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January 2018 - 8th Surgery (not jaw, but related to this whole nightmare)
I get sick twice. The first time I rest and it passes, but the second one turned into a sinus infection and flu-like symptoms. I am sicker than sick, haven't been this sick-in-years-sick. The pain in my face from the sinus infection was crazy bad, and reminiscent of the pain I had right after the November 2015 surgery when I had constant sinus infections. I was at Crested Butte, CO after the holidays and the increase in altitude, I've realized, makes this pain much worse than normal.
When I get back home, I start taking amoxicillin but after two days of no relief, I call my family doctor to see if they can see me for my sinus infection. I needed a Rx for that, and something different than normally take. I tested negative for flu, but the doctor looks at my history in the computer and freaks out. She tells me she won't give me anything until I see infectious disease. What?!? Infectious disease for a sinus infection? That sounds silly and I WAS NOT waiting another second without getting SOMETHING for this infection. I could not run the risk of waiting 3-5 days to get an appt with infectious disease. I was SO concerned this sinus infection was going to lead to an infection in my jaw again and that bone graft not taking. I literally started crying in her office, in front of my three kids. I just needed help. Now. I had been dealing with infection constantly for the last two years and I knew what it felt like. She left the examining room to call Infectious Disease and while my regular infectious doctor was on vacation, another one agreed to see me 2 days later. In the meantime, she wrote me a Rx for just 5 days of antibiotic (normal does is 10 days) so I had to promise I would see infectious diseases 2 days later to get the rest. They agreed to give me a new antibiotic called Moxafloxacin, which is also pretty strong. I just had to watch out for weird pains in my ankles or knees b/c it is rare, but had been known to cause tendons to rupture spontaneously. Weird, but everyone from the dr to the nurse to the pharmacist made sure to tell me about it!
At this point, now I'm on 2 really strong antibiotics: Rifampin and Moxafloxacin. I start feeling relief from the sinus infection after 1 day but start getting pain in my gut and back pain. The pain in the gut comes and goes, and I figured maybe I needed to eat more when I took it. And it's probably to be expected. But the pain in my lower back was weird. I saw Infectious Disease 2 days later and it's not my regular doctor. He tells me to get off the Rifampin, but I don't listen. Part of me thinks I need to stay on it like the functional medicine doctor originally told me to make sure I kill the staph in the dental cavity for good this time. I mention the back pain to him, but he dismisses its as 'muscular'. Other than that, he basically just punts me back to my regular infectious disease doctor and tells me to see him when he's back from vacation in a week.
A few days later, the gut pain and back pain get worse. My entire body is aching. My shoulder joints, my back, my hip joints, everything. I can't sleep, I walk in pain, and double over every now and then from a sharp pain on my right side. I google my symptoms as I lay awake at night and think it's appendicitis.
I went to the urgent care the next morning and they sent me to the ER. ER tries to do an ultrasound but can't see my appendix. Mine happened to be behind my colon and not in front like normal. They do a CT scan and can see the tip of it is inflamed, but they couldn't see the entire thing. So they admit me into the hospital for observation. For two days, I'm on an IV bag but not allowed to eat or drink. I've seen several doctors - at least two different regular input doctors, infectious disease doctors and two surgeons. They all look at my history like I'm some kind of puzzle and went back and forth, back and forth - do we remove the appendix or not? Should we treat it with antibiotics to see if it goes away? but if she was on such strong antibiotics, why is it infected in the first place? Finally, they told me it was up to me to decide if I wanted to have the appendix out. And I decided to have it removed, b/c of my history of antibiotics not working. And if they didn't work, I would just find myself right back in the hospital anyway. I had it removed at the end of the 2nd day in the hospital.
At this point, I haven't taken any food, water, antibiotics or anti-inflammatory supplements. The pain in my jaw started to come back and my face was visibly swollen. I had asked my infectious disease dr if I could get another CT scan of my face done with IV contrast, since I was right there in the hospital anyway, and he initially said no - he wanted to focus on figuring out my gut / appendix issue first. But I was really concerned now - and convinced - the infection was still there b/c my face was visibly swelling without antibiotics. A different doctor that came in at night finally agreed to order the CT scan for me. (nice guy). A different infectious disease dr came in the next morning and told me she reviewed it with the radiologist and could see some fluid in my jaw / cheek area which was indicative of an infection.
