SPC - Imperfections Week 3

Scarred Well, finally trying to get back into the swing of things with SPC. I like this month's theme as it allows those who participate to come out of their comfortable shell and yet, still find art and beauty in the little imperfections and quirks that make us one of a kind. My pic this week is of the scar that I have on my neck. It is the result of two unnecessary surgeries that I had done on a mysterious infection that doctors just couldn't pinpoint. I wont get into the gross details of what this thing was like to live with for 4 years, and believe me it was rather gross. The doctors had no clue as to what it was and the only insight I was able to give at the time was that it appeared when my wisdom teeth started to move in. I had one surgery that seemed successful, the doctor had said though that in order not to damage my facial nerve and paralyze half my face he had to leave a small piece of the tissue near my jaw. Two months later, the infection was back, as gross as ever :( They put me on antibiotics, but it never fully helped. I ended up living with it for a few more years, moved to Tennessee, got married...it never hurt, never was uncomfortable and never affected my overall health so I never really worried about it too much. Eventually, I just got tired of it and went to another doctor who again seemed confident in being able to remove it and get me back to normal (the normal part he didn't fix :) I told him about my wisdom teeth and how that may have triggered it and he had me get my wisdom teeth removed...all 4 at once! Yeah, that was not a pleasant experience. Anyway, the surgery went well, a plastic surgeon was on hand to suture me up and I was on my way. No more than two weeks go by and the infection is back again! By this point I am totally frustrated, so I started to do my own research to figure out what was going on. I spent about 30 min online and found what I thought it may be. I went back with to the doctor and presented him with the information that I found: apparently a tooth can become infected and create a separate infection below it in the neck. The doctor scheduled me an appointment with an oral surgeon they took some x-rays and ended up removing my lower left molar. The infection went away in days and has never returned. All that for a stinkin' tooth! My moral to this story is...it really helps to do your own research, especially if it is something that you aren't getting answers on from the doctors that you see. The doctors i saw were all very nice and are very good at what they do, but I feel that if they may have taken some time to research what was going on I would not have had to go through two totally unnecessary surgeries. Ugh!