"But, of course."
We met today with Dr. Roser, my oral surgeon to get his take on the best plan going forward, based on the news we got from Dr. Davis two weeks ago. Roser confirmed Davis' opinion that there is not enough bone in my chin to allow implants to be placed there, so Plan B it will be. That means I'll get a multi-tooth removable denture for that area, and not the preferred implants.
The first step will be to remove the remaining part of the large torus on the lower right side of my mouth. Ever wonder what those bony protrusions are in some people's mouths? One is a torus, two are tori. When all of this started I had two very large tori in my mouth. Most of the left one got zapped by the radiation, and the rest of it came out during the 2014 surgery. About half of the right one came out during the 2015 surgery.
The remaining part of the right torus must be removed to let the denture fit better. The removal requires a short procedure in an Emory OR, scheduled for August 8. The key from there will be how well and how fast the area heals. I was told "weeks" but nothing more specific than that.
This will be my fourth reservation in an Emory OR since 2014, which should qualify me for some sort of reward program. Maybe one of those little cakes with a candle on it that restaurants give out for free on customers' birthdays. Or, an extra script of Oxycontin--on the house. I like that one better.
Dr. Roser was very disappointed that his original plan could not happen. We have confidence that he made the best decision back in 2014 about how much native bone to take out. What he could not see at that time was how much additional damage had been done by the radiation, causing future ORN next to one end of the grafted bone--leading to last year's radial resection, this year's follow up, and now, Plan B. It's all just SFL to me.
"OK, class, who can tell me what ORN and SFL are? I know we haven't used those terms in a while, so put your thinking hats on real hard."
We did find out that Dr. Roser lives not too far from here, so if we get really pissed about this, we can drive over there and TP his house.
So, August 8th it is to put Plan B in motion. I'll send out a Team Mike reminder for Good Vibes a few days ahead.
mike
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Sunday, July 10, 2016
I had a Hot Run...
...Running the Peachtree!
My last running of the Peachtree 10K Road Race was in near-record heat and humidity for that event. At the start there was a nice breeze and enough shade to make things pretty comfortable for the first 3 miles. Then as the temp rose, the sun came up to take away the shade and the major hills appeared on the course, it got uncomfortable in a hurry. The last quarter-mile of the race is on 10th street, and when we turned onto it we were looking right at the sun, and feeling the sweat and body heat from thousands of other runners bunched up at the finish line. This picture was taken about a hundred yards from the finish.
On the course we saw Abe Lincoln, Batman, all sorts of Uncle Sam costumes, a firefighter in full gear (included air tank), a lot of women (and a few men) in tutus, and several people wearing cool Waffle House race-sponsor shirts. You can't make this shit up.
As is tradition, we got our t-shirts (worse than usual), headed to the car for the "Coldest beers ever" and met up with Terry.
Nice shoes, eh?
So ended my history with the Peachtree, finishing the race (term used loosely for me) 16 times since I moved to ATL in 1994. Jeff has finished 26 times, and this will be his last as well.
The Peachtree got to the top of my Cancer Revenge list in 2009 as I was limited to being a spectator that year following my treatments. So, in 2010 I trained, entered, and had an emotional run with a broad grin on my face the whole time. It became one of many milestones in my life as a cancer survivor. This will be my last because a MRI in 2015 showed that both of my knees are early candidates for replacement, so running is not a good way for me to exercise.
So, how did I train for this year's Peachtree without risking further damage to my knees? Easy--I practiced "minimalist training" by walking some, running very little, and accepting that I would walk a lot of the course and ingest several doses of Ibuprofin along the way. Well, we actually ran more than 5 miles of the course, walking only up the two major hills. Even though we did a lot better than we expected (and trained for), we both have accepted this as our final Peachtree, and I have retired the Livestrong shirt I have worn since the 2010 race.
The Peachtree Road Race is for a very few elite, world-class runners, and the nearly 60,000 others who run it for various reasons. I started running it for the July 4th celebration, the spectacle of it, the camaradarie with my running partners, and of course the "T-shirts and Cold Beers." Since 2010 I've run it as one way to show that cancer and its treatments can be survived, and that there is a lot of life to be lived after the Prairie Dogs have attacked.
