“How do I tell her?”
Interrupting my (late) post plans for a health update. Saturday I started having a mystery mouth pain that I initially chalked up to sinus problems-I have a long history with those. Over the next few days I found out that I was wrong.
On Saturday, the last tooth on my top left side felt a little sore when I was chewing but I didn’t really think anything of it; that sort of thing happens all the time when my sinuses act up, and I just figured that that was what was happening. I popped some Excedrin Migraine and was good afterward. Sunday was mostly the same way, except that I felt less comfortable about chewing more things. I took some more Excedrin but, again, didn’t think much about it. Monday I was a bit worse-off. I was noticing pain when I wasn’t doing much of anything, but I was still only at two doses of Excedrin (one more than you’re supposed to have in twenty-four hours, but that much doesn’t bother me when it’s a good number of hours apart). Somewhere along the way I tried some sinus medication-which did absolutely nothing-and some ibuprofen, which did barely anything at all. During dinner that night I was only chewing on the opposite side of my mouth when I accidentally pressed the other side down so that my teeth touched; it hurt so badly, and lingered, that I decided I should probably actually call the dentist. It was crown rather than a regular tooth, so I thought maybe there was an issue with that rather than just my sinuses. I went to bed thinking it would get taken care of soon enough-until the pain woke me up at about three in the morning. I took more Excedrin for it, and that let me get back to sleep.
Tuesday I did much worse. I’d taken three doses of Excedrin and noticed that they (obviously) weren’t lasting as long as they had been, plus my stomach was starting to get effected by it. None of this was made easier by the fact that I’d gotten in to work about an hour and a half late, so I had to stay that much later to make up for it. No appointment yet, but we were determined to get one made the next day. My mom introduced me to Orajel, which gave me some temporary relief. By this point, the back of my neck on the left side was beginning to get tight and I was feeling some radiating pain on the left side of my mouth, along with some tenderness on the left side of my face. When I tried to go to bed I discovered that being horizontal only made the throbbing worse. I took my fourth dose of Excedrin and tried falling asleep sitting up; thankfully it worked out better than I was afraid it would.
Wednesday was the worst. My dentist, who I’ve been thinking about switching because of his incredibly incompatible hours, couldn’t see me that day; that was a pretty good reason to get on to another dentist. I had an evening appointment for Thursday with a new place before noon. However, by noon, my pain level had hit ten. I had a bad stomach day-probably because of all the Excedrin the day before-and on top of that, nothing but the Excedrin was working for more than an hour, and even that was only giving me about two or three at the best. By this point I couldn’t even close my mouth fully without it causing myself pain, my neck was tighter, and the left side of my face had a sort of hot ache to it. I was trying to avoid the Excedrin because I didn’t want to poison myself; I took it in the middle of the day and then called up my mom to see if she could get my appointment moved up in the day. I was trying to avoid taking time off if it was at all avoidable, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through a whole day of work in the shape that I was in then. Fortunately we could move the appointment up, and I was able to get the time I would need approved.
That night when I went to bed, not even sitting up helped the pain. I tried a heating pad on my face, I tried a whiskey-soaked cotton ball, finally I let myself cave on the Excedrin. And then I started to get scared because, while relief usually came in about fifteen minutes, it didn’t come while I was still awake, I estimated about an hour. During that time I started shaking badly and I was afraid that maybe I was starting to get effects from having to overdose so much lately. When I woke up again about three hours later I called out of work completely and spent the next few hours waking up intermittently from the pain and doing small pain management things to help me get back to sleep.
Today I took a lesser painkiller in the morning, trying to avoid the Excedrin so that the dentist would have a better idea of what I was dealing with for any tests he might do. My mom drove me because I wasn’t doing well pain-wise and, honestly, we were kind of hoping I’d be on something when we left. When we got there I realized that my shaking from the night before was because of the pain, not the drugs; I could barely use the pen to fill out the new patient form. Then, the nice ladies working behind the desk spoke very loudly to each other about a small problem with my insurance-they didn’t actually take it. I was either going to have to leave or pay for everything out-of-pocket. Then they actually came into the waiting room to officially tell me all of this. (This is where the post title comes from. When the one asked the other that, I turned to my mom and said, “Well, you could just raise your voice a little bit and then I’d get all of the details.”) My mom, who has been going a little bit quietly crazy watching me get worse, told the nice lady we were staying and she didn’t care about the money. (I am so, so grateful for my parents.)
