Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Not fun moments today

I didn't have the best day off today. I woke up, put my 3 miles in running and took care of the girls in the morning. (this part was fine, I enjoyed being with them the morning rather than just running off to work) All morning while I was doing things, I had a stinging feeling on my tongue. That had started on Sunday and progressively got worse. Today was the day that I needed to get something done about it. After consulting WebMD, Melissa and I decided that I needed to go see my dentist.
After looking at my tongue for a couple of minutes, the dentist said that she was pretty sure it wasn't cancer! Although I wasn't expecting to hear those words, I was glad to hear it wasn't cancer. After she said that, I started to think, "Should I be more worried about this?" From that moment on, I was more worried. After talking to the dentist a little more, she said I should go to see my physician to get an opinion from there. I called there right after I left and they set an appointment up for about an hour later. I didn't get much out of that appointment. The doctor said that there was a chance that I had hand-foot-mouth disease, (I mentioned earlier that we thought Madeline had it and she went with that as a diagnosis). She said it looked different from anything that she had seen before and didn't know what to do for me. She wanted to get a second opinion before treating it and she sent me to a ear-nose-throat doctor. At this point I was getting more worried.
At this doctor, the first thing he said after looking at my tongue is that he was sure it wasn't herpes! First cancer was ruled out, now herpes. What an interesting day. He finally came down with the diagnosis that it was most likely a salivary gland issue and that it needed to be flushed out. That was a good thing to hear. All it takes to fix it is some lemons, some mouthwash, and a prescription mouth cleanse. After spending some time with that treatment, my tongue is feeling better. Unfortunately, it took my entire morning and some of the afternoon to get that all settled. At least it is getting better. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning that I have even less discomfort. We'll see how it all goes.
***Additional note: I picked up my prescription this morning. The medical term for the prescription is "Magic Mouth Wash". I looked at the bottle and saw that and wondered why a pharmicist was giving it out. I thought the criteria to get a drug in the pharmacy was that it had to at least have one "x" in it or something strange with the lettering. I took it when I got to schol and realized right then what the magic was. My mouth went numb instantly. I felt like I just got a shot of novicaine at the dentist. It stayed pretty numb for about an hour. I didn't dare drink any water or anything during that time for fear that I would drool all over myself.
For the record, my tongue is feeling a lot better. It's not perfect, but I don't think I am going to need that follow up appointment. We will have to wait and see in a few days how it is feeling though before making the real decision.

3 comments:

Tyler N said...

Wow...what a day. Hope you feel better Eric.

Mike Moore said...

I didn't know there were doctors with such titles. What is a normal doctor called? A hand-foot-mouth-eye-toe-stomach-knee-back-heart doctor? The list could go on...

Hope you are feeling better

Mom said...

I love you, Eric. I'm sorry you're suffering, but hopefully, the magic medicine will fix you. I'm really glad you don't have cancer or herpes. Why do doctors even say that kind of stuff?