11
by YankeeTarheel
The saga continues of the organ recital, and with some weird, new twists.
The day after I got to our other place, in The Bahamas, my temp crown split in half, and came off. I tried to use some of that dental past for lost fillings, but it only sort of worked. So I TRIED to find a dentist locally who would see me that day, a Saturday, or Sunday. Being as it was a holiday there, "Whit Monday", I didn't get into the local dentist's chair until Tuesday. She was able to easily remove the old crown and fit me with a new, stainless steel temp that was instantly more comfortable and I was fine the rest of my stay, working on fixing stuff in the house there. (still working on the HVAC install of a heat strip--the central air's wiring is now "non-standard" meaning it was and is jury-rigged).
Fast forward to this past Sunday and I'm back in NJ, I developed some kind of allergic reaction to SOME allergen which could be anything...a nasty hive-like rash. Benadryl and Pepcid barely keep it under control (People don't realize that Pepcid and Zantac are anti-histamines that attack different channels than standard anti-histamines so these days they are paired with things like Benadryl.
Monday, I went to my endodontist and he finished the root canal and was able to re-use the temp cap I got in The Bahamas, as he had no medical reason to not use it. It won't break and I could, theoretically have it for years.
But the rash flared up so I went to my Urgent Care Center and they gave me a shot of a corticosteroid. I seemed to have some kind of reaction to it so they routinely ran an EKG. That's when things went crazy....
My EKG had changed from my last one, about 18 months earlier and they called an ambulance to take me to the ER fearing a massive heart attack. I spent the rest of the night and all of yesterday in the ER and the Observation area. Took blood when I arrived and then 6 hours later...the blood work showed NO evidence of a recent ischemic attack or MI. But that damned EKG STILL showed the issue.
So yesterday I was taken down for a stress test with radioactive contrast, and an echo-cardiogram. Under stress, pumping away on the treadmill, with leads all over me, my EKG was perfect! The MD supervising was wondering WTF I was there for! The pre- and post- test scans showed nothing wrong, nor did the stress test itself.
Still waiting on a reading of the echo...My wife was in DC at the time this all started and she jumped on a train to come home, aborting her week's trip. LUCKILY, she's a senior exec in a major health insurance company so all her colleagues and clients were totally empathetic. This scared the shit out of her and my boys. Heart attacks and strokes still kill far more people than guns and cars combined, and I have too much to live for! As Indiana Jones put it "It's not the age, it's the mileage...".
Meanwhile the same fucking rash keeps recurring and I'm trying to get in to see a dermatologist and my cardiologist ASAP.
But at least my root canal and toothache are solved...just need a permanent crown.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."