" originally that I was really thrown, but googling is giving me the sinus infection vs. migraine lists (vs. covid, lolsob) and mostly coming down on the sinus side. I will look for pseudoephedrine the next time I'm at CVS.

I've never figured out what part of cold meds make me loopy and sick -- since they don't seem to have much effect on me otherwise it's never seemed worth trying to figure out. (they don't even get rid of the cold symptoms half the time! of course I always forget I can't take cold meds and buy them anyway, so I now have a stockpile that I can't use.)

[azurelunatic]

I wound up tracing one weird nausea problem to expired ibuprofen. In my case it felt a little like I had been gradually kicked in the stomach a little while after I'd taken it.

[bedlamsbard]

My ibuprofen should have another year and a half -- I think I just took too much on not enough food? It had that kind of feel, even though I'd eaten right before.

[azurelunatic]

Very likely that, then.

[bedlamsbard]

After a couple bad experiences I'm generally pretty careful about taking meds or vitamins with enough food. (...oh, hell, I just remembered why I don't take vitamins with breakfast anymore: I apparently don't eat enough for breakfast to balance them out. This is definitely what happened with the ibuprofen, then.)

[sporky_rat]

I have definitely found issues with my sinuses effect my eyes.

[bedlamsbard]

why is the human body so freakishly interconnected. :(

I mean, I guess that's...a good thing...but also agh.

[starlady]

Migraines can be very weird in terms of presentation and they can last a long time, but I'm also starting to think this sounds like a sinus problem. As an example, and not as something that I think you necessarily have, my stepmother had a toothache for months because there was a nodule in her sinuses pressing on the tooth nerve. All that stuff in the face is very close together and other parts can easily be involved in problems with another area.

I would second the Sudafed/pseudoephedrine recommendation--I get the 12 hour because I can't be bothered to take all the little pills. Getting loopy/high off cold medicine is pretty common, though usually at higher doses; I actually stopped taking it because it's a mix of uppers and downers and I didn't like the ride. If you were congested I would say try irrigating your sinuses with a neti pot. Either way it sounds like it's definitely time to see a doctor. And probably ask for a referral to an ENT if they don't give you one.

[bedlamsbard]

honestly I have enough weird stuff going on in my face that it could be LITERALLY ANYTHING (I probably should have seen an ENT for the tinnitus, for one example...two years ago...especially because I was specifically told to come back if it didn't go away, whoops.)

I will definitely call Student Health on Monday, and go to CVS tomorrow. I'm not like...congested, per se, but have had a lot of pressure in the nose. Not as much today as the past few days; everything just keeps shifting where I can feel lit, which is frustrating.

[starlady]

Bodies are so weird. The fact that you get sick when the weather changes also sounds like a sinus thing to me now that I think about it, your sinuses could be reacting to the atmospheric pressure fluctuations--my roommate has the same thing. I hope they can get you in at Student Health quickly!

[bedlamsbard]

Bodies are so weird. I feel like I didn't always get sick when the weather changes? Or you'd think I'd have been aware of it a lot earlier than this past year or two.

Student Health has been pretty good at getting me in before -- fortunately there are a lot fewer students on campus, lolsob. Worst case, they bump me to telehealth instead of actually going in, which, shrug.