Get Out the Violins

Poor Dear Daughter.  She had to have all 4 widsom teeth out unexpectedly on Friday.  Unexpectedly?  Well yes.

She told me that she had a tooth that was bothering her a few weeks ago and then said nothing more about it.  Mother of the Year that I am, I forgot too... Then this past week, she mentioned it again.  So I made a dentist appt. for her on Friday morning.  It was supposed to be just a quickie -- check to see what's bugging her, maybe get that poppyseed out from between her teeth, you know.   I didn't even put on my makeup as it was an early morning/after carpool thing.  Big mistake.  

Dr. got her in the chair and in about 4 seconds called me back.  At least I'd brushed my hair and changed out of jammies, I thought.  He told me that her wisdom teeth were the culprits and that they should come out in the next few weeks, and then asked about her schedule once school was out.  Dear Daughter's eyes got as big as saucers, don't you know, and I answered for her that 6 days after school was out she was leaving for an exchange program in France.  Not Paris, France but close -- Chartres.

Whoa Nellie, he said... these'll have to come out today.  She can't fly if there's a chance of bleeding and you don't want them flaring up in France.  They'll have to be completely healed before she leaves.  Whoa Nellie is right.  Add a Darned Tootin' for good measure.

So off we went to a dental surgeon, who by the grace of you know who, could take her that morning.  By noon, she was whacked out on oxycodone (sp?) and looked like this:

 

You didn't think my seventeen-year-old would let me take a picture of her after oral surgery did you?  Actually, as woozy as she was, I probably could have sneaked a snapshot and seeing as how everyone and their mother at the oral surgery center saw me in sweats and without even a swipe of Bare Essentials powder base...  Of course, I didn't take a picture.   

She's recovering nicely, thank you very much.  Dad came home that night with 2 quarts of Ted Drewes frozen custard (and a strawberry shortcake custard for me because I'd been through so much too -- good husband).  She's worked her way through them and several packages of Ramen as well.  Today we try mac 'n cheese.

   

 These are the roses blooming in my back yard right now.  Hubster brought them in for me.  He's a keeper.  They're cabbage roses and they don't smell.  Which is a good thing because the peonies he brought in last week, while beautiful, kept making me look around for something that was rotting in the sink or under the trash bag.  

......

Oh, alright, I'll blog about negative stuff, since you asked...

Actually, this is as much a rant as it is about negative stuff, so it'll be entertaining.

So, my hip thing.  You know, the one that the medication for which almost killed me with high blood pressure in February?  The one for which I've been doing physical therapy for three months?  Yeah, that one.

In April, I had a cortisone shot into the hip joint.  It was as much a diagnostic tool as anything.  If it calmed the pain, then that joint is the problem.  If not, then the problem is likely the bursa.  I agreed to the procedure, although, in my defense, I'd have agreed to nearly anything at that point.  When you have to plan each trip up and down the stairs and the kids are starting to ask why you're sitting on the couch all the time, you get a little desperate.

So the injection?  They do it with a digital x-ray machine, which is kind of cool.  And the doctor and the technician tell you it's a relatively low pain procedure and that the main side effect to watch for is infection at the site of the injection.  Ok, that's what you'd expect, right?

Jeez.  Very painful (and I've given birth two times, folks... I know pain).  My leg kind of cramped up and they asked who was there to drive me home.  I growled through clenched teeth that I hadn't been told I needed anyone to drive me home.  So we waited until I could walk again and I drove myself the two blocks (luckily) to the house.  Yikes.  

The next morning, I lit up like a Christmas tree.  I'm not kidding -- my face and chest went bright red and super hot the the touch.  No fever though.  And my heart?  Racing.  I kind of held on, and after this flashing had happened 2 more times, each coincidental with walking around or up stairs, did I call the Dr.?  No, of course not, silly!  I checked on the internet. 

Where I found that 15 percent of women who have this procedure experience "flushing". Flushing?!  A very polite word for what I experienced.  Yeesh.  I called my GP at about 4.  His assistant told me to watch my blood pressure (how am I supposed to do that) and that it sounded like an anaphylactic response to the steroid (Yikes)  and had I had that kind of response before (Um, no, I'd have remembered this)  and that I should take a bunch of Benadryl (That stuff puts me in a coma and husband's out of town) and if it got worse I should go to the ER.  Really.

The flushing/flashing decreased over the weekend, and I saw the GP first thing on Monday and we decided that I probably shouldn't have that shot any more as anaphylactic responses ramp up with exposure rather than decreasing.  You think?

Rant:  This is a considerable side effect.  They should mention it to women getting the shot, which btw is a very common procedure.  And, according to my friend's sister's allergist (don't ask) allergies to steroid- and non-steroidal anti inflamatory drugs are more common in women of a certain age (ahem, 45 plus) and can cause dizziness, flushing, swelling etc.  Really?  Like the dizziness I've been experiencing since I've been taking a ton of Ibuprophen and Naproxen with this hip thing?  To which my GP replied that most testing of procedures and drugs is done on med-students (primarily men 25 to 30 years old) and almost never on peri-menopausal women.  In fact we only have anecdotal evidence of how women respond to most drugs. Craptacular.  Well, add my anecdote to the pile, buster.  

So that was twice that hip treatments tried to kill me. 

Threes a charm, right?  

I'm going in for acupuncture today.  Cross your fingers.

Comments

[Carole]

Geez, you've had a lot on your plate! Hannah's wisdom teeth removal was similar although not quite as dramatic. She had mentioned she had a tooth bothering her but then said no more and I forgot. Then it flared up because (whoops) it was infected. The teeth ended up coming out the next day. In a way, though, it was kind of good. There was no time to get worked up or overly emotional about the whole thing!