Pain similar to sinus trouble.

[sally70]

Hello everyone. I am hoping you might be able to help. I have stage 4 lung cancer and have been having carboplatin chemotherapy and immunotherapy for the past 7 weeks. My bloods were very low a week ago so the treatment was delayed whilst I had 3 filigrastim injections which has got them back up.

My problem is pain in my left jaw, above the teeth but also affecting the ear. The dentist did an x-ay of that side of my mouth before I started treatment and has said that everything was fine with no sign of an infection. However, when I went back on an emergency appointment the dentist was kind enough to prescribe antibiotics. After taking these for 4 days the pain was no better.

The doctor at the hospital thought that there was little or no chance thatthe pain was caused by a metastasis but was typical of a sinus infection so prescribed a slightly different antibiotic. I have been taking these for nearly 5 days with no improvement. I have contacted the hospital and asked if they could do an x-ray or ct scan to try and see what is going on but have heard nothing as yet. I will be getting my next round of treatment on Monday. I just don't know what to do next. Has anyone else had a similar problem? If you have please could you let me know how it was dealt with. Thank you and my best wishes to you all.

[RoyCastleHelpline Partner Ask the Nurse Roy Castle]

Hi,I am sorry to hear about the pain you are experiencing. The most important thing is to get something to control the pain and you should speak to your GP. It's late on a Friday afternoon but hopefully if you phone the surgery you can ask to speak to the on call GP regarding your pain and be offered some adequate pain relief. I don't know where you live or if there is a dental hospital in your area. If your pain persists over the week end another option would be you could phone and ask one of the on call dentists for advice.

Kind regards,

All the support team at the Roy Castle helpline

[sally70 in reply to RoyCastleHelpline]

Thank you so much for your prompt advice. I have some co-codomol so I will try taking one of those as I think they will help particularly at bedtime. We do have two general hospitals close by which have dental departments. I will try calling them to see if I can get some advice. I have my chemo on Monday so making phone contact would probably be safest . I could try getting an appointment with my own dentist but that is often close to impossible but will give it a go. X-rays are rather expensive but I would like to have one done just to be sure that it is not something to do with the teeth. Thank you again for your help. It is good to have someone to talk to.

[RoyCastleHelpline Partner Ask the Nurse Roy Castle in reply to sally70]

You are welcome, it's a good idea to take he co-codamol. I hope the pain settles down.Kind regards,

All the best from the helpline team.

[Janey_H]

Hi Sally

I was interested in your post as I ended up being diagnosed after dental / sinus pain. Originally I had gone to the dentist thinking I had infection in an implant I have near the front of my mouth. Felt like I had pain up my nose and as if I was breathing in cold air all the time up the right side. Dentist said everything was fine so went to GP. GP referred me for sinus check at hospital which unfortunately, in hindsight, took four months to come through as was routine referral. Sinuses were all okay. Back to GP who, luckily for me, requested chest X-ray and referral to maxiofacial. Chest X-ray showed tumour in right lung (never did get to maxiofacial!!). Have had treatment (this was back in 2014) but have since seen a paper that suggested the pain I was getting can be indicative of mediastinal lymph node involvement in chest. As it turned out mine was malignant and has since been removed surgically.

Not saying this is what is causing your pain but thought you would be interested as a lot of my initial investigations were focused around the head and I now wonder if it was actually symptomic of node involvement. We might still have the paper somewhere if you are interested in it?

Hope all goes well with your next round of treatment on Monday and hope the pain eases up. Just to note my pain wasn’t severe - was more a discomfort than pain.

Best wishes

Jane

[sally70 in reply to Janey_H]

Hello Jane. This information is so helpful. I do have node involvement so it is just possible that this is causing the problem. If you are able to find the paper I would be most interested to read it and also to refer to it to my medical team.

Like you I have been convinced that it is a tooth problem particularly as I had broken a crown before treatment started but the dentist is convinced it is not. just to get this issue resolved would be great. Thank you again and I hope you are able to find the paper without too much trouble.

[Janey_H in reply to sally70]

Hi SallyI have found the paper for you - it is a pdf but I can't see how I can attach it via here. Are you happy to send me your email address and I will ping it over to you. It was on an old laptop which we charged back up out of retirement - just relieved we hadn't got a password on it or I could have come unstuck!! Interesting that my oncologist is listed as an author on the paper - but he wasn't my oncologist when I was first diagnosed! Otherwise he might have made the connection at the time.

Hope you can get to the bottom of it in relation to your pain.

Jx

[sally70 in reply to Janey_H]

Hello again Janey. I have been trying to send you my e mail address but because it would make it available to everyone the system blocks my reply. I am more than happy for you to have it but dont know how to send it to you. I have sent the question to the staff on this site but have not had a reply as yet. As soon as I can I will get my e mail to you. Thank you again for you kindness. Sally70

[Janey_H in reply to sally70]

I have sent you a private message Sally with my email on it - if you can access your messages then hopefully you will be able to email me direct and I will then be able to reply to you directly. I sent the private message after my post as suddenly thought it would mean everyone would see it - it didn’t stop me sending you mine via message so hopefully it has come through to you okay. Jx

[Janey_H in reply to sally70]

You could try sending me your email in a private message. If you click on my name, it should then take you through to the option to message direct..... good luck! Have reread the paper and think you will find it really interesting and will hopefully focus the minds of your clinical team! Jx

[Bling132 in reply to sally70]

I too have tooth pain. Would it be possible to have the paper too?

[sally70 in reply to Bling132]

I hope yu don't mind but the paper was sent to me by Janey-H so I would just like to ask her first. She is a very kind lady and I know she wont mind but I would just like to check.

[sally70 in reply to sally70]

I haven't heard from Janey-H as yet but if you could send me your e mail address then we would be ready to go ahead. Unlike me I expect you know how to do this but just in case if you click on my name, it should then take you through to the option to message direct. Unfortunately the paper wont come through on this site. Thanks Sally

[sally70 in reply to Bling132]

I haven't heard from Janey-H as yet but if you could send me your e mail address then we would be ready to go ahead. Unlike me I expect you know how to do this but just in case if you click on my name, it should then take you through to the option to message direct. Unfortunately the paper wont come through on this site. Thanks Sally70

[Janey_H in reply to sally70]

Sorry both - I have only just seen this on the thread. I did get your email and replied straight away to say I didn’t mind you sharing it all. Maybe the gremlins got in the way somewhere!! I hope Bling132 finds it helpful as well.

Best wishes to you both xx

[Janey_H in reply to sally70]

Just double checked and it looks like my reply went to you (email) on 22nd April. Anyway glad you went ahead and sent it 😊 xx