Continuating Tooth Saga, or Why I'm Reassessing Chemotherapy

Monday, after the endodontist, I blogged at 6pm, optimistic the toothache might be temporarily resolved until after chemo when the molar could be extracted.

Minutes later, the pain returned with a vengeance. Apparently the numbing hadn’t worn off when I blogged. I tried Tylenol, but two hours later it was intolerable. Greg called the endodontist. He suggested we try to control the pain until morning, suspecting the storm would blow over. The jaw bone was very bruised and sore, he said. Alternate Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and hydrocodone; something every two hours.

By 9pm the pain was manageable. Fearing it might get out of control again, I set the alarm every two hours to dose up as prescribed.

Throw in a two varieties of antibiotics on top of that, an inability to eat, and by noon the next day I was a mess. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that poorly. Crawly-clammy skin, headache, nausea, dark thoughts, and I swear I could smell chemicals oozing from my pores. Hypersensitive to every odor; everything was making me crazy. Poor Greg. He was home with me that day.

I considered the ER, but since there was no way I’d allow anyone to poke, prod, or hook me up with anything chemical anyway – I was prepared to choose death by misery over fear of medicine.

Around 6 pm I remembered electrolytes might help (duh) and sent Greg for Gatorade. I drank 24 ounces over the next few hours and started to come around. Don’t know if it was the electrolytes or the wearing off of drugs, but I felt better and attempted sleep again Tuesday night. I’d doze for short periods with nightmares about dying in pain of terminal cancer. Waking, I’d think “Oh God, it was only a nightmare” – only to remember it wasn’t . . . entirely.

Wednesday, still hypersensitive, I had to get out of the house. (Have you ever felt so sick in a place you wanted to walk out and burn it down behind you?) Kay graciously agreed to pick me up and allowed me to camp on her couch most of the day. What a relief to be somewhere else and distracted.

The tooth pain is tolerable if I don’t touch upper and lower teeth – so I’m still using the cotton wad on the good side. I can’t chew because of course that would mean contact and zinging pain. (I’m good at swallowing small bits without chewing now – though with all the drugs nothing tastes right anyway so there is the advantage of weight loss.)

Tomorrow I re-visit the endodontist to have the tooth ground down so there is no possibility of contact; then I should be able to chew on the other side until the damned molar can be pulled.

What I’ve learned: 1) I HATE DRUGS!! They make you very, very ill. They cause a chain reaction of nasty things to happen to your body and mind. With two chemo rounds to go, I’m again giving treatment serious thought. 2) If you’re on a pain regimen and there’s a possibility of sleeping through a dosing, CHOOSE SLEEP.