People with serious TMJ or hyperesthesia of the face find that even the touch of
the softest pillow is painful, and some people mitigate this with pain pills, splints,
or even operations. I find that pillow modification is helpful, while pills
are often worthless and hard on the body to boot.
By lying on the
pillowcase-less pillow and marking all the spots that hurt the most (roll sideways
for access), you can establish a high-density pain area. It's easy to push
all the feathers away from an area to let the surrounding area bear more of
the your weight, and then sew stitches to surround the pain area so it stays feather-free.
This may compact the down enough so that you'll want to open the pillow
and remove some down—do it outdoors.
You can even cut off a section
of pillow and resew the pillow edge, keeping in mind that down is like Houdini—these
feathers can escape even when it's not possible. The upside of pillow
surgery is the lessened face pain, but the down side—no pun intended—is the way
side-lying neck balance can get compromised, which can lead to a whole new set
of pains.
Below are the stitched pillow and the cut pillow. I used
the stitched pillow until pain dictated that I needed to make a change. Nothing
against the face was much better than a little bit of fabric touching now and
then. Did you ever try to sleep on a bad sunburn? If so, you know what I'm talking
about. |