I had to stay in the hospital for another 2 days. I was in for 4 full days - the longest I've ever stayed in a hospital ever. One infectious disease doctor suggested she put me on a combination of Levaquin and Flagyl to treat the jaw. These were oral antibiotics, but she said they had good bio availability in the blood. However, my regular infectious disease doctor came in that last morning and he said he wanted to put me back on IV antibiotics for another 2 weeks. He initially said he wanted to just do it through the needle in my arm and not a PICC line -- he said you can only have so many PICC lines in your life, or then you start to ruin your veins. But my needles kept blowing out during my stay at the hospital. I had 5 of them put in over 4 days. So he decided to do the port and I had a PICC line put back in the OR and was on Ertapenem for another 2 weeks. This was my third round of IV antibiotics for my jaw. I saw another infectious disease dr that made me promise to not take rifampin again. I asked why? Bc it's strong on the gut? Why did everyone feel so strong that I not take it? She said it could have a lot of side effects, such as joint issues. And I was having joint pain... maybe from that?
I finally go home and the recovery from the appendectomy is not too bad. It was done via laparoscopy so I have 3 incisions about 1/2 - 1 inch big. I asked the doctors in the hospital why I got appendicitis to begin with, and they say no one really knows why you get it. I asked if it was b/c of all that strong antibiotic I was taking and they said no. But I tell you - it had to be. I started getting lower back pain just 1.5 days after I started taking the moxafloxacin. And I started feeling bad from that point forward. I read online that they don't really know the function of the appendix and you don't really need it. But somewhere else I read some think it plays a part in your immune system regulation. My functional medicine doctor thinks perhaps b/c my immune system was so down, my appendix was just working double-time. But I think I did it to myself by taking both of those antibiotics together. Or maybe my body just doesn't do well with that class of antibiotics (quinolone), since I didn't start to do badly until I took the moxafloxacin.
I happened to see my OB/GYN for my annual exam and she asks how I'm doing with the jaw stuff. I mentioned I was concerned why this infection still keeps coming back in my jaw and how will I ever know if it's gone? She said maybe I should go to the Mayo Clinic, since that's where people go when they have a problem and no one can figure it out. I ask what the risk is if I have an infection in my face and it goes untreated. She said I could get sepsis, or systemic infection. Because there is a lot of tissue in the jaw and blood flow, the infection could get in the blood. The blood travels through the heart and could infect your aorta (or something, I don't remember, other that she was just throwing stuff out about the heart). I could get osteomyelitis, which is where your bone gets infected and falls apart.
Two weeks later I go to the infectious disease dr for a follow up. I have one day left of IV, I feel great, but I'm concerned why this keeps coming back. How do I know it's gone? Did the last surgery in November just stir things up a bit? I mention the Mayo Clinic thing and he dismisses it. He then tells me the IV antibiotics were NOT for my jaw, they were for the appendicitis (which is entirely NOT what I recall from being in the hospital). He says he's not concerned about the jaw. He said the IV antibiotics just seem to bring down inflammation levels in my body overall, and that's probably why I felt great. But he said now that I'm off of them, he would expect some level of that inflammation to come back and maybe even a little swelling in the jaw to come back, too. That I needed to be patient. I had a lot of surgery done to one area and it was going to take a long time to heal. That I needed to wait and be patient. Of course, if it swelled up a lot or started to hurt a lot to come back and see him, but otherwise, I didn't need to come back. I asked why he thought I had so much inflammation then, and he said just from the trauma of all the surgeries. So wait. Be patient. In a friendly, yet slightly condescending tone. I feel like I'm making a big deal of out nothing and feel silly for asking. Feel silly for bringing up the Mayo Clinic suggestion from my OB. And then I look down at my arm and I have a stinkin' PICC line sticking out of it! For the third time in 1.5 years! How can I not be concerned to ask these questions?
