It's always something

Those are the words of the day, spoken this morning by my dentist while he explained the screaming pain I have had in my tooth.

It turns out to be an infected pocket created not by the usual culprit – plaque buildup – but rather by my friend prednisone. I am only on four mgs. a day, which is where I need to be to keep the graft vs. host disease in my liver in check. But as my prednisone buddies know, the miracle drug can do damage in other areas. In this case the dentist said it's because I am losing bone in my jaw due to my compromised immune system.

He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and told me to rinse twice a day with Peroxyl and to get a waterpik. The price of the first one I saw, at CVS, blew my mind. So, alas, an afternoon that I meant to devote to writing (other than this) will now be spent shopping in the rain, probably at Target.

This will help in the short term, but eventually I will have to see a periodontist for a scraping. Sounds like more fun than I will be able to bear.

Also (whine, whine, whine) my legs, specifically my quads, still hurt. I went to see Dr. Berger yesterday, and he said to apply heat and, if I want, go to physical therapy for some treatments. I can't get in until next week, though.

I did restorative yoga with Erin last night, and it was just what the doctor ordered. I didn't feel any pain the whole time, and even my tooth behaved.