Beauty amidst the pain

I never planned to develop infective endocarditis (heart disease) whilst pregnant. I never dreamed of having a complicated and stressful pregnancy. I never imagined having emergency heart surgery as a brand new mom with a 5 day old new born. I never ever thought that I would have to live with a prosthetic heart valve and take anti-coagulant meds daily. I never considered the complexities that would result from all this trauma and, this year, I never wanted to have dental treatment during the Corona Pandemic. I have endured and lived through and with it all and am here to tell the tale!

Life with a carbon-fibre mechanical heart valve and daily doses of anti-coagulant medication looks pretty normal from the outside. I still live, work, exercise, breathe, eat and sleep. I still love and feel and have wants and needs. But it’s walking through the challenges, such as a simple root canal dental treatment, that look and feel so different now. Now that I have a new normal.

I put off undergoing root canal treatment for 6 months and eventually the pain was becoming unbearable. I wasn’t eating on the left side of my mouth and was constantly massaging my jaw when the pain was overwhleming. I finally summoned the courage to make the call to my dentist and a few days later South Africa was plunged into complete lockdown. My dentist was now only accepting emergencies. I breathed a sigh of relief. I did not have to face it yet. 2 months of being home with my family rolled by. I loved the time and space to enjoy the small moments, baking bread, making lemonade, reading God’s word together and sharing freshly baked cookies with our neighbour. The pain in my mouth was a constant reminder of the fate that loomed! And finally the green light. Treatment was booked.

The challenge of dental treatment I face having a prosthetic heart valve and taking anti-coagulant medication, is that before every procedure I have to administer a prophylaxis. That’s a really fancy word for a course of antibiotics! Due to the invasive nature of root canal treatment, before the initial and first treatment, I also had to change my anti-coagulant medication. So this time round I had to stop my warfarin 4 days before the procedure, and had to inject myself with another mediation twice daily for the 4 days prior to treatment and for 2 days following treatment. This was stressful and traumatic. Not only was it painful, but it reminded me of one of my hospital stays 10 years ago, before our daughter was born, and whilst my body was fighting and slowly dying of heart disease. The medical professionals advised me that our daughter would be born very soon and as I was only 32,5 weeks pregnant, I had to daily endure hormones being injected into my abdomen for the timely development of her lungs. Back to today, and now, to ensure I didn’t profusely bleed out my mouth, I had to endure a similar experience of anti-coagulants being injected into my abdomen as well as all the memories of 10 years ago. An hour before the treatment I also had to take 3g of antibiotics, which for me looked like 6 tablets of moxypen. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like antibiotics when I’m feeling awful, never mind a whole course all at once!

So pricked and poked and beginning to bruise round my belly button and with a full quota of prophylaxis in my blood, I headed off to the dentist rooms for part 1. On arrival I found a chair outside the door with a printed “Dr. ….’s patients” sign on it. A foot-pedal hand sanitizer stand invited me to decontaminate my hands. I accepted the invitation. Moments later I was greeted by my dental surgeon completely clothed in a ‘hazmat suit’! Gosh! He aimed the thermometer at my head and fired. I was good to go! I walked down the corridor, into the procedure room, removed my mask and placed it in the box outlined by red tape on the counter, took my seat and was ready! Part 1 went so smoothly and the anxiety of the trauma leading up to it faded into a peaceful rhythm as my dentist and his assistant worked non-stop on my gaping mouth. I was very happy to head home, get through 2 more days of injections and get back to my normal warfarin medication routine.

Part 2 was booked for a week later and the same drill regarding the prophylaxis was underway. Part 2 was quick and although more uncomfortable, was over with no pain!

Today was part 3. The final edition. The end. Prophylaxis was only 2g of moxypen, so I only had to swallow 4 tablets this morning! The treatment was quite uncomfortable today and it ended up bleeding so much and all I could taste in my mouth was blood! Uuuuggghhhhhh! But it’s done! And while I wait for my mouth and lips to get back to a completely normal feeling, I am relieved, grateful and so so happy that my root canal treatment is complete! And that I made it through it during the Corona Pandemic!

As I have walked through the moments, hours, days and weeks of the process of preparation and undergoing this treatment, I have been so loved and thought of and prayed for by my amazing family and friends! Thank you for your messages, calls, meals and thoughts and most importantly thank you for praying. Prayer is the foundation of all that we do in life as apprentices of Jesus and it is the prayers that have been prayed for me during this season that have carried me, blessed me and given me peace through Jesus, the prince of peace! So I encourage you to continue to devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful [Col 4:2] and see how it brings beauty amidst the pain.