Smile!

For the past few weeks I've been struggling with an unusual problem. My tongue hurts as though it's been burned. The symptoms started not long after my mom passed away. I searched the internet for answers with no real success. Was I sick? Could it be related to depression?

Toward the beginning of April I finally talked to my brother in law's ex who has some expertise in the area of acupuncture and symptoms that show up on tongues. At the time it appeared that my tongue had a split in the middle and Amanda suggested a major cause was primarily dehydration. At the time I'd been drinking a pot of green tea and a pot of herbal tea each day, so I gave up the tea and started drinking just water. My tongue seemed to get better and then suddenly got worse again.

Yesterday I did some more internet searching and found a reference to possible reactions to toothpaste... That got me thinking. For years I have always bought the "cheap" toothpaste, Aim, Ultrabright..., the ones that cost little more than a dollar per tube, but when my mom passed away, she'd left a half used tube of Crest Pro Health. I'd used the remainder of the tube and liked how my teeth felt, so I bought another tube a couple weeks ago. When did my symptoms start? Yeah, soon after my mother's passing... What do you know? All kinds of people have complained about tongue and mouth pain after using Crest Pro Health products.

In the meantime, I've given up drinking both coffee and tea every morning and have spent the last week drinking just water. That probably won't last forever but it's nice to know I'm currently caffeine free.