Some of you may remember a couple of posts way back in February regarding a couple of root canals I had to have done. I had to delete the posts because Radio Userland is buggy and some posts seem to make it act really strangely...the only recourse to fix the problems I've found is to delete problematic posts. I am beginning to hate Radio Userland...
Anyway, since then I've had a long saga of misery associated with those teeth and the root canals have yet to be completed because I have a raging infection that has spread to the area around the teeth that regular antibiotics can't seem to handle. I spent the last week feeling like I had the flu with my cheek all puffed up. In yet another visit to the endodontist yesterday he added a drug called Flagyl to my antibiotic regimine. Have I mentioned that I will be paying for a good chunk of the college education of my endodontist's kids? I haven't received the final bill yet for all the visits, but it will be in the thousands. And we aren't even done yet because after the infection is gone he will finish the root canals.
Integrated over time, this is the worst pain I have ever been in, bar none, and yet when I had the first root canal done they gave me a pamphlet with pictures of very happy and perky looking people on it that told me that pain after a root canal was pretty much a myth.
It's not. Trust me.
Anyway, I had never heard of Flagyl so when I got home I looked it up and the web at askapatient.com (I highly recommend this website) and discovered that this drug is used to treat any kind of infection (ie; bacterial, protazoal, parasitic, etc). And the side effects (according the patient testimonials on that website anyway) are horrific. Comments like "this is a drug made by Satan himself" don't instill confidence.
My husband took a look at the website and commented that the drug appears to be a systemic poison designed to kill pretty much everything, with the hopes that you will be the last thing standing at the end of the course of treatment. He has a way withwords, Mr.Absinthe does.
Anyway, as of this morning I am on my third dose and so far I don't appear to have central nervous system damage, vomiting, panic attacks, thrush, or rampant paranoia (all side effects of the drug). This drug sounds so scary that normally I wouldn't touch something like it with a ten foot pole, except nothing else seems to be knocking out the rampant infection. We'll see how it goes...maybe the side effect profile is exaggerated.
But something tells me there is a reason why they don't market this drug on the telly....
Update April 1st,2008: I just finished the week long course of treatment (500mg 4 times per day) and the side effects consisted of nausea and loss of appetite. No worse than being pregnant. Other than that nothing. Oh yeah, it also worked as advertised, and the infection around the teeth appears to finally have abated. Satan, the purported manufacturer of this pill, will be disappointed I guess...
