There is a beehive in my lower left jaw. That’s what it feels like. It’s obscenely swollen. It’s buzzy, itchy, painful and hot. The bees are stinging as they work, creating new and impossible shapes in the jawbone, heating and hardening the bruised flesh.
Yesterday morning, my beloved dentist, the only dentist I trust and am not terrified of, greased up his elbows, gripped hard on his forceps, and hauled out the molar that’s been causing me trouble all year. I don’t think anyone else could have done it. I’d have run in the other direction. Done a rock extraction selfie like Tom Hanks on that desert island. Sucked out the abscess poison with a turkey baster.
Ah well, that’s that tooth gone, then. Another irreversible change to my ageing body. Another adjustment to my night time routine.
The ageing bothers me a lot less than the telltale signs of a flagging immune system. The ill-advised action I took that led to my dental abscess was, believe it or not, eating chewing gum. Apparently, I need to tone down my rock and roll lifestyle. There have been other signs this year, too – the intense, almost unbearable endo pains after my vaccinations, the frequent minor illnesses, the fatigue that weighs down my feet and eyelids on an almost daily basis.
In probably related news, I received a call from my GP surgery yesterday afternoon, advising me that my bloods are ‘borderline low’ in B12 and folate. A quick scan of the NHS website* indicates some likely potential causes in my case: my vegetarianism and my long-term use of PPI (a drug used to treat the symptoms of an inherited hiatus hernia) the most obvious among them. Strange, though, that this has not shown up in any blood tests to date. Why now, blood? I’ve been a veggie for years. I’ve been on PPI for years. Why now? You could at least have had the decency to wave that big red flag of yours at the doctor sooner, before my immune system failed to prevent an abscess the size (and temperature) of a beehive in my jaw. Maybe the doctor will be able to help me understand why every other blood test I’ve had over the last three years has been so profoundly unhelpful.
Meanwhile, a mystery that the doctor has yet to unravel is why I had a fit in my local vaccination centre last week. (I’m very glad to say that the nurse nonetheless succeeded in administering my vaccines – she’s an absolute hero and I’m extremely grateful to her.) All I know with any certainty for now is that I’m not permitted to drive until the cause of the fit has been determined. Fantastic.
It’s been an oddly eventful month (year!) so far. Christmas is still over a week away and I’m already exhausted. In all of the muddle, the only constant presence (apart from my wonderful husband and family) has been my endo. Whatever weird problem has come along, it’s always been there, stabbing and squeezing at my insides. It is never categorically identifiable as the cause of the weirdness, but it never fails to make its presence felt. Never.
Would somebody scientific please pinpoint the link between endo and the immune system? You know, while you’re trying to keep up with Covid variants, plus all the other incurable illnesses out there. Thank you.
* https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamin-b12-or-folate-deficiency-anaemia/causes/
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