To ask in desperation if there are any doctors/French people awake

[Uzes]

I’m in Nimes in the south of France and in absolute agony.

A couple of weeks before going away my GP confirmed that I have a large (about the size of a grain of rice) sublingual salivary stone (sialolith) At the time it was only causing a bit of pain on and off so he suggested eating lemon every day to see if that would dissolve it and come back if not as it would have to be removed.

It’s still there but it’s only from day 1 of the holiday, Monday, that I’ve been in agonising pain with it. We were driving down from Le Havre to the south over the last few days. I initially thought it was toothache as the pain seemed to be coming from a heavily filled tooth and I managed to get an emergency dentist apointment in Nimes a couple of days ago - he took an x ray and said there was nothing wrong with my tooth and no infection. I stupidly didn’t mention the sialolith as it hadn’t hurt like this before and the pain was only in the tooth so it didn’t occur to me that it might not be the tooth.

but the pain is now sometimes from there, but mostly from the location of the stone under my tongue and the back of my throat/all around jaw area. It’s complete agony, worse than the drug-free labour I had (that was not through choice btw, there was no time) and the many gallstone attacks I had before having my gallbladder removed. The dentist prescribed Flanid, an anti inflammatory and Doliprane which I think has paracetamol. I’ve also been taking ibuprofen. Nothing is touching it and I am not sleeping, crying with pain, walking up and down in absolute agony. Its the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.

It’s now early hours of Saturday.

Please can anyone medical//French advise me? I have very little money but credit cards and am willing to pretty much do anything to make this pain stop. I have my EHIC card and holiday insurance.

Do I try to get an emergency doctors appointment? Go to a&e at the nearest hospital? Get a flight home and leave dp and 2 year old ds to drive back and get the ferry home on Monday?

I’m attaching the x ray the dentist took as I’m wondering if the white patch at the bottom might be the stone, not that I guess that makes a difference to anything.

Post labour, I found the most effective pain relief was alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol every 3 hours. I ended up refusing anything stronger as they made me feel like crap and the paracetamol/ibuprofen combo was really effective if taken religiously. I hope you get relief soon!

Hey OP, I'm a dentist. I agree the tooth next to the big filling tooth looks like it has a cavity, also that filling is very big. It's very hard to tell but it looks a little bit to me like there's infection beginning at the tip of the root.

What is the pain like? I wouldnt be surprised if a tooth with a filling that size could start giving you toothache, especially if it feels like it was coming from that tooth. Or the tooth with the cavity could be causing you pain.

It very much depends on the pain you are getting, but I wouldn't rule out tooth causes going on that x-ray.

I can't see anything salivary stonesk on the x-ray, everything looks normal anatomy. I know you were wondering if you could see it

Did you get it sorted, OP?

Hi OP, I agree with BlueCornishPixie on the tooth with the large filling, just didn’t want to speculate too much based on that one X-ray (and at 3.30am) but it could also indeed be the cause. I’ve never seen a sialolith on an x-ray but I must admit I was struggling to see it!

Did you fly to France? Often teeth that are on the brink of playing up will get worse after a flight due to cabin air pressure. Would explain pain on day 1 of holiday!

Doliprane is liquid paracetamol in France ie calpol. Please be careful not to have too much

No alcohol if you are using a lot of paracetamol in any form.

Ring your holiday insurers and ask them to sort it out. That's why you pay them. They should arrange transport to access treatment.

@Uzes how are you today ?

Hi OP, hope you are feeling better, just another warning about being extremely cautious re overuse of paracetamol. I needed admission following an accidental overdose with toothache. It's easy to do and I was taking a regime advised by my dentist!

Hello, thanks for asking and sorry for not updating until now. No medical cause was found for the pain both in France and in England when I got back yesterday. Was given codeine. I’m still in terrible pain. Seeing emergency dentist today at 9:15. Im very scared that no cause and therefore no relief will be found

I’m taking paracetamol 2x500mg no more than x4 in any 24 hours, ibuprofen 400mg no more than x3 every 24 hours and the codeine x 3 every 24 hours

Hi Op I have nothing to contribute here except I hope you find a cause for the terrible pain you are experiencing

Do ice/heat packs help?

Oh you poor thing! Unbelievable that they didn't look until they found the cause. Just survive until your appointment now

Thank you @alfie22

No I’ve tried both and they don’t help unfortunately, nothing seems to.

How much codeine are you taking? I take it for back pain and can take up to 60mg every six hours. It knocks me out but works pretty well for the back pain.

Stones are the absolute pits. Mam had one a few years ago and it took two hospitals and multiple doctors to get her sorted. She was admitted and given morphine by IV so keep pushing.

And thank you @iguanadonna

The doctor I saw yesterday said it wasn’t the stone that’s causing the pain as my glands aren’t swollen

Tooth infection? They're miserable too and it would fit.

I don't think my mam had swollen glands but it took an ENT consultant to diagnose her rather than the GP. If your pain is still really bad I'd look at heading into A&E for another opinion.

Oh good luck OP. Dental pain is so so awful

Have you been give antibiotics? An antibacterial gel or mouthwash? In case the stone has caused an infection?

I would start a new discussion in general health, and post again the picture of your X-rays, and be precise in a long title with something along "do you see a salivary gland stone on this X-rays ? Any guess on what could cause mouth agony?"

Hope your dentist was able to help you out. Was it one of the two teeth we suspected? Hopefully you are out of pain now!

Hello yes she drilled the one with the big filling and put some stuff in, and the pain has gone! Thank goodness! Feel quite traumatised by it all though tbh. I wouldn’t wish pain like that on anyone!

Sorry forgot to name change