Mike
My last running of the Peachtree 10K Road Race was in near-record heat and humidity for that event. At the start there was a nice breeze and enough shade to make things pretty comfortable for the first 3 miles. Then as the temp rose, the sun came up to take away the shade and the major hills appeared on the course, it got uncomfortable in a hurry. The last quarter-mile of the race is on 10th street, and when we turned onto it we were looking right at the sun, and feeling the sweat and body heat from thousands of other runners bunched up at the finish line. This picture was taken about a hundred yards from the finish.
On the course we saw Abe Lincoln, Batman, all sorts of Uncle Sam costumes, a firefighter in full gear (included air tank), a lot of women (and a few men) in tutus, and several people wearing cool Waffle House race-sponsor shirts. You can't make this shit up.
As is tradition, we got our t-shirts (worse than usual), headed to the car for the "Coldest beers ever" and met up with Terry.
So ended my history with the Peachtree, finishing the race (term used loosely for me) 16 times since I moved to ATL in 1994. Jeff has finished 26 times, and this will be his last as well.
The Peachtree got to the top of my Cancer Revenge list in 2009 as I was limited to being a spectator that year following my treatments. So, in 2010 I trained, entered, and had an emotional run with a broad grin on my face the whole time. It became one of many milestones in my life as a cancer survivor. This will be my last because a MRI in 2015 showed that both of my knees are early candidates for replacement, so running is not a good way for me to exercise.
So, how did I train for this year's Peachtree without risking further damage to my knees? Easy--I practiced "minimalist training" by walking some, running very little, and accepting that I would walk a lot of the course and ingest several doses of Ibuprofin along the way. Well, we actually ran more than 5 miles of the course, walking only up the two major hills. Even though we did a lot better than we expected (and trained for), we both have accepted this as our final Peachtree, and I have retired the Livestrong shirt I have worn since the 2010 race.
The Peachtree Road Race is for a very few elite, world-class runners, and the nearly 60,000 others who run it for various reasons. I started running it for the July 4th celebration, the spectacle of it, the camaradarie with my running partners, and of course the "T-shirts and Cold Beers." Since 2010 I've run it as one way to show that cancer and its treatments can be survived, and that there is a lot of life to be lived after the Prairie Dogs have attacked.
Mike
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Lots to Catch Up On
We've had a few bits of news and events lately so will catch up on all of them here, rather than in separate posts.
Hiro
Our Japanese friend had surgery for stomach cancer a week ago. The word we get is that the procedure was successful and that he'll be in the hospital for another week, and then resting at home for two more weeks. He was scheduled to visit ATL in September, but those plans have been postponed. Thanks to Team Mike for any Good Vibes sent his way to get him this far.
Dinner and a Haircut with Jerry
Our ATL friend and hair stylist came over for dinner this past Wednesday--the first time we've seen him since late winter, during one of his many stays in the hospital. He's looking good and has put a few pounds back on--but is still thin. He told us some horror stories about his medical treatments for infections after his initial surgery back in December. At one point he was having to be hooked up to an IV for 20 hours a day for antibiotics and liquid nutrition. That brought back some bad memories of our own.
Jerry lives alone, so he enjoyed our company and having dinner cooked for him. He hasn't been able to cut hair since mid-December, so we worked it out that he cut my hair (badly needed) and he got in a little practice. It was easy to tell that he missed his profession and small talk with clients, and that he's not lost any of his skills from not working since mid-December. "Like riding a bike again" he said--and it showed. My days with Great Clips are now officially over.
He still has some more surgery ahead, to reconnect his colon. After that he should be on the road to a full recovery. It was a nice evening for all of us.
Bad News from Dr. Davis
I had an appointment with the prothodontist this week to discuss options for going forward with dental reconstruction work. The last time I saw him he took a molding of my upper and lower teeth, and from that made a temporary denture to help him line up the implants for Dr. Roser to put in later. Dr. Davis uses this very cool 3-D imaging technology that gives him very clear and accurate pictures of what's going on in my mouth, with great views of the grafted bone in there. He used the new mold to line up my future teeth for implants and superimposed that over the 3-D image--that's when the news turned bad. Dr. Davis needs 4 implants (posts) for the new denture and bridge. Unfortunately only 1 of those spots has enough bone to accommodate implants. The other 3 are over bone grafted from my arm, so the bone is not thick enough for implants.
