Aha. So THAT'S what it was.

Mine was hanging around underneath my lower canine and incisors. Image found here. 

You ever have one of those experiences when you could tell something was wrong with your body? But you just couldn't decide what exactly was going on?

Sure you have. And it's a pretty good guess that an experience somewhat like the one described began your journey with Sjogren's syndrome.

I had a non-Sjogren's version over the past few days. I knew something was not right in my jaw. I just couldn't decide what that thing was. My bottom teeth were sensitive to pressure and the area where my lip meets the bottom of my gums was hot and tender but everything looked ok. I wasn't running a temp and even though the teeth were sensitive, I couldn't narrow it down to just one tooth and it wasn't keeping me awake at night.

Until last night when it all went kaboom and my lip swelled, my sensitivity turned to authentic insomnia inducing pain, and I could see a reddened lump inside my mouth. All of which suddenly became to a peak around 11pm, of course.

So a big chunk of my time was spent today in a dentist's chair (Thank you, thank you dental office for being able to tell me to just come in as soon as possible and we'll get you all fixed up when I called at the crack of dawn.)

Several x-rays, a root canal, prescriptions for antibiotics and pain pills later, I'm incredibly thankful that the large abscess lurking under several of my teeth's roots is being aggressively treated.

I'm also thankful for my bed where I'm heading right now to catch up with an entire night's sleep deficit.

See y'all tomorrow.