The next day, I have my post-op appointment with my surgeon that took out the appendix. I asked him if he was the one that ordered the IV antibiotics for the appendix - since this explanation from the infectious disease doctor made no sense to me as I thought it was for my jaw - and he said No, of course not. The infection was isolated in the appendix, he removed the appendix, and he would have sent me home on NO antibiotics. The IV antibiotics were not needed for the appendix whatsoever. The infectious disease dr must have ordered it for the jaw.
So this is where things sound a little weird to me. I am glad I got the PICC line b/c I'm feeling better - I would prefer this treatment rather than oral antibiotics - but I don't like these changing explanations. Sounds strange to me. It's been a few weeks, and so far so good. Fingers crossed it doesn't swell up again.
When I get back home, I start taking amoxicillin but after two days of no relief, I call my family doctor to see if they can see me for my sinus infection. I needed a Rx for that, and something different than normally take. I tested negative for flu, but the doctor looks at my history in the computer and freaks out. She tells me she won't give me anything until I see infectious disease. What?!? Infectious disease for a sinus infection? That sounds silly and I WAS NOT waiting another second without getting SOMETHING for this infection. I could not run the risk of waiting 3-5 days to get an appt with infectious disease. I was SO concerned this sinus infection was going to lead to an infection in my jaw again and that bone graft not taking. I literally started crying in her office, in front of my three kids. I just needed help. Now. I had been dealing with infection constantly for the last two years and I knew what it felt like. She left the examining room to call Infectious Disease and while my regular infectious doctor was on vacation, another one agreed to see me 2 days later. In the meantime, she wrote me a Rx for just 5 days of antibiotic (normal does is 10 days) so I had to promise I would see infectious diseases 2 days later to get the rest. They agreed to give me a new antibiotic called Moxafloxacin, which is also pretty strong. I just had to watch out for weird pains in my ankles or knees b/c it is rare, but had been known to cause tendons to rupture spontaneously. Weird, but everyone from the dr to the nurse to the pharmacist made sure to tell me about it!
At this point, now I'm on 2 really strong antibiotics: Rifampin and Moxafloxacin. I start feeling relief from the sinus infection after 1 day but start getting pain in my gut and back pain. The pain in the gut comes and goes, and I figured maybe I needed to eat more when I took it. And it's probably to be expected. But the pain in my lower back was weird. I saw Infectious Disease 2 days later and it's not my regular doctor. He tells me to get off the Rifampin, but I don't listen. Part of me thinks I need to stay on it like the functional medicine doctor originally told me to make sure I kill the staph in the dental cavity for good this time. I mention the back pain to him, but he dismisses its as 'muscular'. Other than that, he basically just punts me back to my regular infectious disease doctor and tells me to see him when he's back from vacation in a week.
A few days later, the gut pain and back pain get worse. My entire body is aching. My shoulder joints, my back, my hip joints, everything. I can't sleep, I walk in pain, and double over every now and then from a sharp pain on my right side. I google my symptoms as I lay awake at night and think it's appendicitis.
I went to the urgent care the next morning and they sent me to the ER. ER tries to do an ultrasound but can't see my appendix. Mine happened to be behind my colon and not in front like normal. They do a CT scan and can see the tip of it is inflamed, but they couldn't see the entire thing. So they admit me into the hospital for observation. For two days, I'm on an IV bag but not allowed to eat or drink. I've seen several doctors - at least two different regular input doctors, infectious disease doctors and two surgeons. They all look at my history like I'm some kind of puzzle and went back and forth, back and forth - do we remove the appendix or not? Should we treat it with antibiotics to see if it goes away? but if she was on such strong antibiotics, why is it infected in the first place? Finally, they told me it was up to me to decide if I wanted to have the appendix out. And I decided to have it removed, b/c of my history of antibiotics not working. And if they didn't work, I would just find myself right back in the hospital anyway. I had it removed at the end of the 2nd day in the hospital.
At this point, I haven't taken any food, water, antibiotics or anti-inflammatory supplements. The pain in my jaw started to come back and my face was visibly swollen. I had asked my infectious disease dr if I could get another CT scan of my face done with IV contrast, since I was right there in the hospital anyway, and he initially said no - he wanted to focus on figuring out my gut / appendix issue first. But I was really concerned now - and convinced - the infection was still there b/c my face was visibly swelling without antibiotics. A different doctor that came in at night finally agreed to order the CT scan for me. (nice guy). A different infectious disease dr came in the next morning and told me she reviewed it with the radiologist and could see some fluid in my jaw / cheek area which was indicative of an infection.
