7/30/2011 Continued vitamin C and left side of mouth started hurting..

I have continued taking high doses of vitamin C.  I found a liquid vitamin C from a company called Buried Treasure.  I hold it in my mouth for 30 sec to a minute and hope it is absorbed in.  I have this issue where thick liquids like salad dressing seems to absorb into the bad areas of bone and cause something to swell, the bones or gums.  Not sure but it causes pain.  So if salad dressing can absorb in, I think liquid vitamin C should also.  The bad spot on the right maxilla is significantly smaller now, but I am having increasing problems in the right mandible and now the left too. 

I went to see my family doctor since my ID doctor no longer knows what to do with me. (I'm still on 3000 mg of Amoxicillin a day monitored by the ID doc).  My family doctor told me that the pain in my left jaw area is "somatic".  He was kind enough to leave the word psyco off the front, but whatever.  I think he thought I didn't know what somatic meant. So he is now telling me it's imagined.  I'da really liked to give him some unimagined pain about right then but I doubt jail dentists take care of OM either...lol. 

So I am nearly back to square one.  My right maxilla is a lot better since the debridement, but still has problems. The swelling in the right side of my face is significantly better. My right lower and left lower are getting worse, although some days I think the vitamin C may be helping the right lower.  Left lower is definately worse, but I have no doctor.  I called Mayo.  Very nice but out of network with my insurance.  I emailed Shands here in Florida.  They didn't respond.  I called and left a message with the Oral Maxillofacial Clinic at Shands on Thursday and haven't heard back.  May be they aren't open on Fridays.  Not excited to have students working on me.  Can't afford to fly to San Diego or have time to...but it's all in my head anyways....I'm still dizzy, have trouble focusing, have trouble answering questions, have minimal memory...probably side effects from the amoxicillin.  I swear what comes around goes around...every *&^*^ doctor that says stupid things will be adequately rewarded. 

I meet someone recently that went sky diving with one of the local oral surgeons that I saw (that dismissed it as neuralgia), Dr. Streeter.  He told me that Dr.Streeter was so terrified that he whined a lot before and after the jump. Actually he said he, cried!  I would have loved to see that! 

Anyways, enough of that.  A patient sent me an article on "Oil Pulling".  Some people dismiss it as hogwash, but according to the doctors I'm crazy anyways........., but they don't have any idea what to do with me and I don't want to loose any more teeth or have any more surgeries, I'm not ready to die from the infection spreading, so I am willing to try safe hogwash. 

With Oil Pulling you swish vegetable oil around for 20 min in your mouth.  It's supposed to be sesame or sunflower, but the article I have suggests coconut oil.  You shouldn't swallow it, but just swish it around, spit it out and discard it. I tried yesterday and today.  I'll have to work up to 20 min.  Also trying olive leaf extract and a couple other natural remedies that are considered antibacterial and anti-fungal and continuing the Vitamin C at 2000-3000 mg a day.

July 6, 2011 Benefits of Vitamin C on Osteomyelitis

A couple months ago during an online search for answers about osteomyelitis, I came acrossed an article that said that high doses of Vitamin C can totally eliminated osteomyelitis of the jaw.  I was on Probenecid at the time though and Vitamin C is to be avoided when on Probenecid (figures).  More recently I read an article about Folic acid also have a positive impact on new bone growth in the jaw.  I had some sub-lingual Folic acid in my cabinet and sell Vitamin C in my office...so I have started both about 1 1/2 weeks ago.  I've taken the Vitamin C more frequently and am up to 2000 mg a day.  I really think it is helping.  My energy has been better.  I hit the gym yesterday for a half hour on the elliptical and half hour on the recumbent bike with random hills on level 8..yay.  The right maxilla I think is a lot better.  The swelling in the right side of my face has decreased at least 50%.  I almost feel normal!!!  My lower jaw on the right might be a little better also.  The left lower jaw which recently has been more problematic is continuing to be an issue. OM isn't supposed to spread like that but as I say.."about 50% of medicine is factual, we just don't know which 50%"..   I'm keeping on the Vit C and am determined to be as "normal" as I used to be, just with a few less teeth (and less bone)....If you have OM of the jaw, please give the Vitamin C a shot!  I wish I'd have started sooner.  You have nothing to lose..oh except may be more teeth and your jaw bone...

