Infection and a needle to the jaw--Make that 2 needles to the jaw

If you looked closely at yesterday's pics you could probably see that the left hand side of my face was much more swollen than the right. Or perhaps it isn't as noticeable as I think and since the profile pictures are of the right hand side of my face it may have appeared that most of my swelling was gone. Regardless, I woke up this morning and the left hand side of my face was very swollen and the right was not swollen at all. The doctor had told my that asymmetric swelling is typically a sign of infection and coupled with the fact that I had those fevers the other night and pain in my jaw and cheekbone two evenings ago I suspected I had an infection. Additionally, that side of my face felt very hard and the doctor has said that the jaw area should be fairly soft. I was thinking I might wait till tomorrow when I went to the orthodontist to see what she thought before I called the surgeon, but the shooting pain in that side of my face returned and they told me to come in and have it checked out.

When I got to the surgeon they took me right in to one of the exam rooms. Since I had my surgery that do not make me wait in the waiting area when I arrive because they said they did not want me to feel uncomfortable about other patients staring at my face, but I also imagine it is to prevent other patients from seeing me, freaking out and thinking poorly of the surgeon. I made a joke to Jonathan that I should go in to the waiting area and when a person stares at me I should point to my face and say 'Botched botox job' because there are many patients there simply to get their botox injections.

Anyway, the surgeon came in to see me and agreed that this looked like an infection. Then he turned to the nurse and said 'You know what, I think we should drain it". I am no doctor but I knew that meant only one thing, needles to the face. Since we all know what a great fan of needles I am (you know, almost passing out from getting my blood drawn and all) I instantly felt sick to my stomach but tried to play it cool and keep a positive attitude. They cleaned my face and the doctor stuck a needle right into my jaw. It was excruciatingly painful but I did not cry or pass out or even make a noise and the surgeon kept asking me if I was in pain and I said a little but not too bad. I was so relieved when he finally took the needle which was filled with pus and blood out (more pus than blood) and congratulated myself on being such a hard-ass. Then he said "I am going to do that one more time" and I thought I was going to pass out right there. The second needle hurt so much more than the first but I took really deep breathes and closed my eyes and was able to stop the tears from coming.

He gave me a prescription of another antibacterial drug and told me to get it filled and begin taking it immediately. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but since I am allergic to penicillin, I was taking Cleocin after I had the surgery. Cleocin comes in liquid form, this is the one that smells and tastes like cat litter and that I had gotten so used to chasing with chocolate milkshakes. Apparently outside of cleocin and penicillin, there are not any other antibacterial medications that come in liquid form, so he wrote me a prescription for the drug Avelox and told me to crush the pills and mix them with my food. This sounded reasonable and a nice alternative to drinking that cat litter. Well, its not much better. Instead of cat litter, crushed Avelox, even in a milkshake tastes metallic but the worst part is that the taste stays in your mouth even after you eat and brush. 3 hours after I took the meds I could still taste them in my mouth. Luckily I only need to take it once a day so that is a plus.

The surgeon said to call over the weekend if the swelling got any worse, told me to come back on Monday and sent me on my way.

After I left the office I had pretty bad pain in my face, so bad that I started crying while driving home. I went and got my prescription filled, came home, crushed my pill and mixed it with milkshake, gave in and took some of the pain medication and got into bed. A little sleep (and the pain meds) helped a bit and now when I look in the mirror my face looks a little less swollen, but not much.

I was thinking that since I am now a week out, I would only do pictures on a weekly basis, but I think this warrants a picture so you can see what the swelling and infection look like.