The seal and cushion they installed started to ‘float’ within hours after I got home and began to come apart last night. On liquids-only. So today being the last day before the weekend I called the dentist for a lookover. Not right, they said, and revised it, working me in at a slack time this morning. Went with Jane for a cup of coffee and her breakfast, and the darned thing came completely loose. Return to the dentist, and this time they removed the seal and just added more stitches.
Turned out the mask-like redness I’d had on the bridge of my nose, the minor jaw pain, AND the rather painful eye dryness I’d suffered since going on the meds (antibiotic/steriod combo) that I had attributed to maybe the steroid—wasn’t. Those symptoms began clearing the hour they removed that seal. So I’m allergic. The product is called Barricade, lovely if you aren’t allergic to it..
Doing much better this afternoon. Three weeks and I get rid of the stitches…but at least I’m nearly over the steroids and antibiotics.
Oh, owie! I hope all these dental alarums and excursions resolve themselves soon and you can actually eat something crunchy or chewy without problems
Hang tough. I went through the same process. Had a lower 1st molar that had been root canal with crown for 20+years. The crown came off twice because the “peg” had decayed, and I had him squirt a glob of good ol’ crown cement and squash the thing back on and nursed it for about four years. Last time it came off, the tooth was unsalvageable. Dentist jackhammered out the root (May of 2017), put in a bone graft — this was after diagnosis of CLL/lymphoma — we crossed our fingers, waited an extra month, and it had taken beautifully. (Knowing the graft was coming, I started practically mainlining calcium tabs and vitamin D3 — 5000 IUs a day for the duration). Had the post drilled in and regrafted, in September 2017 and that graft took. Finally got the crown this January. Long drawn out process, but so worth the time, $$$ and wait.
Wishing you the best of luck with yours. 5000 IUs of vitamin D3 was key, I felt, as we lose our efficiency at manufacturing same as we age. You living in PNW, even as much outdoor work as you do, may be deficient. Both my oncologist and my cardiologist are on board with the vitamin D dose and there is solid literature.
As I type, I have a 5000 USP D right by my desk, including a calcium-zinc-magnesium dose because of the meds I take (thyroid med depletes mg and blood pressure med depletes zinc.) I have also been mainlining D.
Yeah, cardiologist. One of the reasons my attendance has been spotty here at the salad bar was I had a heart attack 2/23 and had to have two stents placed. Had “out of the blue” pain in chest and both arms in the waiting room of the Cancer Center, no less,told the nurse when I went in, and within 10 minutes I had Lovenox and aspirin on board and the ambulance was on its way. That happened the week after my first cycle of chemo when I was in for labs and hydration.
Just got out of another 4-day hospital stint Thurs for side effects of my first dose of rituximab –got a chemical skin peel whether I wanted one or not. Like I had a major sunburn.
I will tell you that what has gotten me through all this was a reread of the Foreigner books 1-18, which I started with my first chemo cycle. It was my retreat and respite, a place I could slip away to and lose myself in when the time hung heavy on me. So great to be able to wander off and hang with the aishiid(sp?) for a while.
Might that be aishiidi, counting Cajieri’s?
I’m very glad your nurses were on it and you came through. Note to all the salads: Please stop getting potentially catastrophically sick! Head cold > lymphoma.
The Big Island has a blizzard warning up for the next 12 hours. Copious snow plus 80-100 mph winds. Felicitously, we have a couple of their top scientists over here today, so while Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa may be getting pummeled (and one sincerely hopes the telescopes are well battened down, thankyew) we will be having them on DH’s radio show today, and hosting them tonight at the weekly gaming group. Our tame astrophysicist is very looking forward to chatting. Despite weather, “Ah!! It is a fine day for Science!!”
So sorry you’re going through such rough spots, and very glad if the gang can help relieve the stress—much love, from us all.
Side-effects are so much fun, aren’t they?
I think the closest I’ve come to “expected” is the hair loss – and it didn’t all go away; started growing again in January, with two chemo sessions still to go (now complete, yay, and on to the next phase!) – all the rest have been in the “unexpected” category.
I’m hoping that my ‘mab side effect will go away soon – trastuzumab Does Things to your heart, and for me it’s been showing up as low blood pressure, as low as 95/60.
I’m just hoping I don’t have to go through this rituximab skin thing four more times (1 down, 4 to go.) But if I can make it through those 4 more times, I’m over the hump and out of the tunnel. Thing is, the soles of my feet cracked and split, too, and now that there’s nice weather, I really need to be out in the sunshine and walking around, — but that’s not happening until I can get my feet back in shape.
I whacked all my hair off, because I simply didn’t have the energy to take care of it. Of course, I know now why my energy level just very slowly cratered out over the past two years — between the heart disease and the tumor burden of the lymphoma. I think if I can just win through the chemo and get started on the cardio rehab, it will be a great weight lifted off me (not to mention the 16 pounds I’ve lost in the past four months. . . ). I’m actually starting to feel better, not just feel OK again, but better. Knock wood. . . .
WOL, I’m so sorry you had such bad side-effects, and I hope they can adjust what you’re getting for the next treatments.