Still fighting the system..

Would like to find a dentist in FL that has a Cavitat machine..may call the manufacturer next week to see if they can help..  (Have since found one in Clearwater, FL at Dr. Ray Behm's office...don't really recommend him).

Sun, June 6, 2011

Still have weird spot/lump in very back maxilla. It was getting smaller, but appears to have plateaued in it's improvements.  The right side of my face swells everytime I eat.  The whole right side of my head feels swollen.  Back to being lost. Too busy with work and Rotary to be frustrated. Will see my GP sometime this week for a routine thyroid check and may email the ID doc to see what he thinks I should do.  Please feel free to make suggestions.

June 6, 2011

Frustrated..not sure what is going on.  My lower jaw feels better since the last extraction, but the right side of my face swelled up and is still swollen.  I think the swelling is getting worse every day.  I feel it going up into my eye again and into the right side of my throat.  I feel like a chipmunk with acorns in just one cheek. I wish I was still skinny so the doctors would be able to see it better, but then so would everyone else.. If it keeps going a this rate, by the time I see the ID doc in the end of June it will be obvious.  I won't have a cheek bone.  I told the oral surgeon about it at my follow-up, but there's really nothing to do at this point but to continue to take the antibiotics and wait and hope it starts to go down. Just passed my one year anniversary of my first dental appt for this and so ready for it to be over..enough already! 

Thurday, May 26, 2011

I went to see Dr. Gear, DMD, MD in Fort Myers today.  He's the latest of my long line of oral surgeons.  He is different.  He actually appears to care about his patients and schedules follow-up appointments etc.  So anyways..I thought I was going for a consult, but was taken into the "other" room.  The one where extractions are done.  I saw a schedule on the wall with my appt time and ext beside it.  So I was scheduled for an extraction.  It was good though, it eliminated the running around and trying to convince a dentist, endodontist and then an oral surgeon to extract it.  I didn't really want it extracted, but choices are limited and I knew ultimately it was going to happen.  So it was extracted.  Now I'm just playing the waiting game again to see how my body responds.  Hoping that this along with the antibiotics, resolves all the problems I am having in the right lower jaw. 

Update...

Over the last week my energy took a dive again.  I started seeking out caffeine, which I normally don't consume (other than what's found in chocolate - which is a staple), but I need my energy back.  Then tooth #31 started hurting. 

For at least 3-4 days I managed to stay in denial that anything was wrong again. It hurt when I brushed my teeth.  Then my face started hurting over my mandible when I washed my face.  This morning; however, I woke up with obvious undeniable pain in my right mandible.  I reset the alarm clock and went back to sleep, then finally drug myself out of bed to go to work. 

I saw the ID doctor today too.  I was grateful that the pain kicked in prior to my appointment not right after. He stopped the Probenecid, but kept me on the 3000 mg of Amoxicillin a day.  He called the last oral surgeon I went to and I have an appointment tomorrow morning..   

Ice is my best friend...

Please check out my "other" blog..

I have set up a blog for a Rotarian friend of mine who is on a mission to achieve a Guiness World Book record for traveling the Great Circle Tour on a small pontoon boat.  It is of course a fundraiser..but he is recently retired from the military.  I would like to see a huge number of people officially following him, to show our respect for our military!!  Please send this link to ALL of your friends, contacts, re-post on twitter or facebook. Lets thank George Sinko for his service to this great country by "officially" following him!


http://gsinkosgreatcircletour.blogspot.com/

It's been a couple more weeks, my jaw is feeling even better.  I still have a weird lumpy area on my right maxilla, but it is much smaller and the swelling in my face has further decreased.  I'm having a lot less discomfort following eating.  I think I am getting there!!  For quite a while I have thought the "bad" area was getting smaller, but now I know that it is.  I still see the ID doc on May 25, 2011. Thanks for reading..

