Jawful ...

We head out in less than an hour ... Julia is having jaw surgery.

She has had a terrible time with TMJ/TMD.  It really flared up this past fall when she had to learn and teach saxophone for one of her BYU music education classes.  The placement of your mouth on the mouthpiece to play this instrument caused her to force her jaw forward.  This caused the jaw to have even more problems.  She can barely open her mouth to fit two fingers high - lately it has been one finger    Try it ... how many fingers high can your jaw open?

It has made eating very difficult.  She has to squish her food flat and shove it into her mouth through the small opening - since September.  Her jaw gets really tired and sore after a short time eating.  It has been great portion control for her!  Not fun for sure.

She is having her jaw scoped and then irrigated - at least that is the plan.  She had an MRI done last Saturday to give the surgeon more information on what is going on with her.  He is very conservative with what he does surgically.  He will start with the least invasive treatment possible.  90% of his patients respond well to this and don't need anymore surgery.  Let's hope Julia breaks her trend of being the unique 10%!