Back in October, you may recall, I had a broken tooth that finally went bad in a full blown infection. See here, here, and here for reference. Thanks to the magnificent Tip Jar Hitters, I was able to go to the oral surgeon and get root canal instead of having the tooth pulled which would have also taken all the molars on that side of my upper jaw because the bad tooth holds up a bridge over a space where two other bad teeth had been removed in years gone by (I am prone to these sorts of infections no matter what I do, unfortunately). Half of the root canal was completed and I was given a temporary filling until I could find someone to watch my kids so I could go back and have them finish the job. The fact that I had been without a car also complicated my ability to get back to the dentist's office for followup. My mom has been up visiting for new Year's and my little girl's birthday, and I have my car back, so I was able to go back yesterday to the oral surgeon's office. It went very badly!
When they first did the root canal, they had easily found 2 of the 3 canals they needed to clear, but the 3rd one was hiding, because my tooth was broken for so long before I got there that it had tried to heal over the last canal itself for its own protection (this is at least my understanding of it but I am no dentist so bear with me). Eventually they found it and sealed the tooth up with that temporary filling. During the weeks which turned to months that I could not get back there to finish the job, the temporary filling came out and more of what's left of my tooth broke. While they were drilling and boring up into my tooth yesterday, they discovered that the 3rd canal had "calcified" shut, causing more problems and requiring more digging up there. I had numerous shots of Novocaine, and yet I felt most of everything, and it was very painful! At one point, they stuck something up in the tooth that made me cry out because the pain felt as if it went from the tooth, through my eye socket and directly to my brain - it was horrible. The doctor and the nurse in unison said, "that isn't supposed to hurt!" and that is when they discovered a very bad infection!
If you remember from my holiday post, everyone had gotten sick in my house and I had developed a sinus infection. Well, the doctor said that the tooth going bad again and the sinus above it infected each other, so all he could do was clean it up, give it another temporary filling and send me home with antibiotics - this after having been up in there drilling and digging for over an hour. I can't go back to get the job finished until the infection is cleared up. The doctor warned me that the pain was going to be far worse than it already was once the Novocaine wore off and he wasn't kidding! Unfortunately, because I am already on pain meds due to my nerve damage problem, I could not accept any additional medication to help with the pain, and it hurts something fierce! At least I now know why I'd been feeling horrible, with fevers and chills, and where that headache which will not go away on the right side of my face is coming from.
Yesterday's visit was covered from the payment I had made to them last time with help from the benevolence of the people who had hit my tip jar. I could not get anesthetized yesterday though because it would have cost extra and I didn't have it, but at least the visit itself did not cost extra, thank God. I am not sure if I will need more money for the next visit, and I am afraid that I might because of the complications, but I was so miserable by the time they let me out of there that I didn't ask (and was afraid to). Last night was rough, and this morning is worse with the pain in my mouth, but hopefully now that the infection is being treated, it will get better and hopefully now that the holidays are over, my mother-in-law (who works in retail so was very busy the past few weeks) will be able to watch the kids so I can get the rest of this taken care of in a week or two.
I just wanted to let you all know what was going on. I am planning an exciting new post for as soon as the throbbing fire in my head subsides a bit, so stay tuned for that. If you can spare a prayer or hit the tip jar to help me to be prepared for the rest of this dental mess, it would be truly appreciated. Sorry that my first post of the new year is miserable, but stuff happens sometimes.
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14 comments:
You don`t do anything half way, MJ ! Nope, it`s the hard way or no way ! If it weren`t for bad luck, you`d have no luck at all ! Is there another one ?
I can commiserate with you entirely, `cause those were said to me too !
Bless your heart girl; I`d be looking for a gun about now; I hate tooth pain !
You know I`m wishing you the best and if you need more cash, I can help a little more. Find out when you get a chance !
Hoping and praying !
I'm really sorry, Zilla. Get well soon! (I hit the Google checkout tip jar).
Thank you so much, Rosalie! I'm eating some oatmeal right now, waiting for the next dose of antibiotics to kick in so I can hopefully enjoy an hour or so of relief like I had for a little while after the last dose. There is a post that I have been really wanting to do and I am hoping I'll feel less icky enough to get to it tonight.