It's been almost a month since #30 was extracted. The swelling in my face on the right has decreased at least 60% in this time. So much for the oral surgeon who said it wouldn't. Just proves they don't know everything. The pain in my lower jaw has decreased a lot also. Tooth 31 is still bothering me, but I'm trying to ignore it. I went to a continuing education course this weekend and we did a lot of manual therapy techniques to the cervical spine. The swelling in my face appeared to decrease a little more since this class. Manual therapy to this area can improve the lymphatic drainage in the neck area. I think it did. Will continue to work on it myself. Still on Amoxcillin 3000 mg a day + 2000 mg of Probenicid. Will see the ID doc on May 25...

I went to a new oral surgeon yesterday to have the tooth on my lower jaw (#30) extracted. I'm not sure if I like him or not. I felt bad for him, because I blind sided him with my history, but he seemed to recuperate by the time he was done with me. The extraction was quick and fairly painless. I thought he got just a piece out and then he started cleaning up. I was like really you're done already. The most amazing part was that he scheduled a follow-up appt for next week and he called last night to make sure everything was going alright. It was sore, but good. Didn't need anything for pain later. He; however, said that there was no way the swelling in my face would go away from having the tooth removed. Lower jaw teeth are supposed to cause swelling beside or below them on the face, not up in the cheek bone. Well he just doesn't realize..I'm not normal. I swear my face has less swelling today, then it did before the extraction. So for now I'm back to just living for a while and waiting to see how my body responds to getting rid of the tooth. Still on 3000 mg of amoxicillin a day + probenecid. My energy has improved, but I still wear down much easier than I used to. And I still have a weird spot/lump on my maxilla in the way back. I see the ID doc next week on Friday. Will see what he has to say....

I saw the dentist about my right lower jaw. The dentist said there was most likely a problem with a tooth and referred me to the endodontist. The endodontist said the tooth is fine even though it's missing a cusp. "May be food is just getting down in it". Well packing food, even food particles cause infection. So I have thought it over. I know it's a problem, so I still want it extracted. I think a lot of my residual problems will go away. So waiting for the dentist to call, so I can proceed. I saw the ID doc this week too. He switched me off of IV antibiotics to amoxcillin 3000mg/day + Probenecid to enhance the effects of the Amoxcillin. He thinks he can get higher doses of it in me with less side effects. The PICC line was removed today..yay. I'm looking forward to taking a shower with both arms! Amoxcillin seems to work well. My jaw and cheek bone no longer hurt, but the right side of my face is really swollen. I may start sleeping with ice on it again and taking anti-inflammatories to see if the swelling will go away. I'll see the ID doc in 3 weeks and my plan of care will be reviewed and changed as needed at that point.

Almost 3 weeks out since the debridement, still on IV Penicillin G 3,000,000 units using the Eclipse ball. The swelling in my face seems to be going down. My face still feels "different" on the right, but not as bad. I still get occasional pains in my head above my ear, in my right cheek bone and right maxilla, but it is also much better. My right lower jaw continues to feel weird. When I eat the gums/bone, something swells and is uncomfortable. I have a dentist appt next Monday to address these problems. Hope they are easily resolved and with ongoing IV therapy everything else goes away too!! All prayers still appreciated :)

Hanging in there...my ID doc had a family emergency Monday, so he's out of the office until Mon after next. Home health in FL was set up by his staff. The home care switched me to an eclipse ball for an IV pump. Same meds, but instead of feeling drunk, now I feel really tired. Tired I think is still better. At least I can almost think straight. I'm sorta back to work. Seeing a few patient's for evaluations and trying to unbury myself from the piles of paperwork. Not easy when I feel so unmotivated. My right upper jaw seems to be much better. I have one weird spot that concerns me and the entire right side of my head is still swelling. This causes a fun stabbing pain in the right side of my head above my ear. I am hopeful that the IV antibiotics will make the other symptoms go away. Also have a dentist appointment set up for Tuesday after next. So next week should just be good. No doctor appts. Can just focus on work and healing.

