I've got this hole...

apologies to Jasper Carrot...

but I seem to have a hole in my upper right gum right at the back around about the partially erupted wisdom tooth...There are flaps of loose tissue surrounding it and I can, with a bit of effort stick my tongue right up there....I suspect...though could be wrong, that I have had an abscess up there, because a large amount of the pain I experienced on opening my mouth wide is actually at that point on the upper jaw at the back....if it popped or burst then it may well be the reason for this apparent hole.
Strangely its not painful at all when I shove my tongue in there...only when I open wide (a very relative term).....meh!!

Either way it seems to be slightly less painful up there now though still the source of most pain when I stretch my mouth open. I need to go see the Hygienist to get more fluoride gel, so will bring this up. I also want to see if there's anything that will help increase my gape as I am struggling a bit putting enough food in my mouth, which is affecting my enjoyment of food even if the process of chewing it is now easier.

Fitness levels are improving noticeably now, I can actually get up and down the stairs without needing a sit down afterwards. I'm probably only 50% fit, but its better than i have been the last couple of weeks/months. This has meant that I can now get more involved in things around the house and life type stuff..all good.

A good day

Today I went back to work, with little or no real issues with stamina. That may have been partly due to adrenalin and the sheer pleasure of being back with a great team of people but it was as normal as normal can be. I only had a couple of twinges to cope with.

Insomina is still a bit of a problem but hopefully a few early mornings will put an end to that at last.

Painkiller use is right down, I took some paracetamol this morning, but only becuase I had a major headache.

Mouth is a little swollen inside, which may be a cause for concern, it does mean chewing is a litte painful, but I think this is just the muscles finally stretching and tearing a bit due to excercises and ever wider yawns. I managed to eat a sandwich for lunch (discovering in the process that mustard is on the banned list for now)

A good day for sure, nice and normal.

Tired

Since stopping the morphine I've had really bad insomnia, which isn't too much of a downer since I can sleep very late at the moment while we are still off work. But the physical exhaustion I've been experiencing is improving very slowly, it may well be that the insomnia is not helping but its probably just a leftover from the treatment.
I'm still at a stage of being able to do one big effort thing a day, then needing to rest for several hours to recover, not easy in a new home with lots of things to unbox and place in their new homes.

Aches and pains are also much more pronounced...not surprising when you stop taking painkillers. My shoulders in particular, ache like I've been swinging a pick for weeks...Neck pain of course is still there, and the tightness caused by the swelling is a bit restrictive in the mornint, but eases up as the day goes on. Mouth pain itself is still worst, I have a permanent sense of heat in my mouth on the right side, with odd twinges of various levels of pain.
Eating is a game of russian roulette; will it sting or won't it? My mother in law has been making me some lovely Indian food, though without chillies as they clearly are off limits for a while.

And of course yawning is a luxury I've not enjoyed since the original op, I have to suppress it before it gets too wide, because it hurts like hell.....now...think about it...insomnia, tiredness.....no yawning without pain...owww.

My mouth is however starting to open up again, we're nearly at 2 fingers again and I am pushing it open a bit more to try and get a full yawn in eventually.

Some of the swelling in my neck which is still quite tender and is giving me a bit of discomfort..Its causing my throat to push in a bit with acts like an irritation inside at teh back of my throat and causes some occasional coughing fits. But that swelling is starting to soften a bit and I am massaging it as best I can, without triggering a cough.

Ah well. Gotta keep going. I think coming off morphine was still the right thing, even if I'm functionally taking a step back, I am sure with a bit of rest and recuperation I will be taking a few steps forward soon.

last regular checkup

Todays double appointments with the dietician and doc went ahead fairly straightforwardly. My weight and muscle strength are still perfectly stable and all is well.

Inside my mouth is clear of infection and now we just need to give it a week or 2 more to heal and all will be fine.
I still have to avoid hot spicy food and acidic drinks for a while and strong alcohol...which I can understand as a shot of strong vodka at a party last night was a bit similar to having alcohol poured on a wound.

Thats the end of the RT treatment...I do have a follow up next month just to make sure all is healed well, and maybe an appointment or 2 for neck massage to prevent edema. I could have had that today, but my neck is all still sore and tender since it was not fully healed before starting the RT so I am going to wait a bit.

An interesting thing though. I stopped taking the morphine, partly so I could have a drink at the afore mentioned party but also because I think its been long enough. Sure enough I managed well without it. Some pain for sure, but thats really to be expected, nothing like the mid RT pain that forced me on the morphine in the 1st place..But what was interesting is I had quite distinct withdrawal symptoms last night and all through the night, sweats, cramps, joint pain, psychedelic flashing, a fair old sample of the documented range, which, though mild by real opiate user standards, proved to me that it was time to come off while I still can. I think another week of Oxycontin use could have been a bad thing...Today I feel rough...tired and my joints still ache, still getting stomach cramps and upset tummy while feeling a bit twitchy, but I'm not going to take any more.
It may well be all in my head...but regardless its a problem that needs to be resolved.

I got a new box of Paracetamol to supplement my Ibuprofen and I'll use them for a week or so then ease up on them too....time to get the drugs out of my system, even the non addictive ones.

No more morphine

I prefer alcohol :D

Am going to try and stop the painkillers now, at least the strong ones. My mouth is still a little raw and feels it, but there's no more constant nagging pain and my tongue has healed up quite a bit. I did try to have one of my mum-in-laws delicious curry's yesterday but it was just too hot for me, and I had to go douse my mouth in lidocaine to ease the quite genuine pain it caused.

Which is sad as I am an avid curry eater and even though mum-in-law is Indian she can't make my curries hot enough for me. I guess I will have to re-build my tolorance to hot spicey food.

It'll be another week or so before I can say its all better but I want to drop the morphine now as it leaves me feeling a bit slow and easy confused plus I think my tolerance to it has built up making it less effective. I'll continue with paracetamol and Ibuprofen if needed but for the moment I am not taking any more Oxycontin.

Stamina levels are still quite low, but slowly improving I need to excercise a bit more, so will be renewing my interest in Golf in a week or 2.



Checkup tomorrow, will update then.

bit better

Definite improvement in the mouth pain today, still tender and I'm not going to go temping fate with a crusty baguette, but I have been able to east a decent amount today and not be in agony when the food makes contact with my sore side. Even managed a couple of teeth brushing sessions with tolerable pain levels.

I managed to stick to 5 mg of Oxycontin rather than 10, so am happy with that. Might try to just use normal painkillers tomorrow.

Fatigue is still an issue, though I managed to do some DIY jobs around the place today, that running on empty feeling stopped me in my tracks for several hours. But overall, a better day than yesterday.

small update

Physical exhaustion is quite bad, not just tiredness you can sleep off, but the feeling that just lifting your arm is an effort...I'm actually supporting my arms on my chair arms to type this.

I seem to be able to do 1 effort requiring thing a day, after which I really am useless, today we carried some Garden furniture from the nearby store to our back garden, and while I was quite able to do it at the time, I've been recovering from it all day and only a good nights sleep will give me back some gas in the tank.

Mouth pain is still very bad, and has finally put a stop to my eating, contact with the sore side is simply to much,even on a full dose of morphine. So I have been sticking to things I can keep on 1 side of my mouth, or in the case of chocolate suck till it dissolved. Even water stings at this point.

I am hoping the doctors prediction of this easing up after the weekend is true.

I'll let you know.