Tag Archives: Burning Mouth Syndrome

Am I Getting Better? – Burning Mouth Syndrome

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In May, I began a “job” again for the first time in about thirty years. I have been working as a volunteer all this time, but it was at my convenience and although there were busy times, it was not a constant or consistent routine.

Now I care for my five-month-old grandson who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at three weeks old. I drive to my daughter’s home by 7 AM each weekday morning and leave at 3:30 PM to beat the traffic home. (She and her husband work full time, right now at home but increasingly in their offices.) I feed him, change him, bathe him, play with him, and interact except when he naps. While he naps I help around the house with laundry, dishes, and preparing bottles. Now we are beginning solid food and that will be another adventure!

What does this have to do with my Burning Mouth Syndrome pain?

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Year 14 Begins – Burning Mouth Syndrome

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In addition to celebrating my first Mother’s Day as a grandmother, I am sobered by the fact that this begins my fourteenth year of Burning Mouth Syndrome.

Gigi & Miles!

I never imagined when this journey began that it would last so long and would affect my life so much. Each year at this time, I review and see what I have learned, whether there has been any improvement in my pain, and evaluate how much I have been able to help others who are not as far down this road. I have kept up with the research on the BMS Support website and respond to comments on this blog regularly, and it feels like those are helpful things to do.

2020 was a challenge for everyone. The COVID19 pandemic took the chessboard we usually move around on and tossed it in the air. Sickness, Death, Lockdowns, Masks, Respirators, Ventilators, PPE, Social Distancing, and more, all became a part of the pandemic landscape and our new vocabulary. The folks who dealt with chronic pain and illness had to find a new level of coping skills and count ourselves lucky that it wasn’t worse if we were able to avoid COVID.

2021 started out very hopeful with the advent of incredibly effective vaccines, but the rollout was uneven and slow, frustrating even the most patient of us. Then the variants began popping up around the world, inevitable but scary, and things were made even more chaotic as disinformation spread and vaccine hesitancy became a thing.

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COVID Vaccine – Burning Mouth Syndrome

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(c) Can Stock Photo / Nicoletalonescu

I have generally been a strong proponent of vaccines and get my flu shot every year. Knock on wood, flu has not been a visitor at my house for many decades and I would like to keep it that way.

That said, when the vaccines came out, like many of you the first thing I thought was, “What will the COVID vaccine do to my Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS)?”

We have all tried so many things to relieve our burning, and some may have helped a bit, but we also discovered additional triggers and things that caused flares, and so we may have become just a little more wary than our neighbors. Not because we don’t trust science, and not because we have hard held beliefs for or against vaccinations, but simply because we don’t want to hurt more.

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Winter Dryness and Burning Mouth Syndrome

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Icy Winter
(c) Can Stock Photo / Ariec

Winter is not even close to over and the entire nation has had a big dose of icy temperatures, slippery roads, and overworked heaters. Heaters and furnaces do a good job of keeping us warm (when they work and you are not having rolling blackouts) but they also turn the air we breathe dry as the Sahara on a hot day.

Dry air and dry tongues are anathema to Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) sufferers and can increase our burning sensation and even bring on flares that take time to subside.

What can we do?

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Been There-Got the BMS T-Shirt

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I have mentioned before in this blog that Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) gets little attention from the medical community and the world at large.

After all, it won’t kill you. At least not directly.

Recently, a friend sent me a link to an Etsy shop that is run by a Burning Mouth Syndrome sufferer and I was so excited to see something so important to me finally being recognized. These designs are not official. After all, there is no BMS Foundation or nonprofit to run things through, and although some of the Facebook Support groups have come up with some things, there is no slogan or logo that universally makes you say, “Oh yeah, that’s Burning Mouth Syndrome!”

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Checkups in COVID 19 Country

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(c) CanStock Photo / dacasdo

I started to write this as an update for Burning Mouth in the Time of COVID 19, but I realized it would be too long. Feel free to read that previous post since it lays out my thinking about checkups in a pandemic! Many doctors and specialists are moving to a mix of virtual and live appointments and for the most part, I think that may very well be the way of the future. However, if you have something they need to see, test, or feel to diagnose, don’t hesitate to press for an in-person appointment. They have protocols and PPE and are doing a great job of keeping everyone safe. Ask ahead what the procedures are, and you will either be reassured or decide to switch doctors!

That said, here is my update and what I experienced as I tried to catch up on my checkups.

The Annual Physical was protected and easy, and I was so glad I went in person (We have done a virtual follow up appointment.) because the little itchy, burning rash I had developed on my gluteus was not prickly heat. It was shingles! It was so mild because I had taken the Shingrex vaccine, but it gave me a hint of how extremely painful that could be.

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Stress and Burning Mouth Syndrome

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Stress. We know it makes our chronic neuropathic pain worse. Our pain increases as stress rises, which increases pain, which increases stress…and well, you know the rest.

It’s an automated answering system from Hell, with no readily visible pound sign to hit to get a live person on the line. Or is it?

Stress is coming at us from all sides now, from the worries and complications of the pandemic to the feelings and actions we are experiencing about racial equality and equity. We are not alone in our stress by any means, but chronic pain sufferers can be triggered in more than one way by it.

I admit that I resisted counseling at the beginning of my Burning Mouth Syndrome journey. I had an instinctively negative reaction to the assumption that this pain was “all in my head,” or that therapy could or would help. It also felt suspiciously like I was getting shuffled off into the “menopausal female” box where any aches or pains or issues were part of the incredibly mysterious malady that seemed to be menopause. As a strong and independent female, I rejected this categorization and marginalization and started fighting back.

How? Continue reading →

Burning Mouth In the Time of Covid 19

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If you are here, I assume you know what Burning Mouth Syndrome is, that no one knows exactly what causes it and that there is no cure. If you don’t, this blog is full of descriptions and you can also check out the BMS Support Website.

If you are here, you are probably a BMS sufferer or knows someone who is. This blog is not usually a casual stopping place out there on the Internet.

I’m going to assume that you know about Covid 19 and the global pandemic it has set off and the fact that people with pre-existing conditions are more at risk for severe cases of the illness and even for death.

Is Burning Mouth Syndrome a pre-existing condition that could put you more at risk? The short answer is that if it is primary (in other words, there is not an underlying illness that is causing it), probably not. However, we do end up in doctor’s offices more often and in a world that is avoiding as much contact as possible with other people, and particularly contact with sick people; that is causing a stressful situation for us.

Have you skipped a trip to your Neurologist or Pain Specialist yet? Continue reading →

Inhalers and Burning Mouth Syndrome

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Over the last couple of years, I have become short of breath when walking up steep hills, and have even run out of breath when singing a long phrase or at the end of a sentence. I figured I was just getting older, heavier, slower, but when my sleep apnea was diagnosed the doctor found something else.

My lung capacity had gone down to the point where the drop could be measured.

The next stop on this particular journey is to see a Pulmonologist and so I did. He measured my lung capacity and recommended a chest X-ray which came back with some suspicious shadows at the bottom of both lobes of my lungs.

Off to the radiologist again, but this time for a high-resolution CT. Yes, my friends, these are expensive and since we were still on our deductible for the year it was a large hit to the wallet but worth it since it gave us insight into what had previously been a shadow. Continue reading →