Home now! Yay! Back in Florida safe and sound. Guess I should fill in the gaps. On Tues, Dr. Berger made it in about 11 pm. He decided that since Aetna had not authorized the i-CAT or transportation to the i-CAT yet that I would be discharged and I would get it as an out patient. So I was discharged on Wednesday. Home health came and taught me how to use the home IV pump. It's in a waist pack and I use it 24/7. Currently on Penicillin G 3,000,000 units and one dose with that amount every 6 hours. In the hospital I had it every 4 hours and I had a multitude of side effects. At 6 hours, I feel a little "drunk", but my tolerance seems to be improving. So Thurs, I had the iCAT and then saw Dr. Berger. He looked at the film from the iCAT and thinks the lower jaw problems are teeth related. The bone itself looks good. I looked at the pics too and the bone looks good, not all moth eaten. So I had a wonderful Friday catching up with old friends that live in San Diego and then Saturday had a great day sight seeing. The people that were kind enough to put me up (my new mom and dad) took me to a few sights. I took my normal 200 photos..TG for digital cameras. And then they took me to the airport. They were great. Thank M & R!!! :) Airport security wasn't any problem. It was time consuming, but they were nice to me. So I'm home. Normally I sleep on the flights but the first flight attendant, from San Diego to Atlanta got me fired up and I just couldn't sleep. Had a good book with me, so time flew. And then Atlanta to home, I slept a liittle but had an unhappy (crying most of the trip) baby beside me. Her mother reassured me when I sat down that she never cries. "She hasn't cried on the last 6 flights"...lol...not. Apparently she was due! Off to get some rest. Tomorrow I see the ID doc here at home and he's going to sort everything out and change meds as he feels needed. I hope to get a good dental referral also from him.

Was discharged on Wednesday. IV penicillin makes me feel drunk and I totally forgot to post anything. Forgot I had a blog..lol until I got a message. Thx Penny. Heading to airport shortly to return to FL. Will post more once I am through the gates.. Flying with a PICC line and a bag of antibiotics will be a new experience in airport security. Not really concerned. Talked to security guy the last time I was out here.

Still in hospital. Waiting for Dr. Berger to come see me now. I had the MRI of my throat yesterday and CT of facial bones the day before. Trying to get the insurance to authorize special dental x-ray/CT of the right manible to evaluate for osteomyelitis there too. I still have all the teeth in my lower jaw. Really need to see a problem in the bone before extracting a bunch of my teeth...Will write more later once I see Dr. Berger...

Doing great still..hospital staff very attentive and nice..for those of you who don't talk to me regularly..the surgery I had was an "aggressive debridement of the right maxilla (upper jaw)"... the incision goes from just past my canine tooth on the right upper jaw, just above my teeth on the cheek and tongue sides all the way to the back of my jaw around the back behind where my wisdom tooth used to be. So I guess it's more like 4" long. The bone inbetween was removed, especially back where my wisdom tooth had been. There was a large knobby area of infected bone back there that extended into my hard palate. That is now gone (yay). The bad bone was sent for culturing/biopsy. This area was filled in with INFUSE which is a bone graft material which is placed on an absorbent collagen sponge. As the sponge is absorbed new bone grows in it's place. Usually titanium is used with active infection (I have the brochure on the product), I'm not sure why this was used but have to have faith that my doc knows what he is doing, that he removed everything infected and my future 3 months of a PICC line and daily IV antibiotics will prevent or eliminate the remaining infection...for good. However, the issues with the right lower jaw were not addressed at all..Will have to see if I can get in with a dentist very soon..since I fired mine I'm not sure where I'm going...would be nice if I could see one in San Diego before my follow-up appt.

Pre-op today. Had new panoramic x-ray taken today. The infected bone in the right maxilla was more obvious today and the doctor pointed it out to me. Unable to see anything in the mandible yet though. Surgery will be tomorrow in Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego at 6:30 pm PST. Have to be at the hospital at 3:30 pm PST. Will be in the hospital for 3-4 days. Will try to keep up to date on here.