I had to stay in the hospital for another 2 days. I was in for 4 full days - the longest I've ever stayed in a hospital ever. One infectious disease doctor suggested she put me on a combination of Levaquin and Flagyl to treat the jaw. These were oral antibiotics, but she said they had good bio availability in the blood. However, my regular infectious disease doctor came in that last morning and he said he wanted to put me back on IV antibiotics for another 2 weeks. He initially said he wanted to just do it through the needle in my arm and not a PICC line -- he said you can only have so many PICC lines in your life, or then you start to ruin your veins. But my needles kept blowing out during my stay at the hospital. I had 5 of them put in over 4 days. So he decided to do the port and I had a PICC line put back in the OR and was on Ertapenem for another 2 weeks. This was my third round of IV antibiotics for my jaw. I saw another infectious disease dr that made me promise to not take rifampin again. I asked why? Bc it's strong on the gut? Why did everyone feel so strong that I not take it? She said it could have a lot of side effects, such as joint issues. And I was having joint pain... maybe from that?
I finally go home and the recovery from the appendectomy is not too bad. It was done via laparoscopy so I have 3 incisions about 1/2 - 1 inch big. I asked the doctors in the hospital why I got appendicitis to begin with, and they say no one really knows why you get it. I asked if it was b/c of all that strong antibiotic I was taking and they said no. But I tell you - it had to be. I started getting lower back pain just 1.5 days after I started taking the moxafloxacin. And I started feeling bad from that point forward. I read online that they don't really know the function of the appendix and you don't really need it. But somewhere else I read some think it plays a part in your immune system regulation. My functional medicine doctor thinks perhaps b/c my immune system was so down, my appendix was just working double-time. But I think I did it to myself by taking both of those antibiotics together. Or maybe my body just doesn't do well with that class of antibiotics (quinolone), since I didn't start to do badly until I took the moxafloxacin.
I happened to see my OB/GYN for my annual exam and she asks how I'm doing with the jaw stuff. I mentioned I was concerned why this infection still keeps coming back in my jaw and how will I ever know if it's gone? She said maybe I should go to the Mayo Clinic, since that's where people go when they have a problem and no one can figure it out. I ask what the risk is if I have an infection in my face and it goes untreated. She said I could get sepsis, or systemic infection. Because there is a lot of tissue in the jaw and blood flow, the infection could get in the blood. The blood travels through the heart and could infect your aorta (or something, I don't remember, other that she was just throwing stuff out about the heart). I could get osteomyelitis, which is where your bone gets infected and falls apart.
Two weeks later I go to the infectious disease dr for a follow up. I have one day left of IV, I feel great, but I'm concerned why this keeps coming back. How do I know it's gone? Did the last surgery in November just stir things up a bit? I mention the Mayo Clinic thing and he dismisses it. He then tells me the IV antibiotics were NOT for my jaw, they were for the appendicitis (which is entirely NOT what I recall from being in the hospital). He says he's not concerned about the jaw. He said the IV antibiotics just seem to bring down inflammation levels in my body overall, and that's probably why I felt great. But he said now that I'm off of them, he would expect some level of that inflammation to come back and maybe even a little swelling in the jaw to come back, too. That I needed to be patient. I had a lot of surgery done to one area and it was going to take a long time to heal. That I needed to wait and be patient. Of course, if it swelled up a lot or started to hurt a lot to come back and see him, but otherwise, I didn't need to come back. I asked why he thought I had so much inflammation then, and he said just from the trauma of all the surgeries. So wait. Be patient. In a friendly, yet slightly condescending tone. I feel like I'm making a big deal of out nothing and feel silly for asking. Feel silly for bringing up the Mayo Clinic suggestion from my OB. And then I look down at my arm and I have a stinkin' PICC line sticking out of it! For the third time in 1.5 years! How can I not be concerned to ask these questions?
