This section of my memoir addresses my struggles with TMJ (a disorder affecting the muscles that allow your mouth to open and close) as a freshman in college. In this paragraph, I describe the night I had a TMJ “attack” and woke up in the middle of the night to my jaw being painfully locked.
“Luckily for me, my body made the decision about whether professional help was required for us. I went to bed that night and after a solid three hours of lying in the dark in significant discomfort, I finally drifted off to sleep. The momentary peace that came with my temporary unconsciousness was short lived as I jolted awake a few hours later in a state of pure torture. The muscles connecting my upper and lower jaw bones felt like they had tied themselves into the world’s tightest knot, and the red-hot clenching pressure that came with this was the worst pain I have experienced to this day. I tried to open my mouth to scream to my two roommates to get a doctor, the RA, or anyone who might be able to do something to make this horrible agony stop. However, I quickly realized that my mouth was physically incapable of opening. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t even muster an unintelligible whimper.”
Stay tuned for more excerpts from my unpublished memoir!!