Your poor feet! Have you got udder salve or something like that for them? It’s way better than most salves and pomades for smoothing rough skin and keeping it supple, to help avoid and treat splits in callused skin, and it’s a lot cheaper.
But hearing that you are starting to feel better is very good.
Here in the US, it’s called ‘Bag Balm’, and I was introduced to it by a friend with bad psoriasis. It comes in a green tin and I can testify to how effective it is.
Keep hanging in there, WOL!
Oh Wol! Not good! I’m so sorry to hear of your heart woes atop your leukemia issues. I’ve a friend here in Massachusetts who had chemo for breast cancer last year and also got a heart attack… After the chemo was just over, if I remember correctly.
Feel and do much better as spring arrives and chemo ends!
I’m always a bit wary about antibiotics from dentists, in that they often underreach.
Some years ago I had an abscessed tooth at an important conference in Sydney. Stupidly, I decided on pain management rather than dental action, but booked my own dentist for the first day I returned. The abscess burst before the plane trip home, and by the time I was in the chair, the side of my face was infected. The anaesthetic was mostly ineffective because of the infection, which meant I suffered an old-fashioned extraction (at my choice, rather than wait another day or 2 and have full surgery). I admit to a little screaming. Although the dentist prescribed antibiotics, the infection was serious enough for me to immediately book to see my doctor the next day, who changed the prescribed treatment to something stronger. By then it wasn’t a tooth problem to me, but an infection problem, and there I trust doctors more.
Also a friend of mine had a nasty case of Ludwig’s Angina (look it up – it’s not what most of us would expect). It wasn’t diagnosed by his dentist who simply put him on a course of light antibiotics. 5 days later he was in intensive care. Fortunately he’s OK now, but less trusting of his dentist – an old school friend.
My rule for many years is to aim for old doctors but young dentists, who prefer and can use the newer technologies.
Ouch, folks. Please be well, y’all. This reminds me to be thankful I don’t have those things to deal with.
I am supposed to get to go to my storage space for half a day or so on Tuesday, and I hope this happens. It is not too likely I’ll find all the items on my “most wanted list,” but any that do turn up will be most heartily appreciated. Books and DVDs, digital camera, new guitar (no longer so new after being in storage so long, and unlearned prior to it going in), good cowboy hat, Robbie (the BJD doll kid some of you might remember), some kitchen stuff and spices, some audio and computer stuff, and so on. Heh. So if and when I find any of that and it’s in good condition, well, at this point, I’ll count it as a bonus.
Entertainment highbrow, lowbrow, unibrow, or otherwise — I decided to sign up for Netflix again, to try Stranger Things and the upcoming Lost In Space reboot, both of which look interesting enough to try, and I hope I’ll like. I believe someone’s recommendation here (whose, sorry?) was to try Altered Carbon also, and I’d heard Dark Crystal was being worked on for some revival / new form. Meanwhile, I’m awaiting the return of The Expanse and The Orville and (at whatever point) the 13th Doctor Who. There’s enough gap lately, I could be forgetting something. And I just heard that Roseanne is returning to TV. It’s funny, back in the 80’s when it first aired, I was college age and after, and the show wasn’t much on my radar. I’d catch an episode now and then. As time went on, I saw a few more episodes in reruns at odd hours of the day and night, and got a chuckle or a serious note, and liked it. Then after my life went so off-kilter for a while, I found myself remembering some of the jokes or serious topics and, surprise, my real life experiences had taught me to appreciate these things. (Like when my budget was so tight that the bit about ketchup as a vegetable and its own food group (or maybe that was macaroni) went from something I thought was too over-the-top and a bit off-putting, to, hmm, hahah, OK, that’s good advice, I can relate, or at least I can laugh about it while I eat ramen or beans or put up with similar necessary choices. — So I’m looking forward to seeing the new return of Roseanne, to see what they do with it in a time when more of us are dealing with some really strange turns in life and global / national news that seems more outrageous than any satire or parody. So I’m hoping to enjoy the comedy and the handling of real-life, serious topics at once.
Life for me has improved just enough for me to feel a little more relaxed about things and go forward with a little better situation, at least for now. Still working on it.
Tonight’s likely to be a night of trying out Netflix or DVD’s, punctuated by trying to sleep, and by reading some. Still working on getting back my reading habit.
Weather here is expected to be in the low to mid 80’s by day, upper 60’s to lower 70’s by night. With rain for an entire week after Easter Sunday. We are skipping right past spring and going into early summer. (Although our summers here are 80’s, 90’s, and 100’s, edging upward over the last ten years.)
So, hot weather for the storage space on Tuesday, but it might be dry or it might be wet (outside the space).
Also, the cats are much happier. Their flea treatment’s doing very well and they are much relieved, and so am I.
Take care, everyone, Good luck with doctor and dental and hospital visits.
If this is the health kvetches thread: I’m okay but the real-life Teasel is coming to the end of her innings at some point fairly soon. She has serious arthritis in her back and is pretty wobbly. Though she is on anti-inflammatory and pain medication, no hedgehog in the universe accepts “it’s for your own good, so quit wriggling or you’ll get a syringe in your eye” as a valid argument. Major sad decision time coming up.