Thanks, SPG! It isn't just the tooth pain, it is the infection pain up into my sinus and ear on that side that accompanies feeling nauseous and dizzy. I had a short period of relief earlier today and just took my last dose of antibiotics for the night, I am hoping for another bit of feeling less bad so I can do that post you know I have been wanting to do so badly.
Poor ol' gal. You're a nice lady and going through it. :(
Hey, By the way; I've moved here: http://thoughtsandrantings.com/
and I'm in business for myself:
http://kjvhost.com/
I could a blogger or two.
get well soon! :)
I've been through similar dental hell. Unfortunately, all my trouble was with lower teeth, and the root canals "didn't take" because lower teeth don't drain out infection the way that upper teeth do.
Be of good cheer, Zilla. Usually upper teeth CAN be saved!
Thank you, I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that! I hope my tooth can be saved, but the dentist did say that it appears to be wanting to break down. It holds up a bridge over some spaces where other teeth were lost to similar infections so if it can't be saved I'll be losing all my upper chewin' teef on that side. I'm already doing most of my chewing on the other side anyway so maybe it won't be so bad, but I'd rather have the teef!
At first I thought you meant to write "calcified" SHUT instead: "calcified" shit, causing more problems and requiring more digging up
there. I had numerous shots of Novocaine, and yet I felt most of
everything, and it was very painful!
But, with all that's gone on for you, I think 'sh*t' is what you really meant.
At least you didn't have to have a foot-long (literally) metal tube very slowly inserted into your (infected) urethra 3 days before Christmas...
I was once chewing on a soft date and my entire tooth cracked up the middle. It was the Friday of a 3-day weekend in the '90's PLUS my dentist's answering machine was broken that weekend! That shot of pain was like NOTHING I could ever explain--but kinda close to the shot of pain from a Copper IUD inserted into a non-childbearing womb by the callous, evil doctors at Planned Parenthood long ago...
I wish you well, Zilla and hope that you don't have to lose anytning including more teeth!
God Bless you and I hope we can all celebrate the end of the dictator in November this year. Perhaps the Mayan predictions were all about the end of the world for the LEFT.
I actually did mean to write "shut" but the i & u are right next to each other! Sorry about what happened to you, both with the tooth and the monsters at PP. (((hugs)))
I hope the Mayans were predicting the end for the evil left, that would be great. From what I've read, the "end" to them wasn't the "end" as in the end of the world, just the end of a cycle. Let 2012 be the end of the cycle of prog dominion and the beginning of a new era of a world not run by lunatics.
God bless you too.
I hope that you can get rid of this infection once and for all, and the sooner the better. I suspect that a lot of your other health problems will either go away or become less of a problem once your mouth is healed completely.
Some years ago, I had a very bad abscess - elsewhere in my body, but that is a story for another day. I was extremely weak, always fighting low-grade fevers, and hurting all over. It nearly killed me. The body tries to wall off the pocket of infection, with only limited success, and eventually, it will burst through. Only after several surgeries and a course of Vancomycin was I able to become functional again.
Wow, you nailed it! The last several months has seen much more pain than can be attributed to my nerve damage - I hurt ALL OVER, I am tired and weak and the fevers on & off all the time are just as you've described!
Hi Zilla, just sent $$$ through in tip jar! I'm sharing your dental hell, so how could I refuse???? Best of luck for quick relief. I go to dentist this afternoon, hoping for some quick relief of my own! Thanks for keeping up the fight. Am enjoying looking through your award winners. Lots of great stuff there.
Thank you so much! I hope your visit to the dentist goes well and that the problem is taken care of for good. I have to wait until my infection clears up before they'll touch me again. I am on standby for an appointment on January 24th and if that falls through, February 1st. They gave me a refill on the antibiotics in case the thing doesn't get better the 1st round and also in case it comes back before they fix it for good.
Hope you're feeling better soon! My hubster had a similar problem last year - one of his molars went south. It took months after pulling it, rounds of antibiotics, multiple dentist visits for him to finally feel normal. Tooth pain is the dementor of the pain family - it just saps every ounce out of you. Hang in there! xoxoxo
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