Infection problem and heart palpitations

[Paleowoman]

Well now I'm asking a question please. I don't know what to think. The pain and problems in my left ear area, face and jaw continued to get worse, hearing getting very 'muffled' too. Last night early hours of morning I started to get periods of heart palpitations. and when I took my blood pressure it was quite raised, eg 149/97, 158/94. By this morning palpitations were still continuing so I called 111 (emergency out of hours doc in the UK) and they told me to go straight to A&E (ER in the UK). Had ECG , blood tests etc. Saw consultant who said the palpitations were due to the pain and infection in my jaw, he told me to stop the amoxicillin the dentist gave me (doing root canal treatment) and to take metronidazole which is against anaerobic bacteria instead.

The doctor then said I had a "stonking heart murmur" which he said was understandable having had a valve replacement. Well this concerns me as I know I have a "flow murmur" which is normal after valve replacement but "stonking" ? I remember I contacted Edwards Life Sciences once to ask whether, if a doctor listened to my heart, the noise of the pericardial tissue valve would be different from a normal valve and they said no.

 

[dornole]

I had to look up "stonking" - I was pretty sure that was not a medical term. : )

Sorry you are going through all that infection and pain. Maybe the stonkingness is related to your elevated blood pressure and palpitations making your flow murmur louder? I think it's worth asking your own cardiologist about. Stonking is a bit of weird clinical term; I'm hoping that maybe that doc was just a little loose-lipped and dramatic (does seem to be an ER personality type) and your own cardiologist can either set your mind at ease or put you on track to check it out.

 

[Eva]

Sorry to hear this, Anne.
Last week I went for root canal. I took my 1000 mg of amoxicillin before going to the Endodentist by one hour which is the normal protocol! She put temporary filling and treatment inside the tooth as she found some puss. As soon as I reached home, my tooth started swelling. She didn't want me to take amoxicillin! She believes it should be only taken before dental work only but not for infection so that it remains effective as well as it may not be effective for infection treatment! (Her thoughts and her own research)! So, she put me on CLINDAMYCIN HQL (CHI) which I took every six hours for ten days and she asked me to take the amoxicillin before seeing her again (which was yesterday) in addition to the CH.

I went yesterday for final filling. I took my amoxicillin as usual in addition to my CH, as per her instructions and she R enewed my prescription for another ten days and a stronger CH potency as there was still some puss!
This is the second time I'm having root canal on this tooth. I had first root canal about 20 years ago. In October. 2013 I had an surgery on the top of the root in my gum. But since then my tooth kept hurting when touched and I saw many doctors in between. This is the first one who recommended another root canal while others recommended removing the tooth which I prefer to avoid!

So ask your cardio if he could prescribe something other than amoxicillin.

Good luck to both of us.

 

[Paleowoman]

Eva - the actual tooth where the root canal was done - two roots plus one completely blocked one - doesn't hurt at all, the pain is somewhere further inside my jaw and all up the side of my face, ear and cheek, my jaw is stiff and my hearing muffled. My cardiologist won't prescribe prophylactic antibiotics even though cardiac surgeon said to have them (I now have that in writing) - all to do with the UK guidance which is actually being reviewed as so many people have got Infective Endocarditis here since they stopped recommending antibiotics. I did have a course of amoxicillin though, which was wrong because the infection is deep in my jaw somewhere, hence the need for this other antibiotic. This new antibiotic, metronidazole, is supposed to have dreadful side effects but I have no choice now. My GP gave me some amoxicillin for the next time. I give up with these doctors and dentists, nothing is joined up. I don't want the tooth out as it's a wisdom tooth - imagine things going wrong and it's the middle of the night or a weekend. I've never had any dental trouble for years and years and now this. I hope you have good luck !

Domole - yes I will definitely ask the cardiologist about this "stonking murmur". Do you think "stonking" is just an English expression ? Definitely an ER doctor type though.

 

[pellicle]

Stonking used to be used here in Australia at least in the surfie crowd.

