So far, it does not have the severity of a C. Difficile takeover. But yeah, unappetizing liquid at unexpected times. The timing could just barely have been more precise: Tomorrow is the day I should put on the wearable heart monitor. I am planning to call them and ask to cancel that. (Tomorrow morning, as it was too late today.) I was hoping to walk my usual route in the hills with the monitor on; as it looks now, I will not walk very far from the bathroom. While I am sure it would be interesting to have my heart and blood pressure monitored while sleeping, going to the bathroom and trying to rehydrate, that is not really what I was thinking of!

On the bright side, the swelling in my face was gone already yesterday. My tooth is still lose and I suspect that its movements are irritating the wound, but there is really nothing I can do about that. I will stop taking clindamycin when I have developed serious diarrhea, as requested by the accompanying leaflet. If the diarrhea keeps getting worse, I should next consult a doctor. (Provided there isn’t a month’s wait this time? There is no clause for that in the product sheet.)

So far I have eaten just yogurt and the probiotic milk drink, as I have done since the cure started. But I should probably add some cooked water and salt if this continues.

Edit later in the evening: Now that the antibiotic has been out of my body for some hours, there is definitely some pressure building in my face again, although slowly.  You’d think it would not come back once it was gone. At some point the immune system should be able to deal with it: This is not some kind of new superbug, to the best of my knowledge, it was contained for several months before the surgery with no symptoms except a loose tooth!

Well, at least perhaps someone will read this and take my warning to not have oral surgery unless your life is on the line.

Yesterday late in the afternoon was when I cracked my first capsule of Dalacin (clindamycin), a broad-spectrum antibiotic. The reason why I was prescribed this was that the infection had been inside the bone, and the bacteria that can lodge there are anaerobe (they do not need oxygen to live). Penicillin has little or no effect on these. On the other hand, clindamycin is a pretty extreme measure, as it kills pretty nearly every bacterium there is except hospital bacteria with resistence, and a few strange creatures like the infamous C. Difficile, destroyer of intestines.

So, a day and some hours later… nothing much has changed.  I still have a slight swelling. I wish I had taken pictures before the whole thing began so I could compare, but to me it looks like I have a small pouch on my right lower jaw as well, that is slightly larger than the left. But the difference is so small, I may need to ask a few coworkers whether they can see it or whether it is just a trick of my imagination. It certainly feels like there is a swelling, and it is periodically tender, but I have to wonder whether this is a sparrow I am hunting with a cannon.

My body temperature follows the usual curve, only a bit later in the days now that it is weekend. There are short periods of feeling cold and stiff and unwell, but no more than an hour or so. These seem to have no relation to when I take the antibiotic. Once the temperature reaches 37.5C, it stops and gradually slides back down over several hours.

My appetite is pretty much shot, but there is still no queasiness or diarrhea. I drink a probiotic milk drink with my clindamycin along with the requested amount of water, and a little yogurt. That is pretty much all I can get myself to eat. But that is the least of anyone’s worries, since I have enough fat to last me through weeks of undereating. While I am not technically overweight, I am much closer to that than to underweight. It feels strange to not spend a noticeable part of the weekend exercising, though. But one is not supposed to do that with an infection, I read once in my youth. Perhaps I should ask the universal wisdom of the Internet whether this still applies?

The Internet says yes, exercise diverts resources that your immune systems should have used, so take it easy. No need to stay in bed unless your body decides so on its own, but don’t challenge it in any way. Also: “I just had oral surgery for a bone graft about 7 weeks ago and found that the antibiotic, which was Clindamycin, made my muscle ache some” says one athlete. So, it might have limited itself.

The after-effects of the dental surgery unfold in slow motion. Which is better than fast motion, but still disturbing. The small swelling on my upper jaw has diminished, but there is now a small swelling on the side of my lower jaw (still on the right side). So basically the swelling seems to be “sagging” down. I assume there is some kind of lymph node or something there that has had an influx of the bacteria.

Finally accepting that I may need the clindamycin after all, I took one capsule. The product sheet said to swallow it whole, but it is far too large for that. I can barely swallow mustard seeds! Ever since I was a child, I have chewed everything three times as long as the people around me, because if I don’t, the food sticks in my throat and I have to try to cough it up. I am not sure whether I have a really small opening or this is just an acquired reflex of some kind. But antibiotics are kind of moot if I choke, so I bit it through and washed it down with a glass of water. Afterwards I drank some more water and a probiotic milk drink, in the hope of dodging the Chlostridium Difficile. (Bacterium which tends to cause horrifying and even life-threatening intestinal infections in clindamycin users. It runs wild because the broad-spectrum drug kills every other bacterium in the gut, most of which are friendly.)

Can you chew clindamycine? Random person on the Internet says: “It’s can be done but it’s not recommended because Clindamycin irritates the lining of the stomach and intestines and cause an upset stomach (that’s why it has the capsule.) They do have a liquid form called Cleocin which may help if you or the person you’re prescribing the medication to has a hard time swallowing pills. Hope this helps.”

Why am I not surprised? I have been bothered by acid reflux and stomach pains off and on for years, to the point where my doctor recommends not taking aspirin (or rather the equivalent in Norwegian, of course). I also providentially forgot to replace my anti-acid chewing tablets. DRAMA! On your Internet NOW!

OK, at least I know which of the alternatives is Scylla and which is Charybdis. I am now on my way from Charybdis (the all at once whirlpool) to Scylla (the blow-by-blow reef).  Wish me luck! I am not going to give up until I look down on my dead body. Actually, if that comes to pass as some people say, that’s probably just the beginning. But I won’t be able to blog from there, so keep me in your prayers for your future edutainment!

I actually wrote an open letter to my body on Google+ about its mixed signals. On one hand, this morning the pain was gone; my pulse was back to normal (for me, that means low); and there was no hint of fever. I felt fine, to the point that I might have been tempted to take a long walk if not for one detail: There is a small bulge on my face, on the right side (where the dental surgery was). It is only visible near the nose, fairly straight up from where I had the surgery, but is tender a bit further. Also, the pressure in it felt stronger later in the day, and my right eye has been leaking a couple times. So something was definitely going on.

Around 8PM, things began to change rapidly. I started to feel cold, even though the room temperature was the same. Soon I was shivering. My pulse naturally went up, although not racing. I also began feeling generally unwell.  This lasted for about an hour. By the time I stopped shivering, my temperature was 37.5 C, which is actually similar to what I have after work. (I stayed home from work today.) Usually my temperature gradually falls back to 37C before bedtime.