Health problems

[Paleowoman]

Ever since cardiac surgery (21 months ago) I have had one health problem after another, get over one and then there's another, and since last January major mouth/jaw/tooth problems after having no dental problems for the previous eleven years. Had damage to trigeminal nerve after root canal treatment last January which led to the canalled tooth being extracted (maybe shouldn't have been). Was on oramorph for pain for several months and then onto gabapentin when it was discovered that the nerve was sensitised. Also severe jaw inflammation with CRP reaching 87 last March. Things seemed to get better over the summer, apart from continuing weird sensations from the nerve on left side of face, but now a tooth on other side of mouth is causing pain ! It's a crowned tooth so I am mystified. Seeing maxillo facial surgeon on Thursday. ENT doc does not want me to have any dental work done without the surgeon's say so. Taking tramadol which I was given after heart surgery which didn't help with pain then, and it's not helping much with pain now. Making me feel spaced out.
Anyway, writing this just to vent how fed up I am with ongoing health problems since AVR :-(

 

[dornole]

That stinks Paleogirl. Hoping you soon get free of this latest and then, may no new thing arise.

 

[AZ Don]

now a tooth on other side of mouth is causing pain ! It's a crowned tooth so I am mystified.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I just got a crown and was surprised when I was told it should last only 10 to 15 years. I didn't realize that they don't last longer. The tooth underneath is still subject to decay and there are other problems that can come up as well.

 

[Paleowoman]

I think there's either decay under the crown or a fractured root, or a problem associated with the jaw muscle - the latter is the best option becuase otherwise I will have to have the tooth extracted and last time I got 'dry socket' following the extraction which is terrible. I think that since AVR I may be clenching my teeth in my sleep and that must have led to the first tooth getting a micro fracture last year and now this tooth. The crown is a 'gold' alloy which means it should be able to withstand pressures, but not the kind of pressure that apparently happens when a person clenches their teeth in sleep. I never did any of that prior to surgery so wonder if this is all related to some kind of PTSD ?

 

[cldlhd]

I know this isn't anything to make light of so I don't want to offend anyone but I have an ethical question related post surgery. If I forget to do something my wife asked me to do probably due to general male inattentiveness is it wrong if I tell her it's because my memory isn't as good since I was on the heart lung machine?

 

[Paleowoman]

Has your memory got worse since heart surgery cidlhd ? If it has it would be eithical of course to say that, but if it's just male inattentiveness then no. There are neurological side effects of the heart lung machine, like the visual problems some of us get, so perhaps your memory could have been affected ?

 

[cldlhd]

I have gotten frequent auras. My memory seems a little worse but hard to tell.

 

[Seaton]

Sorry to hear about the continuing health issues, Anne.

Dental pain can knock an equilibrium for six – especially the impossible-to-ignore gnawing type that can come through a gum.
Hope it resolves soon and some peace descends.

 

[honeybunny]

(((((((Anne)))))))

So sorry you are dealing with these health issues. Sending positive thoughts your way.

 

[Paleowoman]

I saw the most wonderful maxillo facial surgeon this evening ! She really listened to me. And when she looked inside my mouth she could isee mmediately that I had been clenching my teeth from marks on the insides of my cheeks. Clenching them during my sleep as I certainly don't do that during the day. The tooth which is causing pain is being bitten on with tremendous pressures when I am asleep, much higher pressures than teeth get when eating food, and this has caused pain in the 'periodontal ligament'. The tooth is crowned in a gold alloy which is just the right kind of crown to have in this condition, and there is no decay underneath or fracture - she had my whole jaw x-rayed. I now have to get the dentist to make me a soft mouthguard for at night - I bet that will be difficult to sleep with. But I also have had a lot of stress with the heart op and problems with my mouth so I will have to deal with that stress, also deal with termporomadibular joint problems which are adding to this. Anyway, I feel much relieved I haven't got to have this other tooth extracted !

 

[Midpack]

Anne, I suffer from bruxism too, and have been using that mouthguard for many years. You get quickly used to it, not big deal.

 

[Paleowoman]

That's good to know Midpack ! I sleep very slightly but it's something I will do anyway because the pain of this is really bad - back on tramadol for goodness sake !

