Another Step Forward: Treating May-Thurner Syndrome

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In the ongoing saga of my body’s quirks, I’ve got another diagnosis to share: May-Thurner Syndrome . If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone—it’s another rare one to add to the list. Essentially, it’s a condition where the left iliac vein is compressed by the right iliac artery, which can lead to poor blood flow and all sorts of fun (read: frustrating) symptoms. My vein is 83% compressed, though my body has created collateral veins to help bypass. You'd think this new highway system would be sufficient, but I guess it's not. I discovered I had May-Thurner Syndrome during a venogram I underwent at UW Health in August 2024. Going into my MALS surgery, I knew there was a potential that MTS would also need to be addressed. But I was optimistic, hoping that MALS would alleviate several of my symptoms. As it turns out, MALS was just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. The cramping, pain, fatigue, and dysautonomia have continued to wear me down, even post-surgery. Some days, I fe...

Dental Cavitations: Post Surgery Week 1

Here are random tidbits from my recovery. When I first found out about dental cavitations I searched and searched for stories from other people and could not find many. So I want to make sure I document as much as I can in case anyone else is looking. I also want to bring awareness to this because I think it could be the answer for so many other people suffering! I’m not on the other side yet, but from the few stories I did find, there were positive outcomes! 

My last post I talked about the surgery, here are my thoughts right after…

Since I just did the nitrous oxide, I came out of it after a few minutes. Frankly, I would have been fine just laying there with it on for a bit longer. haha The numbing agent was just starting to wear off on the top of my jaw shortly after she was done with the bottom cavitation. For the most part though, my face still felt pretty numb and droopy. The transition while it's wearing off just feels so bizarre. We walked out of there about an hour after we arrived, so it went quick.

About 10 minutes into the drive home I was just sitting there and noticed that the whole right side of my body felt lighter. Just more loose and free and not so heavy. It was so noticeable because the left side hadn't changed at all. So it just felt like my body was cut in half vertically, one side feeling different than the other. By the time we got home I was exhausted (normal ashlee amounts like any other day) and a headache had creeped in. After a bit I definitely felt my mood shift to feeling pretty down. It was pretty chaotic at home with the kids, but I tried my best to just be still and calm. I did lots of icing and alternated Tylenol and Ibuprofen. They did offer hydrocodone, but my stomach is bad enough the way it is, I didn't want to make the nausea worse since I need to be able to keep some food in.

After surgery you can have cold fluids for 4-6 hours to help with clotting, then can add in warm fluids. I also managed a bit of yogurt and warm broth. I was also able to take the gauze out before we got home and didn't have any issues with bleeding, thank goodness. They give you a fun sheet of things to do/not do. This includes:

  • Work up to soft foods and no nuts/seeds for the first week
  • No exercise for the first week
  • Elevate head when sleeping
  • No straws
  • No heavy lifting aka no lifting Otis :(
  • Lots of icing the first 48 hours then you can switch to adding in warm packs

24-hours post surgery

I did a vitamin C IV at Between the Bridges Healing Center. This is strongly advised to help with the healing process. I had one a few days before surgery as well. Thankfully, this help my migraine to calm down. By this point my migraine and my gut were bothering me more than my jaw. I also had therapy after my IV. She did 7-point healing and just focused on supporting my body and regulating my nervous system. I definitely felt a bit lighter after leaving between the IV and therapy session. The swelling was definitely starting to amp up by this point. Violet said my face definitely looks fat! lol Only on one side though ;)

30-hours post surgery

Starting to feel some lovely brain zaps shooting from the cavitation sites. Experiencing more pain vs just feeling swollen. My gut is NOT happy. I'm sure it's a combination of taking so much Tylenol/Ibuprofen, detoxing, and just my normal body's reaction to food.

Dental Cavitation Post-Surgery
By day 3 I had a hard lump on the lower part of my jaw

48-hours post surgery

Pain is getting more intense. I attempted to space out my meds a teeny bit more in hopes my stomach would feel better. It’s definitely a catch 22 since the pain isn't as tolerable. Basically it feels like someone drilled into my jaw and then punched me in the jaw. There's a lot of pain and swelling mid-jaw, which I did not anticipate. I thought the pain would stay localized to where the cavitations were.

