Pain when chewing - any idea how long this may last?
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I'm trying to shift my body from liquid foods (a smoothie a day) to solid foods but I have quite a few obstacles (reflux that feels like I'm swallowing hot coals for instance). All that aside, when I do chew food, it hurts the side where my GCA is the most dominant, which is the side where they did the surgery. My surgery was January 2nd. The site has healed but every time I put my jaw together I get a pain shooting up into the temple. The pain lingers after eating, so i have this really horrible headache. the headache then triggers the cranial nerve neuropathies and we have fireworks in my head. Eating is not a joy.
I wonder if anyone else with GCA has had pain chewing/eating and exactly when that pain stopped for them (if at all). I just assumed that 6 weeks after surgery it would be done with. I'm on 65mg of prednisone and my Rheumatologist treats this as not the original pain, but as a side issue that is for the most part ignored. I've had this pain eating since the beginning of the diagnosis.
(FYI, I started in late december at 60 mg prednisone, had a biopsy 3 days later which was definitive, then since I was still having symptoms they bumped me up to 80 mg for a while, then tried to move me to 60mg, that didn't work so they moved me to 70mg. Now at 65mg (and staying put for a bit Taking gabapentin for the peripheral neuropathies that have cropped up, plus dropped omeprazole and ranitidine max doses for pantoprazole and ranitidine max doses.)
1 like, 9 replies
EileenH LisaCACO
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LisaCACO
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EileenH LisaCACO
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LisaCACO EileenH
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maybe it just needs more time to settle down a bit. maybe 6 wks in the life of an area that was attacked in surgery isn't much time. I know they moved the nerve above my left eye and that took about 4 wks just to get over the little nudge the surgeon gave it.
barbara75814 LisaCACO
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LisaCACO barbara75814
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LisaCACO
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EileenH LisaCACO
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janet08828 LisaCACO
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I can't help with anything that I have experienced other than that the prednisolone helped my symptoms within the first week, although 2 years on I am still fighting to reach a maintenance dose.
I would have thought that with the high dose you are on you ought not to be experiencing such pain for so long so I agree with Eileen that it sounds like a nerve.
Wow I really sympathise - as if you didn't have enough on your plate!