What is osteomyelitis of the jaw?

What does a left shift mean on a cbc? Could this've become osteomyelitis?

• I went to the ER after a Root Canal that became swollen,agonizingly painful and infected, yet untreated by antibiotics due to the fact that I am allergic to most of them, and those I am not, I cannot take orally as they make me have severe stomach cramping, diarrhea with mucus, and projectile vomiting... which has been documented, 2x in the past year alone, being admitted to the hospital due to this...once the vomiting starts I can't stop it for days, and i cannot eat/drink even a sip of water with my meds... in turn, causing me to have seizures due to being unable to keep down/in my seizure meds,and becoming adrenal insufficient due to being unable to keep in/down my prednisone meds, etc... *I have Lupus and 3 valves that regurgitate in my heart, along with seizure disorder, fyi...Right now, I have elevated WBC, high neutrophils, low lymphocytes and high absolute neuts. the doctor I spoke with in the ER said the concerning factor along with this is it is a LEFT shift as opposed to a right shift????... but I know not what that really means??? - He also did a Blood culture, that was neg... ... I was Given IV vancomycin in the er which brought my fever swelling and pain level down for almost 24 hrs,,, Could this have become a possible bone infection(osteomyelitis:? This has been going on for over a month and from what I have read, bone infection does not show up on blood cultures in most instances, only on a CT scan which they refused to do in the ER. I've been in bed literally ever since this began on Dec. 7, no energy, fever, chills, sick to my stomach from the severe, agonizing pain in my face/jaw, and colitis symptoms because of the stress it is causing both physically and mentally ... Anyone with any answers or ideas as to what I may be deaing with its appreciated....

• Answer:

  "Left shift" has to do with the ratio of new immature white blood cells to mature cells. What it means is that when they look at your cells in a graphical layout, they're seeing a large number of new baby cells. Since white blood cells fight infection, the fact that you have a lot of new white blood cells being created means that your body is in the process of fighting an active infection. That result doesn't tell you exactly what kind of infection it is, though. It could be osteomyelitis, or any other type of infection. It sounds like your body is battling a bug! They will just have to keep trying different antibiotics until they find one that kills it and doesn't make you feel too sick.