I have shared a bit of this information on my social media, but I have been reluctant to share a personal, medical issue here, especially as so many people are suffering much worse things these days. However, it is something that has been affecting my ability to do my work. So, for the purposes of prayer, I’ll share a bit of the history.
Around the 27th or so of December, I developed an incredibly painful tooth that began to radiate into my jaw, which was alarming. I have had a lot of dental issues (wisdom teeth removed, tooth extractions, root canals, and even dry socket), but I had never had anything hurt me like this, and no medication helped much with the pain. I was pretty sure that it was infected and abscessed into my jaw. After self-medicating for a few days, I was finally able to arrange an emergency dental appointment on the 30th, not at my regular dentist, but at another one not too far away (same dental care company). By the time I went, I was in constant pain and the jaw and cheek were infected to the point that opening my mouth was difficult. They did the examination and x-rays and confirmed it was infected and abscessed into the jaw. I was prescribed antibiotics to help deal with the infection/abscess, which I procured and began immediately for the indicated duration of five days. The antibiotics really helped along with the pain medication schedule. By the time I finished the prescribed round of antibiotics (Sunday night, 3 January), though not completely gone, the pain was much more manageable. I was told by the dentist that when I finished the antibiotics to contact them about another examination to decide what to do with the two teeth that were diseased (one broken and one infected). The next morning, that’s exactly what I tried to do, but I couldn’t get through to anyone directly; and I followed the instructions on the voice recording that answered the phone each time, sending an e-mail and leaving two voice messages. But there was no word in return. In the meantime, because I had finished the antibiotics, I feared that I wasn’t quite over the infection yet, because the area began progressively to get more painful with each day that passed (though thankfully not as bad as it had been the week before). After my calling both dentists every day, finally on the Friday (8th), one of them called me back, and I had an appointment on Tuesday, the 12th. Of course, everything at this point is a temporary fix, just trying to manage the pain and infection until such time as someone can actually either repair or extract these two teeth, which are causing the problem. And that is probably everything you never wanted to know about my medical issues.
On a serious note, I know this might not be a big issue in the grander scheme of things, but it has certainly kept me in constant pain of various levels of intensity, and it has made it hard to concentrate on much at all, and especially difficult to speak with people (over the phone on via ZOOM, etc.). I’d like to ask you to pray that I can get this sorted more permanently as soon as possible. The lockdown has created a situation with far fewer dental offices open at the moment and even restrictions on which procedures they can do in order to protect themselves and their patients from possible spread of COVID infection. Your prayers for a more lasting solution are very much appreciated.