ATFP stands for.........

Atypical Facial Pain.

And it's a syndrome.

And I'm to be tested for it.


For 5 years I have had a pretty much continuous, kind of itchy ache, in my bottom front teeth.
This has, at times, been really unpleasant, but it's like all things like this in that you get used to constants.

When it first began I was treated for gum disease to the tune of £600.00. It did nothing to alleviate the pain whatsoever, and this lead to a referral to my local hospital.
The diagnosis then, was that my mind was playing tricks on me, in as much as there was no reason for there to be pain and that the mind can fire off signals of pain for no good reason.
I was prescribed a kind of anti-depressant which blocks this kind of signal, and for 3 months it really helped.

Then it was slowly creeping back and has been with me since.

I can deal with pain, but it really pisses me off when I have no other problems with them. I have only one filling and a crown. That's it. Never had a tooth removed either.

Recently I went to a new dentist to have the crown replaced and explained this situation to her and she referred me to the dental institute at Guy's Hospital, which I attended on wednesday.

The consultant was thorough and sympathetic and disagrees that this is my brain making false signals, but that it could be this most rare and more often than not misdiagnosed condition known as Atypical Facial Pain Syndrome. He has only seen 2 cases of it in his career so far. (See, Mags, something was bound to be going on behind the scenes of my happy smugness!!)

I've given a link for anyone who wants a read up from the folks that know more than me.

http://www.londonpainconsultants.com/articles/2006/10/22/atypical_facial_pain/


http://www.jaws1.co.uk/other_types_of_facial_pain.htm


I'm really glad that there will be some proper tests done now, and once I've been scanned and probed and questioned I'll know at last. It could be 3 months until I am seen but compared to the length of time I've lived with it, I'll cope.



Anyway the upshot of all this is that I really bloody hate dentists and want everyone to know how brave I have been.

The Best Sound in the Universe...

Is this.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk


Something to warm you all the way down to your marrow.

I think they call it 'lucking in'

Well it just gets better.

I have been heartened and truly moved by the sheer generosity of one of my sets of new neighbours.

People think it is so rare, to the point of extinction these days, that folks will put themselves way out for you for no other reason than you need their help, but my wonderful neighbour has busted that theory.

They have friends that were discarding a beautiful, solid wood kitchen, no doubt in favour of some ply-formed nonsense, but I digress.
My neighbour, quick as a flash and having seen the state of our current living standards, asked me if I would like to have the kitchen. The friends wanted nothing for it, and even after years of use, it is still plain to see that buying quality pays.
Anyway, we took a drive down to Selsey and picked it up, and to my delight, my lovely neighbour has fitted it all in.
All this, done without a cross word or a moments stress on his part. Pissed walls and stubborn mortar did not phase this man for a second, and if that were not enough, the kitchen looks lovely. Just work surfaces and a change of door handles to go.

I did a little detective work while he hammered and drilled away (whistling some military band ditty the whole time) and established that him and his truly lovely wife enjoy a good old comedy at the theatre, so as some means of a thank you, I have got them some gift certificates for a dinner show at The Mill, Sonning. It seems piss-poor in light of what having a decent kitchen means to this household, but what do you get the folks who have all they need in life, plus each other?

I am wondering what I did to deserve all this, but I shan't question it too much in case I burst the bubble it came in.