This post will be a very personal story about my experience in the last few weeks during which I had a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic prescribed for a recurring tooth infection. I am not medically qualified to make the connections in my recovery but I was there, I experienced them and witnessed others struggling to recover from various threatening conditions.
My particular tooth problem started two years ago with a poor diagnosis by a careless dentist who was more concerned with congeniality than good dentistry. I changed dentist who dealt with some of the issues more professionally but failed to find the cause of my problem.
It was during my treatment with him that I was prescribed this antibiotic two weeks ago which created the allergic response. Let me say that I have avoided antibiotics for a long time and had no idea that I was allergic to this one.
My mouth and throat reacted with swelling that made swallowing almost impossible. I was unable to eat, drink or talk for 4 days before being admitted to A+E and receiving the treatment I needed, from an excellent NHS. The cause of my recurring tooth problem was an infected left tonsil which they dealt with, somewhat painfully.
The points I have taken away from this experience are in no particular order ;
- We all have a duty of care to those who look to us for instruction.
- The body is a wonderful gift with abundant capacities.
- The body operates sub consciously to protect itself
- The symptoms and compensations are rarely the cause.
- Treat and/or train these for effective prehab, performance and rehab.
- Functional fitness played a big part in my recovery.
I can only conclude that functional fitness played a big part in my recovery, especially when I think about the other patients I saw. That may be anecdotal but it is the truth of what I experienced and makes me even more determined to promote working with the body’s design in my area of work.
Vaughan Ebrahim
LTA accredited Level 4
Gray Institute. CAFS 2013, 3DMAPS 2017, FGS 2023, FT 2023.