Well, after an exceedingly crappy day, I got the verdict on my tooth problems. The old root canal appears to be just fine and while the cavity that was drilled and filled was pretty deep, the endodontist says it should be fine for now. Later on we might need to do something about it if it starts to bother me, but it will get me through the whole stem cell thing.
So where’s all of this pain coming from? It’s the wisdom tooth! The back part of the tooth is chewed up pretty bad and the doc says it’ll be better to just yank it rather than spend the time, pain and money on root canaling it. Plus, between the way the tooth sits in my jaw and the way the decay is, it would be very difficult to do the filling/crown part. The cavity is in the back part of the tooth, so there’s nothing to build against.
Now comes the fun part. Apparently a wisdom tooth extraction is a big deal in the best of circumstances. When you have cancer and you’re going through chemo and you’re about to have your immune system taken offline, it seems to get trickier. The endodontist (Dr. G) I saw was really awesome (I’ve been having great luck with doctors ever since I got cancer. Go figure.) and wants to get this done as soon as possible so I won’t be in pain any longer than necessary and so I can be all healed when I get to the Big Chemo. We have to wait on my bloodwork to come back in line, though. Remember the white blood cell issues? So Monday I’ll be having my usual bloodwork to see where we stand (later in the afternoon, since my PET scan is in the morning).
So Dr. G gets her office to call the oral surgeon to set something up for me on Tuesday. Tell people you have cancer and things get done, lemme tell you. They say they want to bring me in for a consultation because of my medical condition. She tells them they do NOT need to do a consultation because SHE knows it needs to come out and THEY just need to get off their butts and DO IT because we have a special patient here who needs this done NOW!
Well, not now, but after my bloodwork is done. See why I like this doctor?
So they set up an appointment for Thursday morning for the extraction, depending on what the bloodwork on Monday shows. This throws Dr. G into another tizzy. “If you’re getting the bloodwork on MONDAY you need to be seen on TUESDAY! We don’t know what could happen to your levels between Monday and THURSDAY!” When I left, she was going to have a personal chat with one of the oral surgeons once they got back from wherever they were. She’s going to make sure they understand the time pressure, the pain pressure, and…
THE DR. G PRESSURE!!!!