Scheduled surgical debridement and biopsy for Wed, Feb 24, 2011. Crazy day today..I stopped at my storage unit to grab my suitcase. The code to the building wouldn't work..apparently the code has been changed. Then 50% of my patient's were incredibly intense. And then Dr. Berger's office calls today and told me they were having trouble scheduling the surgery, because I was already scheduled for a procedure at 7:30 am that Wed and you can't have two surgeries in one day. I suppose someone may have tried it before, but at least give me the benefit of the doubt...So then they said, what else are you having done and I said "nothing I'm aware of, but there are several Danielle's in the country". So the anesthesiology people call me a few hours later from the hospital with the same question. Which Danielle are you? Well I had a tonsillectomy in first grade, so I'll pass on a re-do thanks. So then she says "okay I guess I'll delete that one" and I was like "no NO you can't delete someone elses surgery". So I was inadvertently given enough info to be able to call the other Danielle's doctor's office. Fortunately despite having a very common name he was easy to locate. His office was grateful and called the hospital. And currently things appear to be corrected in the computer....whew... so now to get packed and paper work done... I think it's almost a full moon..really that is the only thing that could explain today.

Still waiting for call back from Dr. Berger's office. Called and left a message with 2 different people and then emailed another..sounds like OCD, but seriously ready to get this taken care of...

Sun, Feb 13: Feeling kind of like a chipmunk with an acorn in just the right cheek, but otherwise not too bad. Got a lot of work done today. Will see the ID doc tomorrow, expect to get more of idea of post-op care. Expect to hear from Dr. Berger's office and schedule the debridement and biopsy.

Friday, Feb 11, 2011..I went to see my family doctor yesterday just to touch base with him and keep him in the loop. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks. I gave him the contact information for Dr. Brust, the infectious disease doctor and he called him. They pow-wowed and my GP texted me today. He gave me the go ahead to go to San Diego for the surgical debridement and biopsy that I need. I called Dr. Berger's office in San Diego and left a message, waiting for a return call to schedule the surgery. Will see the ID doc on Mon and discuss this treatment plan and the post op care. Until then I am to stay off the antibiotics so that an accurate biopsy can be completed during the debridement. Actually not doing as bad as I expected I would be at this point almost 2 weeks off of the antibiotics. They must have helped more than I thought. However, some symptoms have returned. My face is quite swollen, submandibular gland is swollen, especially on the right. I have dizzy episodes and almost fall over backwards. My jaw is very sore on the right (upper and lower), the roof of my mouth hurts, ear, cheek bone and side of head hurts moderately, I'm a little tired, I have 2 abscesses that are draining bitter, nasty stuff in my mouth and my memory is terrible..but I have felt a whole lot worse and expected to be a lot worse than I am. Every day a few more symptoms come back and don't know if it will be a week or 2 before the surgery...will see how it goes..

Wed, Feb 9, 2011 Face swelling and symptoms increasing...will have lab work done in the a.m.

Tues: 2/8/2011 I emailed the ID doc today about my increasing symptoms. Trying to plan my future treatment around my business and snow bird season. Really need another PT in my office at least part-time to cover for me. I have so many marketing events coming up that I want to go to in order to prepare for summer, but then I don't want to go to them because I don't know what I will do with my patient's once someone finally decides to do something to help me. Anyways ID doc says he's going to have to examine me to determine the plan of care and may order more imaging. All imaging has been done while on antibiotics to a degree. I stopped them a few days before the tests, but never for 2 weeks before. Usually 1 week off made me quite ill. (I'm well headed there now). I just keep telling myself that this really is what I have to do in order to have some accurate tests done. I know he is right..it's just hard to have all the infection coming back and undoing the progress I have made by taking the Clindamyacin (which is brutal on the body). Hanging in there for now.....

Monday 2-7-2011 7 days without antibiotics. Still taking meds for reflux, but my stomach feels so much better, Also since going off the antibiotics, my face has gradually been swelling again. The average person wasn't able to see it, but between 3 and 4 today, the facial swelling on the right side doubled in size. The whole right side of my head feels swollen. The left side of my face looks swollen too, but doesn't feel nearly as bad as the right. Have another week before I see the ID doctor. Not sure that I will or can wait that long.. May try to see him tomorrow or see my general practitioner and ask for his opinion..I should look like a white oompa loompa by then...I feel like I am morphing!!

