question: About a month ago, a tooth root abscess flared up on one of my lower molars. This tooth has had multiple root canals over the past 25 years, each time with an infection flaring up during the treatment. The gum area swelled and the pain became quite extreme. I saw my dentist and was put on tylenol with codeine. I had to stay on the pain meds while going through consultations with an endodontist and an oral surgeon. I was put on penicillin during that time and was able to wean myself off the pain meds once the antibiotic kicked in and the swelling went down. I decided on extraction and while waiting for my appointment, I finished the antibiotics and the swelling came back, so I was given another round to make sure I had penicillin on board during the extraction. After the extraction, I went back on the pain meds, then off again a couple of days later. Then I got dry socket and was in extreme pain all over again, and had to go back on the tylenol with codeine, since ibuprofen did little to cut the pain. During all this time, I did my best to stretch out the dose of the pain meds, usually taking no more than 2 in a 24 hr period, and a lot of the time only taking it at night before bedtime. But there were times during this period when I had to take a pill every 6 hours with up to 3 per day. Last Friday, I started feeling like I was getting the flu or some other virus. Saturday night I took my last pill. Since then, I've felt really lousy, my symptoms being nausea, bloating, headache, loss of appetite, fatigue and now loose stool, pale in color. I assumed that being on two rounds of penicillin (I finished the second round on Sunday morning), that this may be a normal reaction to so many meds in my system. I have been taking a pro-biotic daily during the past two weeks. But I'm concerned that I'm not rebounding quickly, as I usually do, especially with all the rest, fluids and good eating I'm doing despite my lack of appetite. Should I be worried that the large amount of pain meds I took - as many as 39 pills over 3-4 weeks - has possibly caused any liver damage? Or am I right in thinking my immune system was stressed during this period and I've probably just contracted the flu or another tenacious virus?