The next day, I have my post-op appointment with my surgeon that took out the appendix. I asked him if he was the one that ordered the IV antibiotics for the appendix - since this explanation from the infectious disease doctor made no sense to me as I thought it was for my jaw - and he said No, of course not. The infection was isolated in the appendix, he removed the appendix, and he would have sent me home on NO antibiotics. The IV antibiotics were not needed for the appendix whatsoever. The infectious disease dr must have ordered it for the jaw.
So this is where things sound a little weird to me. I am glad I got the PICC line b/c I'm feeling better - I would prefer this treatment rather than oral antibiotics - but I don't like these changing explanations. Sounds strange to me. It's been a few weeks, and so far so good. Fingers crossed it doesn't swell up again.
7th Surgery (November 2017)
During the last week of November, I had surgery to put more bone grafts in my jaw and implants where the two teeth were removed in May. The surgery was done in the oral surgeon's office and my husband drove me home. Was on hydrocodone for a few days, but I hate taking that stuff, so tried to switch to Advil as soon as I could. The normal swelling would occur by day 3 and about 2 weeks later I looked back to normal. I'll save the pics, they look like all the others.
Side note, this little surgery cost over $8k and insurance didn't cover a thing. I haven't been keeping track of all the nickels and dimes but it's getting expensive. I probably spent almost $20k since the first surgery on combined revisions surgeries (only from the new doc, the old one paid for them all), IV antibiotics, X-rays, co pays, etc. Not to mention flights for parents to come out and help with kids while I'm out. And now that I'm working again, lost income from surgery (self employed now). Ok, end of that complaint.
While this was probably one of the easiest surgeries I had in all of this, for some reason I seemed to experience a lot of inflammation from it. My gums started receding significantly on tooth # 5 and #2 (my two teeth left on that side). They were already receding on tooth #5, but it was continually getting worse. The receding on tooth #2 (back molar) was new and I am starting to feel a divot develop next to this tooth. Which I thought was kind of strange to have the feeling that I LOST bone, b/c the whole purpose of this was to add more bone.
Oral surgeon thinks I'm going to lose tooth #5 now. There is almost no gum on it, it's receded so far up. Strange thing is, it's not loose at all. We think it's ankylosed. He put me on amoxicillin for 10 days after surgery. But I'm feeling a burning sensation along my gum line and pain in my upper jaw in this one spot as far as 4 weeks after surgery. I'm wondering if I should have not been on amoxicillin b/c I don't think it works on me anymore and I wonder if I should have been on something different. After the October surgery on the deviated septum, that ENT put me on Cephalaxin just to do something I haven't done. I wasn't thinking clearly to suggest this after the November surgery.
During the last week of December, I see my oral surgeon to have the stitches removed and I bring these concerns to him. I also am thinking my cheek is starting to look swollen again. But he says its just red and swollen b/c he just took the stitches out. Th 3D cone beam scan he just took looked fine, the bone appears to be taking, and he's not worried. I'm set to come back in March for another cone beam scan and to be evaluated if I need more tissue grafting before the next surgery in mid-March. The next surgery will be very minor, but they will put me under to dig away the gum that will have grown back over the implant screws (so I can finally get those veneers on), and then most likely add more tissue and gum grafts. And we will talk about if/when I have that middle tooth #5 removed. He thinks I should do a bridge for that one, if we do end up removing it.
My prosthesis no longer fits with the screws and my ortho is on vacation for 2 weeks. So I have missing teeth just in time for the holiday party circuit. How embarrassing, but nothing I can do.
Right after my check up with my oral surgeon (end-Dec), I had a follow up appt with my functional medicine dr on bloodwork for something else. He looks at my cheek and asks me why I'm still swollen! I said, "See! I thought I was swollen!" and I tell him the whole story how I just had surgery a month ago and am not normally swollen at this time after and my concern about the burning sensation in my gum line and the aching pain I still had in my upper jaw. I told him I was afraid there was still an infection there and my doctor wasn't concerned. I was worried the infection would prevent the bone graft from taking again, and then I could run the risk of losing the implants. I felt like I needed to do SOMETHING so was wondering if I should just start self-medicate with all this antibiotic I had laying around. I had leftover amoxicillin from my infectious disease dr (although i don't think it works), I had Doxycycline I bought in Mexico, and I had Rifampin, which he gave me last May and I filled the Rx but never took.
