(Note: This post is also printed at my blog Joans Backbone Disaster
http://www.joansbackbonedisaster.com/2020/07/medical-and-dental-care-in-time-of.html)
(With apologies to Colombian Nobelist Gabriel Garcia Márquez, author of Love in the time of Cholera.)
As readers of these pages know, I have been dealing with the fallout from painful multiple vertebral fractures occurring following the medical mismanagement of the osteoporosis drug, Prolia. Now, two years and a lot of physical therapy later, I can now walk a little and remain upright (standing or sitting) without too much pain for an hour or two. I've given up my car; driving was just too distractingly painful, and I avoid theatre or concerts or anything requiring me to remain quietly seated for an hour or more with no opportunity to depart quietly and gracefully when the pain becomes too intense
But now comes another issue which is causing me great consternation and one more example of the negotiations I must carry out when various health professionals present me with conflicting sets of requirements, and where the consequences to me of a slip-up could be more painful, debilitating, independence-threatening fractures!
Early in 2020 I had a toothache. A bad one! Dental x-rays revealed a broken root, but I had to wait almost six months until the tooth could be extracted because I was on Prolia. This is because apparently Prolia leaves your jaw vulnerable to fracture. At first I was told I had to be OFF Prolia completely before this tooth could be extracted -- which could have left me quite vulnerable to more fractures! I discuss this at:
So in view of the dire consequences of even a short delay in getting a Prolia shot (caused by medical mismanagement of this drug as discussed elsewhere in this blog) I wanted to make sure there would be no delay here in getting my Prolia shot April 14 (the mandated six months and 5 days for spacing Prolia injections.)
I knew this would take a lot of juggling because despite the fact that the two doctors involved are across the street from each other in Northwestern Medical Center buildings, and both have telephones, they do not communicate with each other, leaving me to fly back and forth like a Carrier Pigeon with messages. But I finally was able to establish two dates:
April 8 for Oral Surgeon follow-ip exam.
April 14 for Prolia shot.
I had already cancelled many other medical checkups with other doctors who agreed that I did not need to come to their offices as scheduled given the Corona Virus danger. (In fact some of them were no longer even coming to their offices!)
So inasmuch as the Oral Surgeon did not seem to think I needed to come in for a "follow up" I cancelled that. We agreed that additional exposure to COVID-19 was unnecessary.
Corona Virus - COVID-19 -- Complicates Matters! To recap, the broken tooth having been extracted as scheduled on March 10, in the normal course of events, the Oral Surgeon would examine me ten days later and then I would get the Prolia shot as scheduled on April 14.
But by early March, the "normal course of events" was history. Corona Virus -- COVID-19 -- was on a rampage around the world, with no effective prevention methods in sight. Our political leaders and medical experts were adamant in the importance of personal protection by quarantine and self-isolation, and knowing that at age 83 I was in an especially vulnerable age cohort, I was carefully observing that, staying in my home, having no visitors, and sending out for my groceries.
But as the time for my Prolia shot came due, I knew I would have to leave my carefully maintained COVID-19 free quarters and venture to Northwestern University medical buildings two more times: First, to have my "follow up" appointment with the Oral Surgeon, and then several days later for the Prolia shot.
So to minimize this exposure, I called the Oral Surgeon's office and reported that the extraction site felt fine; no pain, no swelling, and it was agreed that I could defer the follow-up visit to minimize COVID-19 exposure risk.
But this did not work for the Prolia doc's office where I was told that following the March 10 extraction, I MUST see the Oral Surgeon to be "cleared" for the Prolia shot. So I dutifully called back and reestablished the Oral Surgeon follow-up exam for April 8 and then the Prolia shot on April 14.
It appeared then that I would have to go out out TWICE, with TWO exposures to COVID-19 in order to get the Prolia shot on time so that I wouldn't have MORE fractures! Talk about a rock and a hard place!
So I was really delighted when the Oral Surgeon said that since I reported (honestly) to him that following the extraction I had no pain or swelling and that the site was well healed, that I could cancel the "post extraction" exam and get the Prolia shot at the scheduled time.
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