Friday 2/4/2011

5 days without antibiotics:  My mouth IS really bothering me.  The infected area tastes weird.  I'm nauseous from the taste.  My throat is really sore and tight on the right and I feel like there's a lump in it.  It's hard to swallow.  My mouth hurts and the lumpy spot in the back is really disturbing me. I'm having the urge to get a potato peeler and gauge out the bad bone (don't worry I won't, but sometimes I think I could core it out like a potato root thing.) Apparently I can't think straight either.  My gums and face are swollen on the right significantly, but yet few people can tell because the swelling is deep in my head.  My ear is starting to hurt again and I've been saying "what", "what"..all day.  I emailed Dr. Brust, the ID doctor to give him and up date and his response still was "well lets see how it is after 2 weeks".  Compazine (for nausea)..would be nice..thank you very much..I doubt I will make it two weeks.. I will probably walk in his office next Tuesday and see if they still want me to wait an entire second week. I'll see..

The throat thing started Tuesday and got worse yesterday.  Today, I tried to eat a banana and it didn't want to go down. 

I remembered that I could take Ibuprofen for the next week. I took some, things got a lot better.  The lump in my throat decreased enough that I was able to swallow and the jaw pain was tolerable enough to work.

I am trying to be positive hoping that the infection will go away.  I have been on antibiotics since the beginning of October and it's February.  May be it will continue to kill off the infection and it will all go away spontaneously like Dr. Brust said it would! However, right now I am on a break from the antibiotics (of course now I know that all those toxic antibiotics weren't getting rid of the infection because the infection was parasitic based, not bacterial). 

Wednesday:

Today's excitement included going to see the infectious disease doctor.  He asked how yesterday at Dr. Marx office went and I informed him that it was a diagnosis based on the good ole boys club.  He said he was surprised that  I had picked up on it and that it was rampant in the medical/dental field.

He also instructed me to go off the antibiotics for 2 weeks and then have blood work.  Then we will go from there.  He also informed me that he was going to call Dr. Marx.  I'd have loved to have been a bug on the wall during that call.  He also advised against calling Dr. Berger in San Diego. (This was the beginning of Dr. Brust's decline in care).

A follow up appointment was scheduled for Feb 14, 2011.

So I left his office and called San Diego.  It can take up to two weeks to get an insurance authorization for the surgery and I wanted to make sure that Dr. Berger is his own person. His office told me that I have nothing to worry about as Dr. Berger is his own person. He will look at the reports that come in, but stand by his own opinion.  That was a great relief and I hope that holds.  I've been told stuff like this before and then surprise..the person fails you.  So I hope that's not the case.  The insurance authorization process has been initiated.  It is refreshing to talk to kind people that appear to care..hope it stays that way!!

Saturday....I'm not normally this belligerent..well yes I am, but I have been off the antibiotics for 3 days and already my face is much more swollen.  In 4 more days, I am going to be really sick and my face really swollen.  By Feb 14th I'm going to be very ill, but still have to work.

I will NOT go back to the University of Miami to Dr. Marx.  That facility was filthy and  Dr. Marx doesn't like me too well.  Why would I let him near me with a knife??  That would be really stupid.  I would think he would have better ethics being a man of his supposed caliper, but he already proved to me that he has none!!

So for now I am going to take a picture every morning and night and document how I feel every day.  I will give that to the ID doctor at my next appt Feb 14, 2011. 