We agreed I should take the Rifampin for 30 days and see what happens. It's really strong, infectious disease told me not to do it, but I am feeling the need to do something. And wouldn't you know, by DAY 2 my pain was gone. Gone! This tells me the infection WAS still in there. The inflammatory markers in my bloodwork all came back off the charts high. The dr didn't know if it was from an infection or just still healing from surgery or something else. We agreed that I would take a bunch of anti-inflammatory supplements (turmeric, omega, etc) and come back and do the bloodworm in Feb again.
The Rifampin makes all bodily secretions turn orange. It's really quite weird. I'm taking several probiotics several times a day to mitigate the gut distress and it seems to be working. My gut is not bothering me at all. But my immune system is definitely down, b/c I get sick. Twice within a two week period.
Side note, this little surgery cost over $8k and insurance didn't cover a thing. I haven't been keeping track of all the nickels and dimes but it's getting expensive. I probably spent almost $20k since the first surgery on combined revisions surgeries (only from the new doc, the old one paid for them all), IV antibiotics, X-rays, co pays, etc. Not to mention flights for parents to come out and help with kids while I'm out. And now that I'm working again, lost income from surgery (self employed now). Ok, end of that complaint.
While this was probably one of the easiest surgeries I had in all of this, for some reason I seemed to experience a lot of inflammation from it. My gums started receding significantly on tooth # 5 and #2 (my two teeth left on that side). They were already receding on tooth #5, but it was continually getting worse. The receding on tooth #2 (back molar) was new and I am starting to feel a divot develop next to this tooth. Which I thought was kind of strange to have the feeling that I LOST bone, b/c the whole purpose of this was to add more bone.
Oral surgeon thinks I'm going to lose tooth #5 now. There is almost no gum on it, it's receded so far up. Strange thing is, it's not loose at all. We think it's ankylosed. He put me on amoxicillin for 10 days after surgery. But I'm feeling a burning sensation along my gum line and pain in my upper jaw in this one spot as far as 4 weeks after surgery. I'm wondering if I should have not been on amoxicillin b/c I don't think it works on me anymore and I wonder if I should have been on something different. After the October surgery on the deviated septum, that ENT put me on Cephalaxin just to do something I haven't done. I wasn't thinking clearly to suggest this after the November surgery.
During the last week of December, I see my oral surgeon to have the stitches removed and I bring these concerns to him. I also am thinking my cheek is starting to look swollen again. But he says its just red and swollen b/c he just took the stitches out. Th 3D cone beam scan he just took looked fine, the bone appears to be taking, and he's not worried. I'm set to come back in March for another cone beam scan and to be evaluated if I need more tissue grafting before the next surgery in mid-March. The next surgery will be very minor, but they will put me under to dig away the gum that will have grown back over the implant screws (so I can finally get those veneers on), and then most likely add more tissue and gum grafts. And we will talk about if/when I have that middle tooth #5 removed. He thinks I should do a bridge for that one, if we do end up removing it.
My prosthesis no longer fits with the screws and my ortho is on vacation for 2 weeks. So I have missing teeth just in time for the holiday party circuit. How embarrassing, but nothing I can do.
Right after my check up with my oral surgeon (end-Dec), I had a follow up appt with my functional medicine dr on bloodwork for something else. He looks at my cheek and asks me why I'm still swollen! I said, "See! I thought I was swollen!" and I tell him the whole story how I just had surgery a month ago and am not normally swollen at this time after and my concern about the burning sensation in my gum line and the aching pain I still had in my upper jaw. I told him I was afraid there was still an infection there and my doctor wasn't concerned. I was worried the infection would prevent the bone graft from taking again, and then I could run the risk of losing the implants. I felt like I needed to do SOMETHING so was wondering if I should just start self-medicate with all this antibiotic I had laying around. I had leftover amoxicillin from my infectious disease dr (although i don't think it works), I had Doxycycline I bought in Mexico, and I had Rifampin, which he gave me last May and I filled the Rx but never took.
