Dept. of Aargh

[kaffy_r]

 Tee Em Aieeee

More sore spots have appeared inside my mouth. That's, like, four or so now. Even the smoothie I just had hurt to drink. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 12:20 p.m. I'm hoping this might require some antibiotics, and nothing more. 
 Nothing more to add. Move along, now, nothing to see here, especially nothing you'd actually want to see. 

Comments

[st_aurafina]

Argh, ow. *gives you soothing popsicles*

[kaffy_r]

Oh, that sounds so good - but I wasn't even able to drink cool water without feeling pain yesterday. Today, one part of the mouth feels a little better. Here's hoping the doctor can at least give me a little information. I'm used to having mouth sores, as in "one at a time"; it's having a bunch of them blossom in my mouth all at once that's creepy.

[bibliofile]

ow ow ow ow ow NO. ow.

[kaffy_r]

There almost completely healed now, and I'm going to be talking to my rheumatologist about reducing the levels of a couple of my meds, since they could be causing the sores.

[lolmac]

FWIW -- have you ever had cold sores? I've had them since childhood, and at present, they're most likely to appear when I'm under a lot of stress. Especially certain kinds of stress involving idiots I'm not allowed to Force-choke and curse in many fluent tongues.

If these are cold sores, the good news is that there's a very effective medication now, which did not exist when I was a kid and first had to live with the things. It comes in both pill form for inside sores and ointment for outside sores. *waves happy flag for Science*

[kaffy_r]

I had cold sores occasionally as a child, and it doesn't come as any surprise that any kind of mouth sore can be sparked by stress. I suspect this explosion of them is an exacerbation of the occasional mouth sores I've gotten for the past couple of years (one every month or two, lasting a few days), which are pretty directly tied to the lowered immunity I have because of my RA and Scleroderma.

Wow, that was an inordinately complicated sentence.

Especially certain kinds of stress involving idiots I'm not allowed to Force-choke and curse in many fluent tongues.

This made me giggle, and because of that, I am going to use my Teal'c icon, even though I kind of feel sick enough that I can't do a happy dance. Heh.

As to medication, we shall see. If these are herpes simplex 1-related, I may just have to bull through them. Since this has also hiked my temperature, I just want the doctor to check to make sure it's not something that is reflective of yet another ailment. Cue grumbling.

[lolmac]

The medication in question is for herpes-type cold sores, aka canker sores. It's valacyclovir, aka Valtrex. I used to have to suffer through the damned things for days if not weeks; now, if I have the meds on hand, it's a matter of three or four days at the most. At the moment, I'm having to go through yet another fight to get a refill, which is a pain in the ass, but at least I know there's something to fight for.

I've never noticed a temperature spike in association, but that may just be due to not noticing temperature spikes. I did recognise, at one point, that when I got really bad outbreaks of external cold sores -- as in a fat agonising cluster right outside the mouth -- it was often when there was something Very Important and Very Very VERY stressful that I really needed to talk to someone about, but couldn't.

I remember someone, possibly Robert Bly, observing at some point that the subconscious mind can have a hideously literal and perverse sense of humour.

[kaffy_r]

As it happens, valacyclovir is what my doctor prescribed for me, and it has definitely helped hurry the sores into the past.

I remember someone, possibly Robert Bly, observing at some point that the subconscious mind can have a hideously literal and perverse sense of humour.

Oh, aye. Twisted little bugger, our subconsciousness. Heh.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

*sympathy*

I once had two canker sores in my mouth at one time and that was bad enough. I can't imagine what you're going through!

[kaffy_r]

Thanks; I'm trying to concentrate on the upside. Hey, I couldn't feel less like eating! Heh. Right now, as long as I don't talk, it's manageable. Of course, that's kind of hard for a reporter, so I took my boss's advice and I'm taking a sick day. I have Too Fucking Much to do to take a sick day, but I'm not really very effective right now, so lying on the couch until the doctor's appointment seems like a reasonable use of my time.

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Ow. That sounds really unpleasant.

Have you tried lysine? My mom uses it to help with cold sores. Just a thought. And feel better soon!

[kaffy_r]

I will ask my doctor about lysine, when I see her later this afternoon; thanks for the suggestion! And thanks for the good wishes, too!

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

They sound like mouth ulcers. I used to get them a lot, and it's not at all uncommon to have several at once. Painful, but they heal after a while and rarely need medical intervention.

ETA: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Mouth-ulcer/Pages/Introduction.aspx And they are also called canker sores, btw.

[kaffy_r]

Yeah, I've gotten used to having them, one at a time, every so often - say, once every month or two. It seems to have been something that came to stay when I developed the RA and the Scleroderma. It was something I just bulled through. This, however, has arrived complete with a slight fever, and I haven't been free of sores for something like two weeks. It's just different enough from the usual presentation that I'm going to the doctor's to rule out any potentially extra-bad reason for the explosion.

Ooo. That link has some very helpful information. Thanks, as always!

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Bless you, sweetie...looks like lolmac is thinking along the same lines I am.

*HUGS*

[kaffy_r]

Hi there, dear - will let you know what the doctor said, once she says it.

*hugs right back*

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Will keep my fingers crossed that they turn out to be easily cured (will not send karmic lemon'n'honey, it might hurt)

[kaffy_r]

Thanks, and I appreciate not getting the karmic lemon and honey ... I made a smoothie for myself, thinking it would help, since I didn't have to chew - and only realized that a fruit smoothie would really, really hurt the mouth when I took a big mouthful. Sigh.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Could be an excuse to live on creamy icecream for a while...

[kaffy_r]

MMMmmm, ice cream ....

[thisbluespirit]

*sends hugs*

:-/

[kaffy_r]

Awww, thank you! Hope you're doing better as well!

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Urgh, I'm sorry to hear that! I hope the doctor could help in any way :/

♥

[kaffy_r]

The ulcers are almost completely healed now, and I have a better idea of what might have been causing them (sadly enough, it's medications that I need to take), but the meds that my doctor put me on helped immeasurably.

♥ back at you!

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Ugh—but as long as they're better, and better because of helpful meds, not got-better-on-their-own-but-might-return, that's still good news!

♥♥♥