Update
I've run the medical gamut, and am really nowhere new. Here's what I've done, in a nutshell:
I've seen an ENT, a dentist (or rather, one of his assistants), an oral surgeon, and a general practitioner. I've had a CT and some MRIs. I've been poked and prodded and scanned, weighed and blood pressured and generally inspected. Each time, the doc looks at me, shakes his head slowly and says, "Boy, I don't know..."
All scans came back negative, which is great news except that someone forgot to tell the pain. I was given Vicodin for the weekend, which helped tremendously except when I ate. And it made me sleepy. I was also given steroids, which I'm still stepping down. The symptoms, bless their little hearts, are changing on a daily basis. The pain is still there, but now my rear gums are swollen again and hurt when touched (they didn't do that when I was at the dentist on Tuesday or the oral surgeon on Friday, f*ckers). It's not as bad as it was, thankfully, so I haven't taken a pain killer of any kind since noon yesterday. So long as I don't mess with those gums, I'm pretty good.
The general practitioner, given the symptom change and all the negative scans, proclaims that he thinks it might be dental after all. Maybe an abscess. Although according to WebMD I have only one of the many symptoms of an abscess, that being pain. I called my dentist again this morning, since he's now back from Hawaii, and he had the office manager call me back to refer me to an oral surgeon.
"But I've already seen an oral surgeon."
"Oh, what did he say?"
"He said it's not dental."
"Well, you didn't see the oral surgeon WE recommend. For TMJ."
"It's not TMJ. My doc inspected my jaw and said it's not TMJ."
"Fine. Tomorrow at 4:15 then." (insert heavy sigh here) (with a huge dose of attitude)
So I see the dentist again tomorrow. Or actually, the dentist for the first time since he was in Hawaii last week. Maybe he'll actually, oh, I don't know, do a damn x-ray or something instead of relying on 6-month-old panels and saying, "Can't be dental."
Just in case, I see a neurologist on Thursday. Which I may end up canceling if the pain keeps diminishing and/or the dentist decides that since my gums hurt, hey, it just might be dental after all.
I honestly have no clue what this might be. Trigeminal neurolgia was floated, although I don't really have all the symptoms associated with that, either. I'm a regular medical mystery, I am.
So that's the scoop. Yes, I'm still in pain. Yes, it's getting better. No, I don't know what it is, or why it's getting better. Maybe I'm just getting better at managing it. Who knows. I'm just happy to be back at work, cranking right along, and not feeling simultaneously stoned and in pain.
I've seen an ENT, a dentist (or rather, one of his assistants), an oral surgeon, and a general practitioner. I've had a CT and some MRIs. I've been poked and prodded and scanned, weighed and blood pressured and generally inspected. Each time, the doc looks at me, shakes his head slowly and says, "Boy, I don't know..."
All scans came back negative, which is great news except that someone forgot to tell the pain. I was given Vicodin for the weekend, which helped tremendously except when I ate. And it made me sleepy. I was also given steroids, which I'm still stepping down. The symptoms, bless their little hearts, are changing on a daily basis. The pain is still there, but now my rear gums are swollen again and hurt when touched (they didn't do that when I was at the dentist on Tuesday or the oral surgeon on Friday, f*ckers). It's not as bad as it was, thankfully, so I haven't taken a pain killer of any kind since noon yesterday. So long as I don't mess with those gums, I'm pretty good.
The general practitioner, given the symptom change and all the negative scans, proclaims that he thinks it might be dental after all. Maybe an abscess. Although according to WebMD I have only one of the many symptoms of an abscess, that being pain. I called my dentist again this morning, since he's now back from Hawaii, and he had the office manager call me back to refer me to an oral surgeon.
"But I've already seen an oral surgeon."
"Oh, what did he say?"
"He said it's not dental."
"Well, you didn't see the oral surgeon WE recommend. For TMJ."
"It's not TMJ. My doc inspected my jaw and said it's not TMJ."
"Fine. Tomorrow at 4:15 then." (insert heavy sigh here) (with a huge dose of attitude)
So I see the dentist again tomorrow. Or actually, the dentist for the first time since he was in Hawaii last week. Maybe he'll actually, oh, I don't know, do a damn x-ray or something instead of relying on 6-month-old panels and saying, "Can't be dental."
Just in case, I see a neurologist on Thursday. Which I may end up canceling if the pain keeps diminishing and/or the dentist decides that since my gums hurt, hey, it just might be dental after all.
I honestly have no clue what this might be. Trigeminal neurolgia was floated, although I don't really have all the symptoms associated with that, either. I'm a regular medical mystery, I am.
So that's the scoop. Yes, I'm still in pain. Yes, it's getting better. No, I don't know what it is, or why it's getting better. Maybe I'm just getting better at managing it. Who knows. I'm just happy to be back at work, cranking right along, and not feeling simultaneously stoned and in pain.
Labels: daily life
posted by Amy at 2:27 PM
2 Comments:
Here's a truck load of sympathy! Must say that your writing (although you have to filter it through a haze of pain) is amazingly entertaining!
Btw, the 'Ominous' pic looks alien-ish.. :-)
Thanks, that's really sweet! I love to write...it helps me cope with so much.
I thought Ominous looks alien-ish too - it was creeping me out sitting under it!
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