Root Canal Update
OK... last few days have been a blur for me... lots of sleeping, lots of pill popping, and feelng slightly better than on Friday.
During my morning visit to Dr. Feelgood Friday morning, he again confirmed that there seemed to be no change in the inflammation of the infection. We talked some, he palpitated more. He started writing. I told him that the pain had been negligible (or none) but that I was still very frustrated to not be able to open my jaw or use my tongue well enough to eat properly. At this, he litterally pulled out a ruler and measured how far open I could get my jaw. "Well, that is within the acceptable limit." And then I sat there thinking, "Did he really think that was supposed to help me with the problem I shared?"
I also asked him what the potential next steps might be if things weren't proceeding well after the weekend. I specifically asked (again) about the IV antibiotic and/or lancing. To this he responded by saying that if these were necessary he'd have to refer me to my HMO. What!? That's the first I've heard of this...
So I left, once again feeling unsatisfied. But I started to think about the HMO comment. In particular, if they might refer me back to my HMO... then why in the world wouldn't I have them have a look at the inflammation and make a determination on their own regarding how to handle it? After all, they're not just gonna take Dr. Feelgood's word for it, they'd want to have me diagnosed before taking any action.
So, I set up an appointment for 3pm on Friday. Upon seeing and feeling my inflammation and hearing my history report on how things had progressed, the RNP referred me to the oral surgeon on staff. Upon getting there, though, the surgeon wouldn't see me. Someone came out to explain that my HMO doens't do such procedures unless they are required for some other medical procedure being performed. This made sense to me, since my dental coverage isn't with them anyway, so off I went... not feeling badly served, but at least having successfully tested Dr. Feelgood's information (and finding it false).
Upon getting home, I caught up with phone calls to a bunch of people, including a call to my endodontist, who I'd tried to reach earlier in the day but hadn't heard back from yet. In *this* message though, I shared my experience at the HMO and proposed that we really needed to talk because I was starting to get nervous about the quality of my care and that perhaps we needed to consider making some adjustments.
I was on a fairly long call with my mom -- she doesn't read LJ so hadn't heard about most of the stuff up to this point -- when I got a call back from the endodontist. It seems that my calls to her cell weren't the best because she doesn't get good reception at home -- made a mental note of that. But i shared with her my frustrations and posed some questions to her. She had some excellent feedback for me, all of which put my mind at ease.
Needless to say, I felt much better after getting all of this clarified. Over the course of the weekend, I did notice (esp on Saturday) reduction in the infection... particularly on the left side of my mouth and in the back toward my neck. This made swallowing much easier. I also noticed that the bit near my right (lower) jaw got more active, causing pain and me taking vicodin a little more regularly. Even icing it didn't seem to affect the pain level much.
This morning when I saw Dr. Feelgood (yeah, the name has stuck for me), he probed and prodded. Took basic info from me regarding temperature over weekend and pain level -- which at the moment I had to say "0" even though I told him I had taken a Vicodin and it prolly would have been a 3 or 4 otherwise. He did rewrite my antibiotic prescription -- which I filled on my way into work -- but said he'd wait 'til Wednesday for the Vicodin. Mind you, I'll run out *tomorrow*, so I'll probably hit the endo up for that tomorrow at my appt with her. It would have saved time doing them both at once, but whatever.
So, it's getting there... slowly but surely. But I'm feeling much better than last week. And hopefully it won't take weeks and weeks more of this before the infection is eradicated.
During my morning visit to Dr. Feelgood Friday morning, he again confirmed that there seemed to be no change in the inflammation of the infection. We talked some, he palpitated more. He started writing. I told him that the pain had been negligible (or none) but that I was still very frustrated to not be able to open my jaw or use my tongue well enough to eat properly. At this, he litterally pulled out a ruler and measured how far open I could get my jaw. "Well, that is within the acceptable limit." And then I sat there thinking, "Did he really think that was supposed to help me with the problem I shared?"
