December 16, 2013 (Monday)
Symptoms:
12:01am-4am: on pain med can’t sleep, pain level at a 5
4:00am-8:45am: took pain med, pain med combined with exhaustion, I sleep
8:45-12:45: took pain med, it seems this time to really help, pain at a 4
12:45pm: I skip my scheduled pain dose
12:45pm-3:45: pain at a manageable but distractible level, increasing from 4-6
3:45pm: Without pain med on board, and pain at 5-6, I test teeth with gentle pressure:
Tooth 31: They removed this tooth and socket is just uncomfortable, level 1-2
Tooth 30: level 2-3
Tooth 29: level 6 (scream and shake)
Tooth 28: level 8-9 (scream loudly want to die)
Tooth 27: level 6 (scream and shake)
Tooth 26: level 3
Tooth 25: level 2
Now my whole jaw and gum are reverberating with pain that won’t go away.
4:00pm: Took my pain med. Skipping a cycle was an experiment. Afraid to skip again.
Jaw at the joint under ear extremely painful, can’t open it far. Diarrhea continues.
Pain: 3 on pain med; 5-6 when pain med expires
Actions: None
Provider Seen: None
Results of Visit: N/A
Medications:
Dilaudid 4mg and Tylenol 325 every 4 hours, Augmentin 875-125 every 12 hours
Two doses of Zofran to help stem the diarrhea caused by the antibiotic
Ken's Medical Journal 
I don’t see how Zofran will help prevent diarrhea–it is to prevent nausea…
Thanks for following me and caring… so glad you are Barb. I think the Zofran was causing me constipation for those 12 days I was constipated. So I thought if I started it back up, it would help counteract (as a side affect) the diarrhea that the Augmentin is causing. Am I wrong? I have so many meds thrown at me, this was a question I was bringing the doc tomorrow.
The pain meds are what causes the constipation! You need to be on scheduled stool softeners/laxatives when you take scheduled narcotic pain meds, unless you are on antibiotics 🙂 You might need an antidiarrheal, or maybe to “rest your gut” by reverting to a liquid diet and working your way back up as your GI system is ready to take it on. That would be a great thing to talk to the provider or nurse about tomorrow!
I thought some nurse or someone told me the Zofran caused it too… and I was taking something for the constipation that whole time and of course was on a liquid diet for those 12 days… I don’t have the post in front of me to see what I was taking but it’s in my history in the long history post. Regardless, the constipation never was helped by the rx stool softener, and no one seemed to be worried about that, even at Mayo for the two days they had me. I have had no integrated and quarterbacked team on this… I have been punted over and over and I’m exhausted. No one has asked or cared about these ancillary issues like my overall health and my depression. When Mayo Oral Surg punted me back to dental, and dental including my oral surgeon didn’t want me… I gave up. The periodontist we saw on Friday kinda started the game all over and brought the oral surgeon back on board. And I am seeing my GP for the first time tomorrow. And that’s not my fault either. Sorry I sound angry, but I’m so beat and tired. If I get the “bums rush” tomorrow from the doctor I am not gonna be ok with that. And my oral surgeon needs to make the appt for a bone scan that he said he would do… I am desperate. The pain in my jaw is relentless. Thank you for your care… I wish you could have been my medical quarterback.
Mary just told me that the Zofran bottle says it can cause constipation… that’s why I was home remedy trying that to balance the diarrhea. I’m sure you read my whole saga, but here is the link to the first 24 days of this, including all my meds. I did all this in a Pages doc for printing to give to my GP tomorrow, hoping someone will take some oversight of this. If this were happening to someone I know I’d be pissed. As it is, I’m too despondent to be. Someone needs to own this… I don’t have the juice to fight. https://kensmedicaljournal.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/history-from-november-20-to-december-14/
You need a care coordinator….I read your story after you posted it and totally agree it is all so disconnected, and you are too sick to be able to advocate for yourself! I am sure Mary is doing what she can, but she doesn’t know the system. Great job on your written summary. It may not get read by the doctor, but at the very least you have it to refer to when he says, “I want you to do this” and you can say, “I already did that at this time.” I don’t know if the Mayo system has care coordinators. I have not heard of them there, unfortunately. I hope your primary care provider will go to bat for you. Work through the nurse. She/he has access to the provider and can also help coordinate things with the Mother Ship if you have to go back there to see a specialist. If you don’t get referred on tomorrow, keep bugging the nurse. (Sorry, Nurse, but I know you can do it!) I suspect the whole situation was aggravated by it occurring over the holidays and not having your GP involved. Praying for some relief!
Thank you so much. I’m getting all weepy lately so I’m sorry. You are right on every count… Mary has done so well, but we are adrift. Thanks for the advice about the nurse… I think we need to befriend Dr Vishwakarma’s nurse too. I’m just hoping against hope that I get a bone scan, and that they discover what my oral surgeon suspects, even if it’s bad, we’ll know. If it’s not necrosis, I am really gonna need a quarterback. The multitude of teeth X-rays are all clean, and there is no rational way it can be 4 or 5 bad teeth all of which aren’t showing on X-rays. Then what’s left?…. TN, ATN, TMJ?… I mean, nothing seems to really fit. Mary has been Internet searching for hours and hours. Anyway, thank you for taking all this time to read and write and care. It means a lot.
It must be miserable being in that much pain for that long! I can’t even imagine what you are going through. Praying for pain relief and a good plan as tomorrow’s outcome. Dealing with the unknown adds stresses of its own. Hope you get some answers soon!
PS–what time zone is your blog clock in? 🙂
I needed a chuckle thanks… Uhm I’m guessing it’s not CST… thks I’ll fix it later. Just blogging on another blog and hanging on til midnite dose. Mary and I watched a couple Netflix shows but it’s hard to focus.