We agreed I should take the Rifampin for 30 days and see what happens. It's really strong, infectious disease told me not to do it, but I am feeling the need to do something. And wouldn't you know, by DAY 2 my pain was gone. Gone! This tells me the infection WAS still in there. The inflammatory markers in my bloodwork all came back off the charts high. The dr didn't know if it was from an infection or just still healing from surgery or something else. We agreed that I would take a bunch of anti-inflammatory supplements (turmeric, omega, etc) and come back and do the bloodworm in Feb again.
The Rifampin makes all bodily secretions turn orange. It's really quite weird. I'm taking several probiotics several times a day to mitigate the gut distress and it seems to be working. My gut is not bothering me at all. But my immune system is definitely down, b/c I get sick. Twice within a two week period.
6th Surgery Update (October 2017)
This surgery was not on my jaw but related nonetheless.
I finished the 6 weeks of IV antibiotics in June, decided NOT to take the Rifampin per recommendation from my oral surgeon and infectious disease doctor, and continued on amoxicillin through August. Right after the IV completed, I felt great. Which I'm learning, I always do after this stuff - it just feels like it cleans me out in some way. Side note - my family and I left for a 2 month camping trip right after that. After a few weeks, I started to notice swelling in my right cheek again. The picture attached is from July 2017. The right side looks more swollen, right? But the funny thing is, it would come and go. I have other pics of me a few weeks before and a few weeks after where the swelling was less pronounced.
I was starting to wonder if the IV antibiotics just kept the infection smothered for a time, if you will, but it was coming back. I was on amoxicillin at this time, but I think I'm resistant to it. I bought this really interesting book while on our trip about antibiotics and superbugs and how we are developing resistance to antibiotics at record speed. It was really interesting read. It was about finding natural antibiotics such as ginger and these tinctures that you have to buy online. Although I couldn't find a write-up on the exact strain of staph that I had so I kind of gave up on it and didn't go this route. But I'm wondering if I should take this book out again and maybe email the author... a picture of the book is attached. I also went to Mexico a few weeks later and, did you know you can buy antibiotics at the pharmacy there without a prescription?!? I stocked up on Doxycyline just to have in my back pocket. This is one of the antibiotics my functional medicine doctor recommended I try, but the infectious diseases doctor poo-poo'd the idea. I'm saving it for a rainy day just in case I need it and I can't get a doctor to prescribe something different, which is becoming a running theme here.
During the summer, I continued to have problems with my sinuses. I would wake up with a sinus headache every single morning, without fail. I mentioned we were camping and in different locations all throughout the West, so part of me wondered whether it was outdoor allergies kicking up (by the way, they never used to bother me before). I.e. we once had our Airstream parked in a field of wildflowers in Idaho for a week...it looked like a Claritin ad and I felt like one, too. I'm noticing my sinus problems are more exacerbated after the surgery.
During my check-in with my oral surgeon, he mentioned these headaches would subside most likely if I got my deviated septum straightened. I learned I had a pretty bad deviated septum on my right side right in Sept 2015, right before I was about to have the jaw surgery. I was going to schedule the surgery with my ENT to correct it, but my oral surgeon did not recommend it as I needed to have a 3 mos window between the jaw and sinus surgery. So I put it on hold. Now, in Sept 2017, my new oral surgeon suggested I have this deviated septum straightened BEFORE I have my next surgery in November 2017 to do add'l bone grafts and insert the implants. His thought process was, if we can fix the structural issues in the sinus and improve drainage, then the chance of me developing a sinus infection again after surgery would be minimized. And that would mean I would have less chance of that sinus infection leaking into my jaw again and causing the bone graft to not take again. I went to my old ENT to get his thoughts on this and he concurred.
I had the deviated septum surgery in the hospital in October with my ENT and it was pretty uneventful. Went home the same day. Recovery was uncomfortable. They put this substance up in your nose to prevent the sinus from closing and healing shut, so I was not able to blow my nose for a week. And with my sinus problems and allergies, that is a pretty impossible thing to NOT do. You just have to find a way to get that mucus out through your mouth (TMI!). Eventually some of that foam/tissue substance came out and improved my breathing. Then I had to go to the ENT for "sinus debridement" two times after surgery (2 weeks and 4 weeks). Debridement means they take a tiny vacuum and stick it up your nose and suck out all that remaining fake tissue stuff. It is as uncomfortable as it sounds. But after the second debridement, my sinus headaches upon waking disappeared for good. For real!