Dental Cavitation Post-Surgery

72-hours post surgery

I slept a lot last night! I did wake up drenched in sweat at about 3am. So I got cooled down, took some ibuprofen to get the pain back under control, and fell back asleep. I did get up for a bit while the kids got ready for school. After the family left I went back to bed until 9:30 which felt so good. My face looks much more swollen today and there is now some bruising by my chin. Since I can do warm compress on it now I used the Lumebox for some red light therapy after icing. I will say that bags of frozen veggies make awesome ice packs for your jaw because they can kind of mold around it! I even felt up to reading for a bit late morning which was nice. I now feel very wiped out and the rest of my body is starting to hurt more. Even though it hurts to open my mouth I did manage to eat a bit of ground beef and mashed potatoes. Otherwise I've had yogurt, broth, and toast the past few days. My nausea gets bad with my vascular compression situation so sometimes toast is about all that sounds decent. It would be nice if a smoothie sounded good, but it does not :/

Dental Cavitation Post-Surgery

Day 4:

I am hoping this is the worst and I’ve hit the peak of swelling/pain. The past 24 hours have been quite miserable. Last night I just laid on the couch with my giant face under an ice pack. It was so nice outside too and I had really hoped to take advantage, but just didn't have it in me. Ben took the kids to Kiwanis holiday lights. They had a wonderful time. I was sad to miss it, but was happy they could go do something fun together. 
Sometimes when you're in so much pain it's like you're not really even there. I would think I'd be really emotional, but it hurt too much to even produce tears. But knowing this is likely the worst day has me feeling like, "okay, I did it! I'm getting through this!"

My family is so darn cute!

Day 5-6:

The swelling is gradually going down which is a relief. It’s nice not having my face feel so puffy and as stiff. The pain is still there. I really had hoped to wean off ibuprofen and Tylenol a bit more by this point, but no such luck. I continue to rely on ice and heat packs throughout the day to ease the pain. Still getting some shooting zaps every now and then too. I’m trying hard to keep up with lymph massages, stretching, red light therapy, and probably other things I’m forgetting at the moment. Even with that I can tell my body is really feeling the heavy load of the detoxing. Day 6 I was up and moving more to try and help. I even took a walk around the block to get some blood pumping. Otis was thrilled about this. He misses being outside! I also removed my lifting restriction, so I could take care of Otis without having to find someone else to lift him or carry him places for me :) Love being able to squeeze him again! I can also open my mouth a bit wider which makes eating less challenging. Brushing my teeth is still a cautious task, but I cannot handle how grimy and gross my mouth feels. I don’t even want to know how awful my breath must be right now. Even after brushing it gets icky feeling quickly.

Dental Cavitation Post-Surgery
It's hard to see the bruising unless you look a bit closer. It was a nice shade of yellow.

Day 7:

Still waking up around 3:30am in pain. The ibuprofen wears off faster than I’d like. Thankfully, this time I did get back to sleep. It was a slow start to the morning. I helped the kids get situated  then hopped in the tub to soak before starting my first day back to work (from home). My intentions sure were great, but quickly realized after I sat down to get settled that I needed to lay down. My heart was racing and I just felt bleh. Grabbed a heat pack for my face, laid down, and listened to my meditation app. I did get myself back up to try again. I made it a few hours and then had to rest again with lots of icing. Having to talk flares things up, which is challenging when you need to talk to your co-workers. Not surprising, but incredibly frustrating. Let’s just say that I think if I had just planned to take more time to rest and heal vs work I would have probably had a decent day. But instead I pushed myself because 1.) I have work I want to get done and I don’t like having other people having to help me out so much 2.) I have no PTO. I had 11.25 hours for last week and had to take the rest unpaid :(. It’s just hard and I’m clearly a bit whiny about things today. I think my body was also doing a lot of detoxing, which wasn't helping matters. Lots of chills and cold sweats even though I didn't have a fever. Now I know for next time though how to better prepare. I think beyond being frustrated with my abilities to work I was also feeling sad about not being able to take the kids to tumbling. Violet was just so upset about it and it made me sad.