Loud receptionists aside, I really wish I could keep going to this place. The aide was a really nice woman who made an effort to connect with me the entire time that I was there, and stayed in the room talking to me rather than leave me alone when the doctor left. The doctor wasn’t just nice, but just good-he gave me a couple of shots and the only one I actually felt was at a particularly sensitive area. Unfortunately, nothing permanent came of this visit. They were able to tell me that I have an abscess, which means I have a nasty infection under my crown, and that my options are to have the root canal retreated or have the tooth pulled. To try and give me some relief, the dentist adjusted my crown a bit and gave me some Novocain shots to hold me over until I could get my prescription filled. (Unfortunately, the shots-usually lasting around four hours-only lasted about twenty minutes for me.) Once the pain was gone my shaking got worse, and I looked a bit like a tweaker, which wasn’t great. Once it started to come back, I guess maybe because I’d seen someone about it, I’d given myself “permission” to really feel it-I had difficulty keeping it out of my voice, and I kept crying randomly.
I have an antibiotic now, and Oxycodone, which…is not doing as much for me as I’d hoped. And tomorrow we’re going to start shaking down the phones of the appropriate medical people to get me treated; my mom is determined that something will be done for me tomorrow. Meanwhile, the shaking is less but still there, and the whole left side of my head/neck is tender at best, giving me pain jolts at a touch at worst. My cheek, just under my eye, is the worst, along with my left ear, which is aching like it’s the infected thing. I’m hoping that when it’s time for my next dose of meds I’ll be able to go right to sleep, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to go under otherwise. (Obviously I called out of work again.) And I’m really hoping that someone can actually fix me tomorrow. I know this isn’t the worst thing I could be going through, but I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with pain this bad before.
On Saturday, the last tooth on my top left side felt a little sore when I was chewing but I didn’t really think anything of it; that sort of thing happens all the time when my sinuses act up, and I just figured that that was what was happening. I popped some Excedrin Migraine and was good afterward. Sunday was mostly the same way, except that I felt less comfortable about chewing more things. I took some more Excedrin but, again, didn’t think much about it. Monday I was a bit worse-off. I was noticing pain when I wasn’t doing much of anything, but I was still only at two doses of Excedrin (one more than you’re supposed to have in twenty-four hours, but that much doesn’t bother me when it’s a good number of hours apart). Somewhere along the way I tried some sinus medication-which did absolutely nothing-and some ibuprofen, which did barely anything at all. During dinner that night I was only chewing on the opposite side of my mouth when I accidentally pressed the other side down so that my teeth touched; it hurt so badly, and lingered, that I decided I should probably actually call the dentist. It was crown rather than a regular tooth, so I thought maybe there was an issue with that rather than just my sinuses. I went to bed thinking it would get taken care of soon enough-until the pain woke me up at about three in the morning. I took more Excedrin for it, and that let me get back to sleep.
Tuesday I did much worse. I’d taken three doses of Excedrin and noticed that they (obviously) weren’t lasting as long as they had been, plus my stomach was starting to get effected by it. None of this was made easier by the fact that I’d gotten in to work about an hour and a half late, so I had to stay that much later to make up for it. No appointment yet, but we were determined to get one made the next day. My mom introduced me to Orajel, which gave me some temporary relief. By this point, the back of my neck on the left side was beginning to get tight and I was feeling some radiating pain on the left side of my mouth, along with some tenderness on the left side of my face. When I tried to go to bed I discovered that being horizontal only made the throbbing worse. I took my fourth dose of Excedrin and tried falling asleep sitting up; thankfully it worked out better than I was afraid it would.
