In Focus

As someone with Crohn’s Disease, I often experience random and frustrating side effects, one of the main ones being mouth sores. It doesn’t take much to trigger them; I can wake up with a sore inside my mouth or a small section of inflamed gums for absolutely no reason. Most of the time, these sores go away on their own, though sometimes I need to swish a little peroxide. Fortunately, it has never been debilitating before.

However, this entire week, my mouth has been extremely sore—specifically, the roof of my mouth and the edges of my tongue. I first noticed it after eating a small bag of candy. I have no idea what caused it, so I started drinking more water. Since I don’t particularly like the taste of water, I opted for sugar-free drink mixes. The cold beverages provided some relief from the burning pain and encouraged me to drink more. As the week progressed, though, the pain in my mouth worsened. I decided to use my dental mirror and light to take a look. Sure enough, it was red and inflamed, but there were no signs of thrush, and my throat felt fine, ruling out strep throat. Eating anything that wasn’t soft became increasingly difficult; even the first few chews of gum hitting the roof of my mouth caused pain.

Things came to a head over the weekend. I had a few carbonated adult beverages and didn’t feel much pain, so I thought it was finally getting better. However, I woke up the next morning with the worst pain I had ever experienced, and my mouth was completely dry. Even holding water in my mouth provided no relief. Coffee was too painful to drink hot. I started to contemplate what was happening. It didn’t feel like an infection; it felt more like a burn, which was very different from the usual isolated sore. Desperate for answers, I turned to Google. I know it’s not a doctor, but I was curious to see if anything would make sense or if I needed to see a doctor.

Much of what I found didn’t add up, except for one possibility: citric acid can cause burns. That got me thinking. I recalled trying an Atomic Warhead candy as a kid and how much pain lingered afterward. The pain I was feeling now was similar. I started to reflect on what I had recently ingested. I realized I had developed an obsession with a certain candy cluster, and one of the top three ingredients was citric acid. There was also another candy I inhaled at work that contained a lot of citric acid. However, I didn’t think that alone would cause such severe pain for an extended period of time.

As if on cue, my phone notified me of a citric acid-free drink enhancer. Curious, I checked the stash of drink mixes I had been consuming lately, and there it was—the second ingredient was citric acid. So, I had actually been making things worse by drinking the flavored water.

Now, I sit here, drinking my barely lukewarm coffee through a straw, avoiding my drink mixes, candy, and any hard foods that could irritate my mouth, while rinsing with a saltwater and clove oil solution—although it tastes awful, it is effective.

I’m waiting for this to heal, and it looks like I’ll have to start getting used to the taste of plain water.

Also, lesson learned: zero stars.