Dental Cavitation Post-Surgery

Day 8:

I did not start the day out very optimistic. Still so much pain. And for some reason I only made it to 2:30am last night for the pain to wake me up. I just kept running the thought of, "how am I going to get through this". But I went about my routine anyway and started the day off with my therapist. We just did supportive body work again, so I didn't have to talk much. After I got home and took more Tylenol, Ibuprufen, and coffee... I really came around! I actually felt human for a few hours and kind of motivated. AND the right side of my face can move a bit now. If you don't look at my smile too closely you may not even notice it's lopsided. 
I hit a wall mid-afternoon and was never really able to snap back out of it, which bummed me out. It’s understandable, but still hard. I am thankful the pain is much more manageable. I also didn’t have to ice/heat after I got past the morning.

Dental Cavitation Post-Surgery
It's me. Hi.

Day 9:

Oh my word! I slept through the night! And I didn’t wake up with agonizing jaw pain that made me reach for meds immediately. That’s a big step for me!
The rest of my body, on the other hand, had other plans. I felt really weak, my stomach was working through it, and I had the constant chills. After the family left the house I had to lay down for a few minutes to let my body regulate a bit. (Weird side note: the left side of my face and neck were aching, but just only that side.) This may have been a sign to stay and work from home today, but I straight up ignored that. I had friends (who also happen to be my coworkers) to see and work to do. I glided through part of the day on my joy of being out of the house functioning like a human. Thankfully some cbd/cbg oil helped keep my chills at bay for a bit. And I actually had a bit of an appetite and ate a meal. Haven’t done that in quite some time. By mid-afternoon I was on the struggle bus. Partially from eating a bunch of food (my gut does not like it) and I honestly felt like I might pass out. I just felt so weak, exhausted, nauseous, light-headed… you get the picture. So I made it 9ish-4. This evening I’ve come around a little bit after some rest at home. Looking forward to another night of sleep.

Some takeaways:

  • In hindsight, I maybe should have tried the hydrocodone prescription they wrote me. At least for sleeping at night. I have had some not-so-fun experiences in the past with it making my stomach so upset. So I was trying to avoid that. But I still had a lot of tummy issues regardless, so if it numbed the jaw pain a bit more it may have been worth it. Prior to the surgery, one of the few blog posts I did find about this, the woman only took 1 ibuprofen each night for the first three nights. Other than that she made it through with some natural pain remedies. So I just felt like I maybe was a wimp and really did not expect the pain I had. I should know better than anyone to never ever compare to someone else’s experience! It’s okay to use as a tool, but we are unique. Plus, how silly of me considering how miserable I felt even before the surgery and was already regularly using ibuprofen to survive. Yes, I know it’s bad for my stomach. But sometimes it’s unavoidable if I also need to work and parent.
  • Otis’s Earthley Teeth Tamer tincture came in handy for helping numb inside my mouth. I didn’t think of it until day 4, but now I know.
  • Evaluate where you’re actually at before going back to work. Even if that means pushing back when you thought you might start. And for goodness sake, start back with a half day! Basically, don’t be so freaking stubborn!
  • The pain and swelling isn’t always just near the cavitations. You may feel like you were punched in the face elsewhere and also have the bruise to show it ;)
  • Ice/heat packs aren’t limited to the first 48-hours. You may want them frequently for a week or more. Invest in a nice ice and heat pack that can easily mold around your jaw. Frozen peas, veggie medley, or corn also work amazing. You can even mold the bag to prop under your jaw when you lie down on your side.
  • Emotions will be up and down
  • You’re amazing for doing this for yourself. It’s incredibly hard, but it will be worth it. Keep going!
  • It’s okay to let people help you. In fact, plan for it so that you don’t have to stress about any of it in the midst of the struggle.

I'll try to keep updating as time goes on. Plus... surgery #2 is 2 weeks away!

<3 Ash


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Comments

  1. 🙏🙏🙏. And this is why you have to go through this!! Sharing the journey to help others. You write beautifully. Love you toots!!
    Mom.

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