Went for a run this morning with some trepidation. I have newly diagnosed giant cell arteritis.
Newly diagnosed in that I diagnosed it myself this morning. I’ve had a sore temple over the weekend and pain in my TMJ on chewing, plus I felt a bit yucky yesterday, so I immediately thought of temporal arteritis. As you can see, there’s no age limit to med student disease. Unbeknownst to be, it’s been renamed giant cell arteritis at some stage in the last few decades. In my research this morning I discovered I’m now at risk of sudden blindness so maybe going for a run wasn’t a great idea, although it’s usually just in one eye so I think Maggie could have got me home OK.
While I was running a song came on that I recognised from my surgeon’s liposuction playlist. He puts this on when he has an hour/several litres or more of liposuction to do. The beat helps him get into the rhythm of sucking out the aspirate (fat) efficiently. The song was Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater Revival. So, it seems my running tempo is about the same as the cadence of liposuction. Coincidence?
ps. Simon tells me giant cell arteritis is vanishingly rare under 60, so I expect it’s just a big pimple. And this is why I recommend marrying a GP if you can manage it.
pps. If any of you are the type who, like me, need closure, then I can tell you it turned out to be TMJ irritation. The treatment is exercise of the joint, by doing repetitive prognathic manoeuvres, whereby you protrude your lower jaw forward, so that the bottom teeth move ahead of the top teeth. We do this as part of our preoperative airway checks before anaesthetising someone. If you ever need a laugh, ask my husband to demonstrate it to you. He can’t do it without pushing his lips forward like this.
He says it’s impossible not to because something to do with the nerve supply being the same to the lips as the jaw. Best to just nod politely.