I was a full time police officer; I loved my job, I was happy, and ignored a lot of my daily symptoms thinking it was normal. I was ALWAYS tired I could sleep 12 hrs and wake up tired or could sleep another 4 hrs. It didn’t matter, I was exhausted. I had TMJ since I was little I’m 28 now. An ortho wanted to “reset” my jaw at 13 but my parents got another opinion and they said my jaw wasn’t fully done developing and to wait it out. I didn’t have pain besides the popping and soreness. In 2020, I started with migraines, they run in the family so I just took it as well I can’t do anything about it. Then they turned into hospital stays, unable to function migraines. Test after test everything was coming back normal. One day in the hospital, a nuero came in and said your not having true migraines and I was like excuse me? The hammer to my head said otherwise. He said I can tell your jaw is crooked, the nurses tell me you sleep with your mouth open and snore. He said go see a specialist… then another spiral started finding a dr who would take my case. First Dr wanted my to wear an appliance the rest of my life, I didn’t agree. The second said “I don’t see anything wrong” then I met Dr. Movahed I call him uncle Reza now because that’s how much time I’ve spent with that man. He saved my life. When he told me I wasn’t crazy and all my symptoms weren’t in my head I knew he would be my Dr no matter the cost. He kept reading my scans to his assistant of all the things he was seeing as an issue. I was crying my mom was crying like no wonder I’m in pain and so tired. In the meantime I got diagnosed with RA which ultimately was eating away at jaw joints. I saw Dr. Movahed in 2021, after conservative tx we knew the only fix was surgery and it wasn’t going to be easy. I got braces- sent me in such a bad flare of pain I couldn’t eat and ended up getting a feeding tube in my stomach for malnourishment. I was no longer a cop I could barely get out of bed. Surgery was Nov 2022, 12 hrs in the OR. Dr. Movahed came out to my family (a lot of them came) and he said she’s going to live her life now. I spent a week in the ICU because my body was just done. I didn’t want to wake up from surgery like let me sleep people. So ICU for a week and sent home with a nasal feeding tube to reduce infection. When I got home, I went all day without a migraine I was banded shut crying because I was waiting for the pain to come back… it didn’t and hasn’t. I’m 10 mo post op yes I still have healing pain, but I’m working, I can stay awake ALL day which I hadn’t done in years I still love my naps but not 5 a day. Jaw surgery saved my life because if I dealt with any more pain for any longer I don’t think I’d be here.