Wednesday was the worst. My dentist, who I’ve been thinking about switching because of his incredibly incompatible hours, couldn’t see me that day; that was a pretty good reason to get on to another dentist. I had an evening appointment for Thursday with a new place before noon. However, by noon, my pain level had hit ten. I had a bad stomach day-probably because of all the Excedrin the day before-and on top of that, nothing but the Excedrin was working for more than an hour, and even that was only giving me about two or three at the best. By this point I couldn’t even close my mouth fully without it causing myself pain, my neck was tighter, and the left side of my face had a sort of hot ache to it. I was trying to avoid the Excedrin because I didn’t want to poison myself; I took it in the middle of the day and then called up my mom to see if she could get my appointment moved up in the day. I was trying to avoid taking time off if it was at all avoidable, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through a whole day of work in the shape that I was in then. Fortunately we could move the appointment up, and I was able to get the time I would need approved.
That night when I went to bed, not even sitting up helped the pain. I tried a heating pad on my face, I tried a whiskey-soaked cotton ball, finally I let myself cave on the Excedrin. And then I started to get scared because, while relief usually came in about fifteen minutes, it didn’t come while I was still awake, I estimated about an hour. During that time I started shaking badly and I was afraid that maybe I was starting to get effects from having to overdose so much lately. When I woke up again about three hours later I called out of work completely and spent the next few hours waking up intermittently from the pain and doing small pain management things to help me get back to sleep.
Today I took a lesser painkiller in the morning, trying to avoid the Excedrin so that the dentist would have a better idea of what I was dealing with for any tests he might do. My mom drove me because I wasn’t doing well pain-wise and, honestly, we were kind of hoping I’d be on something when we left. When we got there I realized that my shaking from the night before was because of the pain, not the drugs; I could barely use the pen to fill out the new patient form. Then, the nice ladies working behind the desk spoke very loudly to each other about a small problem with my insurance-they didn’t actually take it. I was either going to have to leave or pay for everything out-of-pocket. Then they actually came into the waiting room to officially tell me all of this. (This is where the post title comes from. When the one asked the other that, I turned to my mom and said, “Well, you could just raise your voice a little bit and then I’d get all of the details.”) My mom, who has been going a little bit quietly crazy watching me get worse, told the nice lady we were staying and she didn’t care about the money. (I am so, so grateful for my parents.)
Loud receptionists aside, I really wish I could keep going to this place. The aide was a really nice woman who made an effort to connect with me the entire time that I was there, and stayed in the room talking to me rather than leave me alone when the doctor left. The doctor wasn’t just nice, but just good-he gave me a couple of shots and the only one I actually felt was at a particularly sensitive area. Unfortunately, nothing permanent came of this visit. They were able to tell me that I have an abscess, which means I have a nasty infection under my crown, and that my options are to have the root canal retreated or have the tooth pulled. To try and give me some relief, the dentist adjusted my crown a bit and gave me some Novocain shots to hold me over until I could get my prescription filled. (Unfortunately, the shots-usually lasting around four hours-only lasted about twenty minutes for me.) Once the pain was gone my shaking got worse, and I looked a bit like a tweaker, which wasn’t great. Once it started to come back, I guess maybe because I’d seen someone about it, I’d given myself “permission” to really feel it-I had difficulty keeping it out of my voice, and I kept crying randomly.
I have an antibiotic now, and Oxycodone, which…is not doing as much for me as I’d hoped. And tomorrow we’re going to start shaking down the phones of the appropriate medical people to get me treated; my mom is determined that something will be done for me tomorrow. Meanwhile, the shaking is less but still there, and the whole left side of my head/neck is tender at best, giving me pain jolts at a touch at worst. My cheek, just under my eye, is the worst, along with my left ear, which is aching like it’s the infected thing. I’m hoping that when it’s time for my next dose of meds I’ll be able to go right to sleep, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to go under otherwise. (Obviously I called out of work again.) And I’m really hoping that someone can actually fix me tomorrow. I know this isn’t the worst thing I could be going through, but I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with pain this bad before.