The swelling would kind of come and go in that cheek and some weeks it looked fine. The CT scan I had with IV contrast did not show any infection. So the November surgery was a go.
I finished the 6 weeks of IV antibiotics in June, decided NOT to take the Rifampin per recommendation from my oral surgeon and infectious disease doctor, and continued on amoxicillin through August. Right after the IV completed, I felt great. Which I'm learning, I always do after this stuff - it just feels like it cleans me out in some way. Side note - my family and I left for a 2 month camping trip right after that. After a few weeks, I started to notice swelling in my right cheek again. The picture attached is from July 2017. The right side looks more swollen, right? But the funny thing is, it would come and go. I have other pics of me a few weeks before and a few weeks after where the swelling was less pronounced.
I was starting to wonder if the IV antibiotics just kept the infection smothered for a time, if you will, but it was coming back. I was on amoxicillin at this time, but I think I'm resistant to it. I bought this really interesting book while on our trip about antibiotics and superbugs and how we are developing resistance to antibiotics at record speed. It was really interesting read. It was about finding natural antibiotics such as ginger and these tinctures that you have to buy online. Although I couldn't find a write-up on the exact strain of staph that I had so I kind of gave up on it and didn't go this route. But I'm wondering if I should take this book out again and maybe email the author... a picture of the book is attached. I also went to Mexico a few weeks later and, did you know you can buy antibiotics at the pharmacy there without a prescription?!? I stocked up on Doxycyline just to have in my back pocket. This is one of the antibiotics my functional medicine doctor recommended I try, but the infectious diseases doctor poo-poo'd the idea. I'm saving it for a rainy day just in case I need it and I can't get a doctor to prescribe something different, which is becoming a running theme here.
During the summer, I continued to have problems with my sinuses. I would wake up with a sinus headache every single morning, without fail. I mentioned we were camping and in different locations all throughout the West, so part of me wondered whether it was outdoor allergies kicking up (by the way, they never used to bother me before). I.e. we once had our Airstream parked in a field of wildflowers in Idaho for a week...it looked like a Claritin ad and I felt like one, too. I'm noticing my sinus problems are more exacerbated after the surgery.
During my check-in with my oral surgeon, he mentioned these headaches would subside most likely if I got my deviated septum straightened. I learned I had a pretty bad deviated septum on my right side right in Sept 2015, right before I was about to have the jaw surgery. I was going to schedule the surgery with my ENT to correct it, but my oral surgeon did not recommend it as I needed to have a 3 mos window between the jaw and sinus surgery. So I put it on hold. Now, in Sept 2017, my new oral surgeon suggested I have this deviated septum straightened BEFORE I have my next surgery in November 2017 to do add'l bone grafts and insert the implants. His thought process was, if we can fix the structural issues in the sinus and improve drainage, then the chance of me developing a sinus infection again after surgery would be minimized. And that would mean I would have less chance of that sinus infection leaking into my jaw again and causing the bone graft to not take again. I went to my old ENT to get his thoughts on this and he concurred.
I had the deviated septum surgery in the hospital in October with my ENT and it was pretty uneventful. Went home the same day. Recovery was uncomfortable. They put this substance up in your nose to prevent the sinus from closing and healing shut, so I was not able to blow my nose for a week. And with my sinus problems and allergies, that is a pretty impossible thing to NOT do. You just have to find a way to get that mucus out through your mouth (TMI!). Eventually some of that foam/tissue substance came out and improved my breathing. Then I had to go to the ENT for "sinus debridement" two times after surgery (2 weeks and 4 weeks). Debridement means they take a tiny vacuum and stick it up your nose and suck out all that remaining fake tissue stuff. It is as uncomfortable as it sounds. But after the second debridement, my sinus headaches upon waking disappeared for good. For real!
The swelling would kind of come and go in that cheek and some weeks it looked fine. The CT scan I had with IV contrast did not show any infection. So the November surgery was a go.
Provider Review
Name not provided
I really like my doctor. He went above and beyond to make me feel comfortable with the process and procedure. Has a wonderful bedside manner.