I also asked him what the potential next steps might be if things weren't proceeding well after the weekend. I specifically asked (again) about the IV antibiotic and/or lancing. To this he responded by saying that if these were necessary he'd have to refer me to my HMO. What!? That's the first I've heard of this...
So I left, once again feeling unsatisfied. But I started to think about the HMO comment. In particular, if they might refer me back to my HMO... then why in the world wouldn't I have them have a look at the inflammation and make a determination on their own regarding how to handle it? After all, they're not just gonna take Dr. Feelgood's word for it, they'd want to have me diagnosed before taking any action.
So, I set up an appointment for 3pm on Friday. Upon seeing and feeling my inflammation and hearing my history report on how things had progressed, the RNP referred me to the oral surgeon on staff. Upon getting there, though, the surgeon wouldn't see me. Someone came out to explain that my HMO doens't do such procedures unless they are required for some other medical procedure being performed. This made sense to me, since my dental coverage isn't with them anyway, so off I went... not feeling badly served, but at least having successfully tested Dr. Feelgood's information (and finding it false).
Upon getting home, I caught up with phone calls to a bunch of people, including a call to my endodontist, who I'd tried to reach earlier in the day but hadn't heard back from yet. In *this* message though, I shared my experience at the HMO and proposed that we really needed to talk because I was starting to get nervous about the quality of my care and that perhaps we needed to consider making some adjustments.
I was on a fairly long call with my mom -- she doesn't read LJ so hadn't heard about most of the stuff up to this point -- when I got a call back from the endodontist. It seems that my calls to her cell weren't the best because she doesn't get good reception at home -- made a mental note of that. But i shared with her my frustrations and posed some questions to her. She had some excellent feedback for me, all of which put my mind at ease.
- My range of motion in my jaw is not an uncommon side affect of this inflammation. She added that this is also a possible side affect of the anesthesia that was used during the root canal. Rather than just go on about how my range of motion is "acceptable," she made suggestions for liquid-based supplements that would help nourish me until I could resume eating normal food.
- The slow progress of the reduction in the inflammation does have a cause. When Dr Feelgood sucked out some samples from the infection, he made a comment that there was very little pus and that the infected tissue was intermixed with healthy tissue. As the endo explained, this makes it harder for the antibiotic to do it's work... and therefore will mean it takes longer for the infection to be eradicated. How much longer isn't necessarily clear.
- For the same reason that the antibiotic will take longer, doing a lancing to drain the infection will also not likely be effective. My mom mentioned that she'd had a similar issue when she had an infection related to a root canal in the past. Basically, you drain pus. But if the infected tissue isn't turning to pus and is mixed in with healthy tissue then it really doesn't drain very easily at all. Lancing is therefore ineffective.
- She shared that I'm definitely not the first person to experience difficulty communicating with the oral surgeon. This made me feel better only because it meant it's him and not me. I realized by now that I should probably be bringing any concerns I have to my endo instead of the surgeon. It feels weird to me to not ask the surgeon questions, but whatever works.
Needless to say, I felt much better after getting all of this clarified. Over the course of the weekend, I did notice (esp on Saturday) reduction in the infection... particularly on the left side of my mouth and in the back toward my neck. This made swallowing much easier. I also noticed that the bit near my right (lower) jaw got more active, causing pain and me taking vicodin a little more regularly. Even icing it didn't seem to affect the pain level much.
This morning when I saw Dr. Feelgood (yeah, the name has stuck for me), he probed and prodded. Took basic info from me regarding temperature over weekend and pain level -- which at the moment I had to say "0" even though I told him I had taken a Vicodin and it prolly would have been a 3 or 4 otherwise. He did rewrite my antibiotic prescription -- which I filled on my way into work -- but said he'd wait 'til Wednesday for the Vicodin. Mind you, I'll run out *tomorrow*, so I'll probably hit the endo up for that tomorrow at my appt with her. It would have saved time doing them both at once, but whatever.
So, it's getting there... slowly but surely. But I'm feeling much better than last week. And hopefully it won't take weeks and weeks more of this before the infection is eradicated.