I still am not 100% sure, but it appears that I have a pretty bad infection in one of my lower left teeth. Not sure how bad the infection is as I still haven't been to a dentist. The question is whether or not the infection has spread into my jaw or not.
These past 2 days have not been fun. My fever has not gone below 99.7 even though I am on an antibiotic. Celinde told me that until the abcess is dealt with and all the infection drained, I probably won't get rid of the fever even though I am on the antibiotic. So I have spent hour after hour on the couch shivering. On top of that the pain is so bad that the vicodin is now doing nothing. I am normally a person who can sleep through just about anything, however Sunday night the pain was so tough I lay awake in bed all night.
I called my dentist as soon as they opened this morning. Though I would have liked to go in immediately, they don't have any time available until 3:00PM. In all likelihood I am going to have them pull the tooth as it has given me a bunch of trouble over the last several years. I grind my teeth at night and I had done a lot of damage to this tooth as a result of the grinding.
I think you can see how swollen my face and neck are in the picture above. Touching any of the swollen area is painful.
Sitting on the couch these last 2 days - though in a pain has given me a lot of time to think. As a result once I start feeling a little bit better, there is a lot of writing that you are going to see from me. In particular I have made decisions about somethings that I want to write on Patty's Caringbridge site.(http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/pattykromer). The things I want to write are important to me. As I look to slowly decrease my posting on that site in the coming months, I want to make sure I say more about Patty and her tremendous strength she showed in her fight before I move away from that site. (The time to move away is approaching as it has now been 8 months since we lost Patty. Zack and I have faced up to our new lives and gotten through the grieving process and are looking forward to new and different things.)
Thank you Celinde for helping me this weekend with your excellent medical advice. Though you are feeling like crap from your chemo you were still willing to take the time to take a look at me and provide good advice. I am sure Celinde has saved me from feeling worse. With the type of antibiotic I am taking it is very easy to get a condition called C-Diff. This condition is where all the good bacteria in your intestinal track has been killed off and the bad bacteria run wild. You can prevent this situation by taking active culture yogurt or by drinking this nasty stuff called VSL #3 - which is powered drink contain over 450 Billion live, freeze-dried lactic acid bacteria. Celinde got me started on that - I don't want to get sick from the cure for this abcess. I owe you Celinde!
Anyway - thanks and peace to all! Hope everyone's week is off to a great start.
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