 

[Tank]

Anne, I feel your pain having had a root canal 5 weeks post-op and finding out that the wrong tooth was done or I have more than 1 tooth giving me grief. I get a pounding behind the right eye that is so intense it is hard to walk at times. I can only hope that I get through all this w/o any infection or other problems . I was told also that any future surgeries that I have to spend at least 4 days in the hospital to get blood right and taken off warfarin prior to any surgery no matter how small. I have to have back surgeries in the near future and they told me today that I will need to be off the warfarin 5-7 days before I can have a nerve conduction test and a ct scan with contrast into the spine ( myelogram ), anyone out there have any thoughts on all this or experiences as such please let me know. I too am feeling very tired of being sick and run down when I should feel better. Tanx, Tank

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi Tank - I've now discovered that the teeth clenching I must be doing at night can be related to stress. I was never doing this before, all these probles are post AVR and I am more and more convinced that it is related to some sort of post surgical traumatic stress (PTSD is not that uncommon after AVR). I have had so many problems since AVR, took a year before I felt back to my pre-surgery fitness levels and then all this tooth/mouth/jaw saga started so that I really feel I am having one thing after another, plus ongoing stress with surgeon not correcting Operation Note to say why she couldn't access my aortic valve where she expected it and had to do median sternotomy rather than "mini sternotomy" - I couldn't care less about the incision scar, I do care that a future surgeon doing re-do knows what happened. Just the other day I sincerely felt that I regretted having had AVR and that nature should have taken its course - I was feeling that low with all this going on. I am seeing the ENT guy tomorrow to try and get some ongoing medication to stop my jaw muscles from spasming which is part of the problem - they give me diazepam but onlyshort courses because doctors are so freaked about people getting addicted to it. It's a baby dose of diazepam which acts as a muscle relaxant, just 2mg three times a day. Over forty years ago when I was in my teens I was very seriously depressed and one of the meds they gave me was diazepam 5mg three times a day. I was on that for two years continuously and one day I decided that all the meds did not help with my depression and I just stopped them. No problem. So I am not the sort of person to get addicted to the stuff. I am so p**d off with this.

I hope you get some help with your pain. I never had a nerve conduction test. Gapapentin helped me with the nerve pain as it switches off the message of pain. Gapapentin is actually an anti-epileptic med but it has that other effect of stopping nerve pain. I was on it for about three months earlier this year, I still get the strange nerve feeling all up the side of my face but not the terrible pain that used to go with it.

Do let us know how it's going Tank.

 

[Tank]

The nerve conduction test is to determine the amount of damage to nerves at different levels of the spine. I do have some damage but most of my pain is caused by failed fusion and am having bone spurs growing into muscles and the spinal cord itself. On the brighter side, I just got a call from the dentist doing the root canal in a few days only to find out that my insurance is maxed out. This will make the little tooth cost me $1727 keep that little feller and the one next to it cost $727 out of pocket. Insurance is nice until it runs out, then the price goes up, I only wish I could put these dental visits on my medical due to the fact that I'm having them fixed so I don't get infection for the heart valve. Thanx, Tank

 

[almost_hectic]

The nerve conduction test is to determine the amount of damage to nerves at different levels of the spine. I do have some damage but most of my pain is caused by failed fusion and am having bone spurs growing into muscles and the spinal cord itself. On the brighter side, I just got a call from the dentist doing the root canal in a few days only to find out that my insurance is maxed out. This will make the little tooth cost me $1727 keep that little feller and the one next to it cost $727 out of pocket. Insurance is nice until it runs out, then the price goes up, I only wish I could put these dental visits on my medical due to the fact that I'm having them fixed so I don't get infection for the heart valve. Thanx, Tank

Maybe under the circumstances you can get them covered under medical, worth looking into, ask your doctor... I would. Never hurts to ask, worst they can tell you is no

 

[Paleowoman]

I didn't have my root canal under the NHS as my NHS dentist didn't want to do the work - he knew it was a dodgy thing to do on a wisdom tooth, so I had to go to a private dentist. That cost me £500 (would have been £50 on the NHS) - so better value than in the US. £500 for root canal is $771 at today's rate of exchange. When that root canalled tooth continued to cause problems and I was getting severe facial pain (which I still get) my private insurance, which comes from my husband's work for free, paid for the tooth to be extracted since it was a wisdom tooth. So at least I didn't pay for the privelige of having a tooth extracted which had just cost me £500. But dental costs are high even in the UK, I'm talking about private dental costs, though obviously not as high as in the US. I think it's dreaful that we have to pay these costs for the sake of our heart valves. If we got endocarditis it would cost the NHS in the UK or insurance in the US a lot more money ! Do ask your insurance company Tank, it doesn't hurt to ask.