ermm hi

sorry....ummm nothing to report...still cracking on with life, it'll soon be the 6th year anniversary of my diagnosis...but I won't be doing much to "celebrate"
Still got a bit of pain in my neck, still got the scar, still not got my beard..but life goes on...as it should


;)

oh here's something

I have noticed something.....I was given a prosthesis to wear a few years ago, but I stopped using it as it was basically useless when I wanted to eat... I just decided to do without.

But recently I have noticed the teeth on my upper jaw were moving down...without something to bite on they are slipping down. I dug out my prosthesis and tired it on an sure enough the bite pattern is quite different.

I'm not sure it will actually cause any issue, in fact I'm planning to get at least my back wisdom tooth removed soon since its very hard to clean due to the surgery and seems to be decaying. But it might be something to consider if you are having a prosthesis fitted...its mainly to stop your upper teeth above any jaw surgery from descending. My own prosthesis is unlikely to reverse this damage but I can still wear it, but the issue of not being able to eat with it remains...so I'll let nature take its course.


that's it...nots really much of a news bulletin but I'm in pretty good heath, with no cancer related tales to tell, so I'll fade back into the mist and report anything that might come up in the future.

Not a lot to report still

Hi,
its been a long time, sorry to have neglected you for so long, but there's really very little to tell.

I've had a few visits to the doc for checkups but am stopping them now, I don't see the need any more and my 5 years is pretty much up, so I am going to consider myself clear.

Had a few minor issues with pain in my jaw, which was largely resolved by the fitting and occasional wearing of a dental split to fix my jaw in 1 place when I sleep. That's not nice or especially sexy to wear at night but it does seem to work well, so I use it from time to time.

Longer term things...hmm letsee...well I still have discomfort to the touch on my neck below the back of my jaw and just above the incision site, its never been fully explained but so long as I don't rub too hard its bearable.
I never fully recovered the sense of touch in my cheek/jaw, I can detect touch but its a bit odd and a little intense, and often manifests itself as a tingle in my ear...still freaks me out when shaving.

Nor did I fully recover the movement control of my bottom lip on the right side, so speech and smiles are notably droopy when I talk, but I don't spit at people as much now, and only drool when singing ;)

My beard never grew back on the side the radiotherapy zapped, so that's unlikely to change, I can never grow a full beard again...half...but never full, so its shave every day or so now.

I do from time to time, have problems with my right shoulder and brachial neuralgia, this can be quite intense but there's not a lot that can be done. Doc gave me some stupidly expensive pills to try to ease it but they did little/nothing and over the course of a few months it faded away. I only really just noticed this week that I wasn't in pain any more from this latest bout.

Also from time to time, and usually at the onset of a cold of flu, I get what can best be described as spasms in my throat, when it constricts incredibly tight and painfully, for short periods, its random and not at all pleasant but wasn't something I ever had before the surgery. I must say this is the most unpleasant of the legacies I have, but its not common thankfully.

And that's about it, in April it will be 5 years since the diagnosis, its been a pretty reasonable 5 years since, (not counting the actual 6 months or so of treatment) I have some scars and a noticable chunk of neck tissue missing, a crooked mouth when talking or smiling but otherwise I continue on...

I'll get back to neglecting you for now.

countdown to more work

Check up done, nothing nasty found, but unlucky I still have to have my wisdom tooth removed since it is the cause of my recent discomfort which is apparently muscular. the muscle attaching my jaw is stretching in odd ways sometimes around the tooth and creating pain....

He was going to take it out today, but I have a gig on Saturday where I will be singing some numbers so can't afford to have sore mouth....(phew that was a useful excuse to have in the bag)

It does however have to come out on the 27th June :(
Aside from that all is fine, I also have to see the prosthetics dentist to have something to build up my jaw line again. Not sure what at the moment but I'll go with it. The current prosthetic is slightly uncomfortable to use and totally useless for eating so I don't bother with it now.

So nothing to report for now..will update you in June.

Time for a checkup

I missed my last 6 monthly checkup, I was overworked and ill at the time so didn't need the hassle.

But on what is now the 4 anniversary (yesterday) of my surgery I have to make an appointment to get a check up and one of my last free sessions with the torture queen they call a hygienist.

I have been getting a little discomfort of late around my surgical site so its probably best to have it checked, though I must stress to family and friends reading this, I often get discomfort around the area, mainly from grazing the tissue with hard food, or simply and more often too many yawns which can stretch the tendons at the back and cause some minor swelling. Depending on my mood I can get a bit freaked out..but am not in a down mood so am treating this as a simple irritation.

I have no lumps or bumps, it just feels a little sore, so I will get it checked. I did the on line appointment thing today so I will probably get an appointment in the next week or 2 after the spring holidays here have passed.

There's no other cancer news to relate, happy to say and I will report on findings after the appointment then hopefully fade this blog back into the obscurity it deserves. for at least another 6 months.

Anyone there?

Its been a long time since I updated this hasn't it...which is of course the idea...but I guess anniversaries are important...and I missed it again :D

So 4 years on...I need to book a checkup, I've been a bit lazy about that after missing my last one...no one chased it up and I couldn't really be bothered to hassle but I suppose prudence means I need to sort it.

So how am I?

Still not quite mastered the ancient art of yawning..though  I edge nanometres closer every time..and its stull hurts like hell.

I still have numbness in my neck which sometimes drives me a little mad, its also still tender at 1 or 2 spots under the numbness and I'm always aware of it, pain on scale of 1 -10 about a 1..so not really a problem...I probably need to get a massage again to drain whatever fluids are accumulated there...

My lip never fully recovered, but my speech was not badly affected and I learned to compensate but I do occasionaly fluff the odd song lyric. If my face is cold though it is totally useless and I do lisp then. I do occasionally still bite my lip if I am eating a burger or something but overall its good.
My tongue regained most of its movement and feeling over time, there's still a teeny bit of numbness but no danger of biting it and not noticing.

My radiation burnt beard never grew back, and I need to shave whats left every day or so to avoid strange looks of my half bearded face.

And that's about it...I seem to be in average health for an old fart of 50..a few aches and pains non cancer related.

The Anniversary of the surgery is coming up...I might book a dental appointment for a clean and polish just to remind myself of the pain :D

checkup fine, normal dental services to be resumed

The delayed checkup went fine, nothing to worry about, though we have decided to remove my redundant upper wisdom tooth next time I am in as it tends to make the jaw a little painful when the tendon rubs against it..its also a bugger to get clean as its a bit bent out of shape back there.. He offered to do it there and then, gulp...but I chickened out, a sore mouth was not my plan for this weekend, so I would rather wait till the next visit and psych myself up for it.

An Xray was taken just to see how everything is, all good, no sign of descending teeth, I guess the prothesis which I use from time to time, is keeping all the teeth in place.

Also as its now 3 years, give or take a week, we can reduce the visits to every 5 months now :) And I need to start going back to my normal dentist for routine torture, I mean cleaning and such.

In other news.

I was contacted recently by a campaigner in the US called Cameron von St. James who with his wife actively promotes awareness of mesothelioma, who wanted to post on my blog.. I thought carefully about that, but decided I wanted to maintain this blog as a simple personal experience of what I have been through to act as information to others.

I think it might muddy the waters if other topics were to be posted here, but in the land of the interwebs we should all try to help out and raise awareness so I agreed to post a link to his and his wife's blogs.
You can find them here.

http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/cameron/
http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/heather/