 

[dornole]

I've definitely never heard stonking in the U.S. Not encountered in Jane Austen, Partrick O'Brian, or Harry Potter either, my main sources for English English. : ) I really did consider it was a medical category of murmur for a second.

 

[Paleowoman]

I've now found it in my dictionary, it's definitley a British English informal word, not medical but very descriptive:

Stonking: adjective Brit. informal used to emphasize something remarkable, exciting, or very large: a stonking 207 mph maximum speed.
ORIGIN 1980s: from the verb stonk.
Stonk military slang
noun: a concentrated artillery bombardment.
verb [ with obj. ]: bombard with concentrated artillery fire.
ORIGIN 1940s: said to be formed from elements of the artillery term Standard Regimental Concentration .

I shall tell my cardiologist.

 

[Paleowoman]

Some good news ! There is no infection in the root canal tooth and no infection in the jaw below it. There was decay in that tooth a few weeks ago which had been dealt with and the root canal treatment is ongoing BUT it wasn't the cause of my problems. I was also having sinus problems on that side of my face which was causing pain radiating around. But yesterday, with pain getting worse and worse with my doctor saying he wouldn't do any investigations until the tooth was dealt with, I saw my dentist again and he found the cause (at least most likely): Temperomandibular Joint Dysfunction - it's a jaw problem casing pain and virtualy all the symptoms I have, sometimes caused by dental trauma eg keeping mouth very wide open for long periods - the root canal tooth is the lower left molar furthest back - and I'd had two sessions on it a week apart. TMJD leads to the muscles in the jaw hinge joint to dysfunction, causes micro tears in the muscles and for them to go into spasms and suchnlike, and becasue the muscles reach up by the ear and face and down the jaw they cause a lot of pain around the face. Dentist says that with the TMJD, the sinus problem, and the tooth problem, tthere are three separate things all going on at once. Well, it seems the he may be right becasue pain killers weren't helping (and dihydrocodeine is pretty strong, it's an opiate) so he prescribed the next thing for TMJD which is a muscle relaxant - low dose of diazepam. It seems to be working as the pain is less today.

Too many doctors can be a bit lazy - they like things to be neat with one thing causing side effects, they don't like it that there can be more than one thing going on at once do they ?

In addition to the diazepam, I must have soft foods - I wasn't eating anything hard yet because my jaw is so stiff I can't open it fully, so that's no sweat. And I musn't talk much - makes things worse. And we have to leave next stage of the root canal treatment a while or the TMJD would get even worse….mind you, I couldn't open my mouth wide enough at the moment.

I have come off the awful antibiotic metronidazole as there is definitley no infection, and with things getting worse and the antibiotic having no effect that kind of proved things too.

So the palpitations I had were probably to do with pain. Still I am following this up with my cardiologist. And a doctor from Edwards Lifesciences is going to telephone me next week I had emailed asking about the loudness of the murmur of my Magna ease valve, I had written that a doctor had described it as so loud it was "stonking". I know they won't give me medical advice, but I will try and get from them what questions are most important that I should ask my cardiologist.

 

[neil]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Apart from that how's it going fellow GB girl . well not fellow girl lol

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi Neil - if you'd asked me the day before yesterday how things were going, I'd have told you that they were terrible. Lots of pain and also worry about infection in heart valve etc. This morning with the pain levels very much lower and also knowing there is no infection in my tooth or gum/jaw, I am feeling much more positive. Thanks for asking !

Btw, NHS 111 really is c**p as you read in the press. When I phoned them last Saturday early morning, because of course the GP surgery was shut until Monday, and I'd been having palpitations most of the night, I mean really bad ones, it was a box ticking exercise from a clerk, and then they told me to go to A&E "within the hour". The car would not start, battery flat. I phoned NHS111 again and had to go through all the questions again, and then they said could I ask a neighbour to take me to A&E - no I could not knock up the neighbours at 7am, so NHS111 told me to take a taxi ! Luckily a firm was able to take me straight away - cost me £14.