med stuff

[johnridley]

Flu shot acquired.

I went to the oral surgeon for a follow-up yesterday, to find out why my jaw still hurts so much.
Removing his euphemisms, it's because I'm old. They're big holes in my jaw and a nearly-50-year-old can't expect them to heal that fast, they're gonna take a few more weeks to stop hurting and a few months to actually fill in, and I shouldn't ask people who had their wisdom teeth out when they were 20 what their experiences were.

And he gave me the go-ahead to continue popping ibuprofen, which is the only thing that seems to really help. I think I'm gonna start using the remaining narcotic painkillers before bed though, I'm getting sick of waking up at 3AM, taking more stuff, and lying there for 45 minutes until the throbbing goes away. He suggested upping to 600mg before bed but that was only marginally successful last night - I still woke up but I was able to get back to sleep.

Comments

[jennlk]

The only reason the ibuprofen bottle says "see a doctor if pain persists" (or equivalent) is that, in general, if whatever you started taking it for still hurts then there's something going on that you should have a doctor look at. It's not because there's a medical reason why it's not suitable for extended use at the OTC dosage. My doc had me on 1200mg daily for three months before the side effects got to be too much....

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Thanks, interesting and correct (if I go to Wikipedia for medical advice:) ). The bottle is way more conservative than the WP article, which indicates that long term side effects only really start after at least 3 months of continuous significant dosage.

[jennlk]

Well, that's what the pain doc told me, and pain management is his specialty....

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Good enough for me then :)