Pain....

Well I think I finally managed that full yawn a couple of times this week. But in the process I have hurt myself so not sure if I quite got the the crack point before it hurt
The muscles at the back of my jaw are now quite tender and a bit stiff, also inside my mouth there is a lot of tenderness and some pain, if I am eating/sneezing or otherwise causing my cheeks to puff...It may be a sign of something worrying but I think its just the muscles reacting to their 1st full stretch in over a year.

I also have noticed a bit more sideways movement of my jaw while mouth is open wide, though not without some discomfort at the extremes, but again...its been a while and those muscles and tendons need a bit of easing in.

I have an appointment next week with the dental staff so will get them to have a proper look when I am staring up their noses, just to make sure.

In the meantime I have a cold and am again finding the numbness at the back of my throat to be a problem as snot drains away at the back but I don't always get the message to swallow..cue occasional coughing fits as I breath rather than swallow.

I have decided not to continue with my physio, mainly becuase of the disruption it causes trying to juggle appointments and work. Also I think we ran out of major benefits some time back. Its pleasent enough and after a few weeks there is a buildup of stiffness but I want to try to sort that myself. I bought a small non sexual vibrator, designed to ease away worry and laughter lines according to the bumph..I'm using that to stimulate the swollen and tight scar areas of my surgical site.

Anyway...better try and get some sleep, colds and coughing fits don't make for easy sleeping but I am now quite tired.

Implants ahoy!

A month since my last post, shows how little has been happening I guess. My dry mouth in the mornings thing, has not really gone away, and the physio has been on her hols so I've not been subjected to any sadistic face massages for while.

But I did have a procedure yesterday to put an implant in my upper right side to replace a tooth I lost a few years ago due to a dentist mistake, once in place this will aid chewing on my good side.

Implant procedure was strange...a small surgical procedure carried out under a local, but I was all covered up, and had my eyes shieleded under surgical wraps so I could not really see what was going on. No pain at all in the area, though there was a definite thump from something at the back of my throat, I suspect something slipped and fell into my mouth which caused a shock reaction but no one explained what had happened.

Rather a rough tough process too, more like being in a mechanics workship than a dental surgery, lots of cranking of small mouth pinned tools some banging, lots of shoving and worst of all drilling.

Now when I say drilling I don't mean whimpy little bzzzzz bzzz dentist drills, nope, nosirreebob, I mean really bone boring BRRRR BRRRR heavy drills that go up through the jaw area. Several times until the correct size of hole was made.

I was then asked to blow down my nose while it was pinched by the surgeon and amazingly I was breathing through the hole...so I assume the hole goes up into my sinus area...I have no idea if its supposed to or not, but it was a very odd sensation blowing air out of my tooth gap.
Then the rod goes in, more cranking and twisting and shoving, after which a couple of stiches to close up the gum.

Totally painless, aside from the unexplained impact in my throat.
I now have a small metal rod in my jaw which will poke out a little once the swelling goes down. Then in 6 weeks I get a crown fitted to that and I have a new toth.

Once the local wore off it was a little painful, fortunately I was having drinks with my mate Martin then Bina joined me for a meal in town and I happily stayed tipsy the rest of the day, with help from some mild painkillers, I felt nothing.
I had some morphine left from the RT and was ready to use that if needed but it was fine.

Today, the day after my mouth is a bit tender and I need to be careful eating but its not too bad...more alcohol :D

I also had to go see the hospital dentist to book appoinments for the crown, and got a very stern telling off, in Dutch from the receptionist...quite bizzare really, last week I got a phone call from the hospital telling me I had missed an appoinment, and gave me another time (today actually) to come in. But it turned out due to language issues, they were telling me to come in right away and then ....something, something. My dutch is still quite poor.

With help from someone who could translate it seems I had a series of appoinments lined up to sort out the plate on my bad side...trouble is I never actually received notice of these appointments so of course missed the 1st and possibly second one, hence the irate call, and the even more irate receptionist.

