Week 11

Wednesday 2/12/09
Lots of pain last night in the tip of my tongue, which is unusual. But after maybe 36 hours it has settled and there's very little pain. Back to feeling maybe 95% healed. I've developed a few little pimples on the injured side - no idea why - but this seems to be a focal point for pain (and I suspect the two combine to great effect!).

Thursday 3/12/09
Pain receded but still there, moving between different spots.

Friday 4/12/09
Saw another oral surgeon. He told me these are never permanent - ha! Well, I know better than that (although he didn't believe me). Very worn out with being spoken to like an idiot by doctors. How ridiculous to tell me they're never permanent and then ignore me when I say I know for a fact that they can be because I know of people who suffer permanently. I also told him I'd been reading about the condition and he immediately said "oh, the internet's very dangerous" and I said "no, medical journal papers" and he snorted and said who, and I said "for example Pogrel" and he said "oh, well, he is the expert" and then launched into a story about something Pogrel thought once that he disagreed with, dismissing that I'd clearly proved him wrong.

It's unbelievable to me that I'm not supposed to learn about my condition. It's also ridiculous that they think the anecdotal information I have is irrelevant. And when I try to say "I'm an academic", they brush it off. I'm fully aware of how to do high level research. I teach medical law, I have a doctorate and a fellowship at a prestigious university, yet I have to endure being spoken to like a child.

Anyway... the upshot was:
- he thinks they're never permanent
- they heal within anything up to 6 months
- there is no treatment
- I look like I'm progressing well
- healing is non-linear. He said it's not the case that the nerve heals a piece at a time, that it's better to see it as having gone haywire and it's like a thermostat that's going to go too far up, too far down until it finds its level again. He pointed out that a nerve is like a cable of wires each doing different things - temperature, vibration, touch, taste etc - these all combine to send the brain signals and when they're normal it can ignore them all and you don't feel your tongue. When they're screwed up it gets all sorts of weird signals and because these combine and change etc it sends all sorts of signals and doesn't heal in a linear way

He said this was why I got flare ups.

I don't find that particularly convincing. It also didn't answer my question about how I could feel completely healed one day but bad the next - sure, his thermostat analogy explained that, but I'm really clear on how that analogy is supported by everything else he said.

So I left yet again feeling patronised, laughed and as though I was making a bit of a fuss. But at least I'm feeling better today, even if my respect for doctors has plummeted even further.

And he also told me very quickly there is no point suing, even though I'd never mentioned it, because he does lots of legal work and these cases always fail. Whatever. Glad he's a expert on the law too, rather than me - despite my PhD in law.

Ugh.

Saturday 5/12/09
Feeling much better. Little tingle and crackle but that's all.

Sunday 6/12/09
Almost gone. Had an hour or so where it was almost normal.

Monday 7/12/09
Slight tingle back but fairly easy to ignore

Tuesday 8/12/09
Had the second part of the root canal done - just with local. All went fine. Slight tingle but ok.