More Waiting

This week, my wife and I visited with two more doctors in this adventure, one an old friend, one a new one.

The old friend was a dentist who built a plate to cover the original surgery area from five years ago where they took out a piece of my left jaw-bone, then a plate that I was to wear to cover the defect between my mouth and my nose. The first plate was only used while the initial healing went on immediately after surgery. The second plate I did try to wear, but as the radiation treatments started shutting down my ability to open my mouth, eventually I could not get the plate in without a struggle, and finally, I had to do about 20 minutes of stretching to get it in, then my mouth would close down locking it in until I did another 20 minutes of stretching to get it out. If I needed it out in a hurry, no way! So, I gave up on the plate. A few years later another of my doctors built another cosmetic plate with the teeth the Tooth Fairy stole, but I ended up not wearing that one either.

The purpose of this visit was to see if he could build another plate to cover the area in my mouth where more work is going to go on. The first time, we just did a normal casting of my teeth, like you would do to be fitted for false teeth, and he was off and running. This time, there is no way to get into my mouth, so we gave him both old plates in the hope he can build something for use in this surgery. It might work out in the end, since my primary surgeon is going to have to force his way into my mouth to do his work, and he thinks I will have a better opening as a result. Still, I am glad I will not be awake while he does that!

The second doctor we visited was the plastic surgeon who gets to rebuild my face after they do all the work (or I get hit by the bus, as my primary doctor like to say - strange sense of humor, these folks have! Just what I like!). This doctor was more interested in my veins in my legs and feet, which seemed strange until he started talking about what he was going to do.

Basically, he gets to wait while the primary surgery goes on and they remove the cancerous tissue. That will involve removing both bone and tissue. Part of the bone will be at the front of my face, the cheek bone right below my eye. Depending on how much bone they take, he might have to "borrow" bone from my arm or leg to build it back up. They will also need to "borrow" skin from somewhere to cover the surgery area, and that is where things get interesting! (I like the phrase "borrow". Do I have to give it back sometime?)

Listening to what he will do left me thinking about the renovation work we are doing on our house in KC. Take off the walls, pull out the plumbing, move things around, and put it all back together. Slap a coat of paint on it and you will never know anything happened. (That last part may well be makeup, boy I look forward to that!) They will pull a chunk of skin, with blood vessels attached and rewire it in a new place. Wow, they are doing amazing things in the medical world. All those soldiers who get wounded in battle can be grateful they know how to do all this! The doctor was so matter-of-fact about the process, my wife and I almost felt like this is something he does every day. Good! He is good at it, and he can do this job, and I just need to live through it!

The clinic where this doctor works specializes in cancer reconstruction work, and (unfortunately) they have a lot of business. My primary doctor trusts him to do his part well, so I trust him as well.

We are now back in a waiting mode. The scheduling looks like all this will happen the week of April 15 (after taxes are paid, naturally! Actually, my accountant wife made me pay those already). That gives me about two weeks to get school in order and figure out what will happen there.

After the surgery, I will be in intensive care for about five days while they make sure the skin graft takes hold properly. They think I will be there another five to ten days doing general recovery until they feel I can leave the hospital. I might need rehabilitation, since I will need a tracheotomy to get an airway in for surgery, and they cannot get that done the normal way since I cannot open my mouth! I will need to practice swallowing again after they pull the tubes out. What a mess!

Oh well, Cheryl and I both feel a little better, knowing this is all pretty routine, and everyone is pretty positive that things will work out in a reasonable way. Only time will really tell.

In the meantime, my support system is in full operational mode. Cheryl takes care of the main email mill, I update my blog and a handle a bit of email as well. I also get on Facebook once in a while to make sure everyone who is praying for us gets updated. Thanks to all of you who care, are praying for us, and who send us your thoughts and best wishes. We are truly blessed by all of you, and trust in God to get us through.

Just waiting for the bus!