So I saw Dr Marx today in Miami at Jackson Medical Center. It's been a while since I have seen the "good ole boys club" at work. A resident took my history. Nice good looking young guy. I could here him half ass give it to the doctor in a different room. The doctor looked at my radiology reports and films. Then came in the room with several interns, residents etc. I felt like a lab rat in an open topped cage surrounded by vultures. Dr. Marx looked in my mouth and felt around. Asked a few questions, then sat down with my history that I had written out since it is so complex. I watched him start to read the history, while we continued to talk about it. He got to the second page where Dr Sachs said I had fibromyalgia or neuralgia in my face. He stopped reading. He fixated. It occurred to me that all the oral surgeons in south Florida might know each other. And then Dr. Marx said "I had a diagnosis in my mind before I even came in here- neuralgia". So I asked him "So why does my face swell and all my symptoms increase when I stop antibiotics?" He said "Why do you stop the antibiotics?" and never answered my question. I said so that I can see doctors and actually have symptoms that they will notice. And I told him that a neurologist ruled out neuralgia on Friday and he really had nothing to say. There were a few more words. He said what do you suggest..like I was one of the interns and I said "exploratory surgery". I saw a resident agree and then the doctor said "I wouldn't recommend it" and then he walked out. His staff was completely dumbfounded. They didn't know why he was acting weird either. One of his regular staff apologized for his behavior and I called him an arrogant bastard etc, plenty loud enough that I am sure he heard. So I came home angry by his complete arrogance and incompetence. I looked up SWFL Oral and Facial Surgery Center in Fort Myers, website. Side note DON"T EVER go there, horrible oral surgeons IMO! (See history for more info). Dr Sachs did his residency at Jackson Hospital in Miami (42 years ago). Dr. Marx is up there in age too. Also there is a south Florida Oral Maxillofasial surgeon society or something like that..so ...you tell me it wasn't a good ole boys issue. It was definitely a biased evaluation that did not include all the facts and left the interns in the room with there jaws hanging open. I've gotten really good at firing back at arrogant doctors. Ultimately it doesn't accomplish much. Hopefully I've at least irritated them as much as they annoy me. I am a physical therapist and I don't care if my best friend physical therapist says you have sciatica and I think you have a hamstring problem. I'm going to do my own assessment and if I think it's the hamstrings still, I'm going to treat the hamstrings. It's still my reputation and responsibility! So I continue to explore the internet..it took about a whole may be 3 min online and I find that Dr. Marx is the organizer of a symposium in April 2011. His first guest speaker. Dr. Joel Berger. The doctor I want to go to in San Diego. So is the good ole boys club going to stop me from getting the care I need in San Diego? If he changes his position I am going to have to find legal help. Not sure how that's going to fix my mouth. I may have to resort to digging the dang bone out with the end of a potato peeler.....So I called San Diego today, the office was closed. Will try again tomorrow. See ID doctor tomorrow too. Will be refreshing to see someone that believes me and doesn't belong to the club...(little did I know at that time was Dr. Brust, the ID doctor was just as bad or worse than the others). (These doctors are what is wrong with healthcare in America today, pure incompetence in my 1st amendment right opinion!!!!)

4 am..woke up with headache..but heartburn has let up some..it's probably all stress over today's impending appointment...

The acid reflux and heart burn continued today. I emailed my ID doctor (Dr. Brust) today and asked him what to do. He told me to stop the Clindamyacin (antibiotics) today and take Prilosec. I see Dr. Marx in Miami tomorrow and see my ID doctor on Wednesday. Reflux is a side effect of Clindamycin. My stomach continues to burn despite the antacids. I stood up to eat dinner tonight and every bite caused a burning like I have never had before, in my stomach. Not sure what is going to happen. I need antibiotics for the infection, but it has killed my stomach. The swelling on the right side of my face has about doubled since not taking the antibiotics today. Dunno, will see what the doctor says tomorrow..

It's Sunday. I love Sunday's. It's a beautiful, sunny, almost warm day. I feel okay. I've felt worse. I didn't sleep well last night. I tried Percocet with Benedryl, since I am allergic to Percocet. It worked the first 2 times and gave me a break from the pain, but last night I still itched all over. I upped the Benedryl, which helped some. At least the pain was temporarily relieved, but then I woke up with terrible reflux. I had to get up and take TUMS. This morning, I woke up dizzy. My upper and lower jaw on the right feel really sore and swollen (as usual), my cheek bone, ear and head (on the right) hurt moderately and my throat on the right feels weird. I have polyps in the back of my mouth on the right that no doctors have acknowledged, but at least this week I can swallow solid food. Overall I've been worse. Morning's are usually better. Daily activities exacerbate everything. Today I am getting my history together to prepare to see oral surgeon #7 Robert Marx in Miami on Tues. for an initial consultation. Dr. Marx has written the most comprehensive text book on osteomyelitis of the jaw, but I am still apprehensive due to the lousy treatment that I have gotten from previous oral surgeons and doctors. So far his office staff has not impressed me. Having gone through 8 receptionists myself in the last year, I know I can't judge the doctor by two people on his staff.