We Love Food, We Just Can’t Always Eat It…

Don’t worry, we haven’t rebranded or anything – we just wanted to shed some light on a few things. You may have noticed that our posts haven’t been as frequent as they used to be. There are several reasons for that – firstly, we’ve been very busy working for ourselves and therefore our clients are getting most of our time and attention.

Secondly, my jaw grief isn’t going away any time soon. I have chronic TMJ issues that are linked to my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hypermobility type). In short, EDS is a genetic illness linked to faulty collagen which affects my connective tissue – nothing important, just the stuff that holds our bodies in place. This affects all my joints making them unstable and the muscles and joints sore but I mostly feel it in my neck, shoulders, head and jaw. It hurts. All the time.

That’s Saff’s Halloween costume sorted…

I had some minor surgery back in December on my jaw to try and relieve the pain – it didn’t work unfortunately and instead I can’t open my mouth very wide. I have to try and stick to a soft-ish food diet as much as I can – no more cramming a juicy MeatLiquor burger in my mouth or crunching on a packet of crisps, even.

It has been and continues to be really tough. Indulging in a meal out can sometimes leave me regretting it the following day when my jaw is agony and therefore my neck and head too. It’s also the straining to talk over loud background noise that can put a strain on things and add to the nightmare that is TMJ and EDS. When confronted with any food it’s like; is it chewy? Cheesy? Will it block Ade’s esophagus? More on that shortly.

All my energy goes into work and saving myself for meetings or social events – trying to rest my jaw as much as I can in between. There are good days and they are just the absolute best. The pain is still a good 5/10 but I can function a bit better and want to go and scoff entire menus at the latest restaurant on our list. This is all I want to do when I don’t feel horrendous (like I do today).

Restaurants continue to give me a huge amount of joy and that will never go away – despite how much my jaw tries to prevent me having a good time. I’ve developed a trick to still enjoy the foods I love which pretty much involves sucking it until it eventual disintegrates or just swallowing it – which explains my bloated stomach.

I am highly aware of how short and precious life is and there’s so much I want to do and see, I just wish my body felt the same way.

Soft desserts to the rescue!

Right. Ade’s turn. It’s not just me with issues. Ade has a narrowing in his esophagus (scar tissue, caused by stomach acid) which varies in degrees or severity. A bit like me, he goes through good and bad patches – when it’s really bad he can choke on his food if not chewed properly which is utterly terrifying. He can still breathe (he assures me every time this happens but I still freak out.)

He has to drink a lot of water to try and push the food down, sometimes it works, sometimes not. When it doesn’t, the blocked food acts like a plug and the water sits on top, he has to lean forward to let gravity get the water out so he can start the whole process again until the blockage has gone. It’s horrible for him.

So eating out means scouring the menu for non-chewy or crunchy foods for me (oh and they also can’t contain cheese as I hate the stuff). Then I spend the entire meal watching out for Ade and making sure he had a plentiful amount of water whilst constantly mouthing ‘chew chew!’ at him.

We’re still trying to enjoy food as much as we can, health and business aside. We thought we’d share with you the fave things we’ve succeeded in getting past our bad jaws/dodgy tubes in the last few months.

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