I tried to explain that I had not been given notice of these appointments, much buck passing then took place about it and it became apparent they were not willing to accept I had not recieved the appointments.
I gave up...until the dentist himself came out and tried to give me a telling off for missing appointments and wasting his time...That was the last straw, I forcefully...well with numb lips, as forcefully as I could, told him I never got the appointments, so can't be held responsible for missing them...only to again hear the receptionist get annoyed because they had called me to remind me....cross puposes again..

The basic issue is that I never got the appoinment card, so ......everything after was basic miscommunication, and indeed I have no appointment today after all so I have no idea what the hell was going on.

Anyway, I now have 6 fresh new appoinments, on a card...which I will happily keep.
Lets just hope thats the end of that particularl hassle and the dentist does not take it out on me by forgetting to give me a full dose of local when he's messing about with my teeth.

1 down 4 to go.

1 year since the op.

It really does seem like a lot longer to me when I think back, but no its a year...I have 4 more to go before I get an all clear and a few minor procedures to fix things ahead of me.

I suppose now's a good time for an update?

Mouth opening has improved considerably, yawning is gettign wider and wider. I still have some swelling under my jaw that is a little tender at times, but overall not bad. A few more months of physio then I think I'll knock that on the head.

Still can't eat hot spicey or strong mint flavours but pretty much anything else is ok.
Right side of my bottom lip is still paralysed though I have feeling, generally though aside from a lop sided crooked smile, occasionally slurred speech and a few random spits on people, its not causing too any issues.
Right edge of my tongue is also a little numb most of the time but its quite usable :D My sense of taste is quite normal.

My beard has not come back following its loss due to the radiation, I think thats probably going to be permenant. :(

Some tightness of the scar from time to time but thats not so bad.

Overall..1 year on, I'm pretty much fully recovered from the surgery and its other effects. Getting on with life and still moving forward.

Roll on the next 4 years.

all good

After my quick check up with Dr van Gemert, it seems my glands are working fine, producing saliva and may just be a bit irritated by oedema or something, nothing to worry about, I need to chew gum and eat more citrus to stimulate the saliva glands a bit more.

Paranoia after all, but well founded, he agreed that if anything changes its best to get checked out before it escalates..

Paranoia is good sometimes

I've noticed something different, not being the hypochondriac type I tend not to get too worried about my body doing odd things or bits falling off or not working, I am getting on a bit after all.

But anything mouth related needs to be checked out ASAP. The last couple of weeks I've been waking up with an incredibly dry mouth, it now seems that I am not producing much saliva on my right side, and also a slightly odd taste is developing there...I also have become more numb at the back of my throat on that side causing me to lose my naturual swallow reflex when mucus drains from my nose into my throat...(technical eh!) This has caused me to have some slight coughing fits that are becomeing more regular.

No idea what this is, but its not right so have made a request for an appointment with Drs van Gemert and will get it checked out.

I'll update after I've spoken to the doctor.

1 year

I missed an anniversary yesterday, surprising considering how there are 2 dates imprinted on my brain. April 6th and April 27th.

April 6 2010 is when I was told I had cancer...it was quite a rollercoaster day, I had already suspected because of the questions the Dentist and Doctor had asked (are you losing weight, feeling ok, tiredness, etc) but to actually hear the doctor say "malignant" it was both a shock and relief. I'd spent a whole weekend stressing about things which accounts for the relief, but the shock was more understandable.

1 year on...I seem to be well, touch wood, still having treatment of various kinds, lots of follow ups of course and soon to have some dental work that I am not going to enjoy and every day the yawn is getting closer and closer.

Yup, cancer sure makes life interesting. I can't believe I actually forgot..I guess thats a good thing.

April 27 2010 is the date of my op...strangely that seems so long ago now, much longer than a year but it does mean I'm 1/5th of the way towards my all clear. Maybe I'll have a small celebration of that anniversary!

April Fool

Well not quite, but todays appointment didn't have a lot of content to it. A Check up and arrangments to have my implant done in May. Otherwise all seems fine. I need to get a slight tickle in my throat checked out if its still there when the time comes to jam lumps of metal in my jaw but other than that, very uneventful.