Went on a wee errand today, to pick up dog food, tea and some tortillas. I’ve learned that tank tops are the best thing to wear when getting dog food, because i can saddle the 15 lb bag of dog food on my shoulder and let my back carry the weight, instead of my arms. Yeah, we did get a laundry/grocery cart a few months ago, but one of the wheels is so incredibly borked, and not easily replaceable. So we shoulder the dog food and use a backpack for weekly grocery runs.
Anyway. I’m not here to talk about dog food. But i mention it as a “yay me” side note because, well, yay that i can do this. Makes me feel a bit more useful/functional than i generally do, with that whole fibro thing.
I’m here to talk about spit. Yes, really. Saliva. I think it’s the grossest of all the bodily fluids. Seeing people spit will make me nauseated faster than seeing blood, urine, pus or vomit.
Minor not-quite tangent. When i was growing up, my grandma always kept packs of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum around the house. Said she needed something to “wet her whistle”. I associate that smell and taste with her, with comfort. So naturally, the first time i smelled it after she died, it was incredibly bittersweet.
The medication i take (amitriptyline) for my fibro has some side effects, but the one that bugs me the most is dry mouth. I’ve taken to keeping gum (usually fruit-flavoured) around the house, but i also keep some wintergreen mints for when my jaw is bothering me. One night, in a spot of really bad heartburn, some internet research indicated that the best remedy was my own saliva.? I’ve had heartburn issues since i was 10 or 11.
I’ve always been thirsty, and was mildly infamous in my teenage years for being able to drink an entire can of Mountain Dew in 15 seconds. (Now, i know that the thirsty thing is supposed to be one of the symptoms of diabetes, but i’ve been tested regularly for it, have never come close to having those kinds of blood sugar issues, and it does not run in my family.)
As i was riding home on the bus today (see, there totally was a point to my mentioning that), i reached into one of the grocery bags and got out a piece of gum. Fruit-flavoured. I’d also picked up some spearmint-flavoured mints, instead of my usual wintergreen. I like the Ice Breakers brand, and they don’t usually have spearmint, so i snagged it on a whim. Haven’t cracked it open yet.
It got me thinking about my grandma, and a silly phrase popped into my head: We are a people of inadequate saliva.
Silly, but it occurs to me that the body is a whole thing, it’s all connected. It’s not like i’ve ever compared notes with friends about their freaking saliva production. But if i’m just not making enough of the stuff, maybe that would explain the long term heartburn issues. Since it also plays a vital part in the digestive process, it might also explain some of the other stomach issues i’ve had over the years.
It would also explain the peeling that goes on inside of my mouth. Saliva lubricates the inside of the mouth, and the inside of my cheeks chafe and shed from rubbing against the edges of my teeth.
…
Okay, so this is the point in the post where i got distracted by looking up “inadequate saliva production” on google. And i read through a whole bunch of stuff about Sj?gren’s syndrome which sounds incredibly suspicious familiar.
I started wearing contact lenses in high school, but had to stop wearing them less than a decade later. The ophthalmologist determined that my eyes were too dry to wear contacts – my eyes weren’t producing enough tears to lubricate the lenses or flush away build-up caused by wearing contacts. My only options, he said, would be to wear glasses or to use eyedrops every 3-4 hours.
Other symptoms match up; i’ll spare the gory details, but let’s just say i’m a rather dry individual, and my fibro symptoms ease up in the southern humidity.
I’ve done enough research to know that medical research on the ‘net is a dubious activity. There’s lots of information out there, just enough to be dangerous. I may have a fair match of symptoms with something, but without blood tests to confirm or rule out something, all i’m doing is creating a whole lot of What If scenarios.
But on the other hand, it does mean that the next time i have medical insurance (and a job to pay for the medical costs, whee), i think i’m going to ask my doctor about this.