notes.jays.net

Health

2025-08 (bacterial sinus infection?)

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Aug 6

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Normal 6-month dental cleaning, w/ x-rays. No problems, x-rays look good.

Aug 10-14

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Scuba diving in the Cayman Islands I got a few headaches at depth. Not unprecedented. 10 years ago my ENT doctor told me for deep diving:

  1. Double my 20' safety stops (3 -> 6 minutes)
  2. Use Oxymetazoline HCI 0.05% over-the-counter nasal spray before first deep dive.

And that worked fine for ~10 years. Not so much on this trip. Bummer.

I switched regulators, skipped a few deep dives, various things seemed to work, then didn't? Quite mysterious. Do I have a sinus infection but I can't tell? Zero symptoms above water.

Tue Aug 26 - Thu Aug 28 (day 1-3)

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Back home. Whoah. Weird. Headache. Ear pressure. Sinus pressure. All symptoms on right side of head. Some mild tooth pain. Everything fine for ~6 hour blocks sometimes, then I got hit by a truck of sinus-style pain. Sleep difficult, sometimes only possible on one or the other side. I'll see how I feel in the morning. If whatever this is isn't gone, it's doctor time tomorrow.

Fri Aug 29 (day 4)

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Ya, I don't feel good. Definitely need to see a doctor before the long weekend starts. Got my ass kicked in one morning meeting. 15 minutes later I feel totally fine, like nothing was ever wrong with me.

11am: Priority Care doctor is surprised that he's not seeing obvious sinus infection in his examination. My blood pressure and everything else are normal. Prescribes:

Notes:

Sat Aug 30 (day 5)

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2am: oh no. So much tooth pain! Impossible to sleep. Suddenly I've gone from "sinus infection?" to "holy shit I'm in a dental emergency?"

6am: Reached out to my normal dentist in emergency mode. He calls me back an hour later. I tell him the whole story, he reviews a bunch of stuff, tells me without a physical trauma it's almost impossible I've developed a cavity or other structural problem that quickly after my set of x-rays less than a month ago.

Dentist recommends starting my amox tablet prescription immediately, because that's the same prescription he would have called in for me this morning. Says in 1-2 tablets it should knock out any bacterial thing I've got going on.

9am: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #1

9pm: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #2

Sun Aug 31 (day 6)

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3am: I think those tablets are indeed, my salvation. Crazy to me that the first advice was to wait until day 10 when it's a miracle drug in my case? Slept a bunch yesterday, netti-potted, ibuprofen for pain, but generally feeling like we've whipped this problem and I'm well on my way back to normal.

9am: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #3

4pm: All my other symptoms are gone. Now it's only lower right tooth pain, "managed" with maximum doctor-allowed Ibuprofen: 3,200 mg / 24 hours.

covid-19 test: negative.

8pm: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #4

11pm: Very desperate against chronic pain, mental / emotional health completely shot (pain + lack of / poor sleep). Trying ice packs for the first time. The pain of the ice pack seems to replace the tooth pain, and when the ice pain fades I have some tooth pain relief... for an hour or so?

Mon Sep 1 (day 7)

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Dentist says if the tablets work, there should be no dental work to do. Come in any time during normal business hours, he can run tests ("abundance of caution"), otherwise he'll see me in 5 months.

Tue Sep 2 (day 8)

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Jordan Nielsen:

Sorry to hear that Jay- Iā€™m not a doctor, but you might want to check up with an allergist about sargassum and jellyfish. Decomposing sargassum in the water releases sulfides and often contains jellyfish larvae. You could have gotten hit with it if you swam through a concentration. Sargassum Inundation Events (SIEs): Impacts on Human Health

šŸ¤Æ The entire eastern edge of Cayman Islands is covered in sargassum. The resort tractors it off the beaches twice a day every day. And I dove / snorkeled in it daily. No one has ever mentioned any possible problem to me...

Well, shit. Once again I was feeling great (normal. remember normal? Pepperidge Farm remembers) so was getting all cocky in the late afternoon / evening like I had whipped this thing. Until about 10pm when the tooth pain came back. A lot less bad, but still. Sad boy. Humbling. Used the huge ice pack for a deep face freeze, slept good until 3am.

General note: Eating hurts. Not because biting or food on the right side hurts, but because trying to open my mouth wide enough to bite things, my jaw aches. Then I floss and brush with zero pain. Neck soreness on the right side. I ice that too, which helps.

Wed Sep 3 (day 9)

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Thu Sep 4 (day 10)

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Fri Sep 5 (day 11)

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Hey!! umm... I think I'm declaring success? Yesterday very few pain meds. I'm not 100% yet, but close, and ... if I'm whittling down to zero pain meds today / next couple of days, then the tablets worked? Eating should be back to normal... soon? All better? Fin? šŸ‡«šŸ‡·

Epilogue

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Doctor says everything is going to be OK. Chase squirrels, lots of naps, snacks. Dog doctor