Battle Hymns of a Hot Mess Mom

The crazy start to the Leukemia…

March 9th 2023 I felt I had a piece of food stuck between my left bottom molar and gum. I tried for two days to get whatever was there out, as in a flossed the living sh*t out of it but no bit of food came out. I wasn’t too worried since I’d be seeing my dentist the next day for a deep cleaning. When I got to the dentist appointment – I got my X-rays and noted the something stuck in between gum and tooth. The X-rays surprisingly didn’t show anything but the hygienist said they would do a deep thorough cleaning and that my gums were going to be sore. All was good.

All wasn’t. Friday my gums were swollen and inflamed – it was killing me. My lymph nodes were completely swollen making swallowing near impossible. My tongue has sores on it and I was my miserable. I sucked it up knowing the hygienist stated I’d be sore. And sore I was…this lasted all weekend. Monday morning I drove to the dentist for help. He looked at my mouth and said “We didn’t do anything but a cleaning…I don’t know why it’s infected and swollen.” He called a script in for antibiotics and I started them immediately. Within the first two days my lymph nodes went down and the sores on my tongue were healed. But ugh the gums were still painful and inflamed. This lasted until my last day of antibiotics. We were headed into another weekend and I couldn’t do another weekend of this pain.

I desperately called emergency dentists – it was Saturday night and just about everyone was closed. To the ER was my only option. I walked into Kaiser and it was the beginning of it all. Bloodwork. So much blood. Antibiotics and steroids were started. I waited. I texted my husband and waited some more. The ER doctor came in to speak with me. “Your WBC is elevated and your ANC is 0.” Ummm okay? “Well it could be a localized infection or cancer.” Like sir…that’s is a HUGE spectrum. Let’s stay with infection. “We’re going to need more tests to rule out cancer and for ‘continuity’ you should probably go to your home hospital.” As such I was released and went home for the night to come back to my home hospital in the morning.

After I checked into my home hospital – and then the bloodwork started. Half a gallon of blood and mentions of a biopsy. I was transferred to the CCU – they managed my pain and more antibiotics and steroids. Another internal doctor came to talk to me. “This could still be an infection or cancer.” Again the spectrum of this was NOT great. Second time in two days a doctor has said the C word to me.