Dr. Davis laid out three possible Plan Bs that we'll discuss with Dr. Roser soon. One option is to take bone from my hip and graft it in (after removing the previously grafted bone). That would essentially be a repeat of the 2015 procedure, and set me back 12-18 months. A spin off of that option would be to get bone from a donor (read, cadaver) instead of my hip. The upside of that is I'd only have one surgical site to heal. The risk is that my body could reject the alien bone. And, to be honest, I'm not sure I can take another major surgery, or be comfortable having a dead stranger's bone in my body.
Another option is to do some more work on the other side of my mouth to allow the denture more places to be attached to. We're not sure exactly what that would entail.
The third option is to remove all of my remaining lower teeth and put in a full detachable denture.
So, Dr. Davis will talk with Dr. Roser to discuss the specifics of each option, and at some point we'll need to make a decision. Stay tuned.
Bite, me
The only upside to the visit with Dr. Davis is that he doesn't need that mold any more, so I got to go home with it. For the first time in more than 2 years I had a full set of lower teeth in my mouth, and could chew with more than the very back lower teeth on my right side. So, to give the new temporary choppers a test ride, we ordered pizza from Shorty's. They make a very thin-crusted pie, baked in a wood fired oven--one of our favorites. I've had to pass on all pizza for more than two years, and only recently could eat a bit with a fork after cutting it with a knife. After test driving the new teeth with a few cut bites from a fork, I went for a full bite, right from the slice, and voila!, here's the result...
Now, I know it doesn't look like much to you--you do this without giving it so much as a thought--but for me, this is a real breakthrough. Enough that I showed it off to Terry and she took a picture of it. What you can't see in this picture is the huge shit-eating grin on my face (and the slobber coming out of my mouth from over-salivating). This is a small preview of what I can get back to when the dental reconstruction is done--once we can figure out which option will get me there.
Peachtree Road Race Swan Song
I have a "Cancer Revenge" list of things I wanted to get back in my life after the Prairie Dogs took them away in 2009 and beyond. I was able to check off one of those things in 2010--running the Peachtree 10K Road Race on July 4th. I was able to run it in 2011, 2012, and 2013. I had to miss it the last two years due to the surgeries in early summer both times. With this year's surgery being relatively minor, I can run it again--but for the last time. I had a full body MRI early in 2015 that showed both of my knees could be heading towards replacement surgery--especially if I kept doing high-impact exercising. So, having more than enough of surgeries, recoveries, Caribbean Nazi nurses, Fentanyl-induced nightmares, Hotel Emory, and ICUs, I am trying to keep the two knees I got at birth for the rest of my life. My future exercising will be walking, the elliptical machine at the Y, and riding my recumbent bicycle.
But before I hang up my running shoes for good, I am going to walk/run the Peachtree one last time, with Jeff Rupp--who will also make this his swan song. By my count, Jeff and I have done about 15 Peachtree 10Ks together, so it's fitting that we do our last ones together. Neither of us have trained a lot, so we expect to do more walking than running--and maybe even stop for a beer along the way. If it gets too hard (or we're too drunk), we'll just call Uber to take us to the finish line so we can get this year's ugly t-shirt and "the coldest beer ever." Of course, we'll cap our participation the way we've done the last several times we've been able to complete the Peachtree--with a nap.
Have a safe and fun 4th of July.
Mike
Hiro
Our Japanese friend had surgery for stomach cancer a week ago. The word we get is that the procedure was successful and that he'll be in the hospital for another week, and then resting at home for two more weeks. He was scheduled to visit ATL in September, but those plans have been postponed. Thanks to Team Mike for any Good Vibes sent his way to get him this far.
Dinner and a Haircut with Jerry
Our ATL friend and hair stylist came over for dinner this past Wednesday--the first time we've seen him since late winter, during one of his many stays in the hospital. He's looking good and has put a few pounds back on--but is still thin. He told us some horror stories about his medical treatments for infections after his initial surgery back in December. At one point he was having to be hooked up to an IV for 20 hours a day for antibiotics and liquid nutrition. That brought back some bad memories of our own.
Jerry lives alone, so he enjoyed our company and having dinner cooked for him. He hasn't been able to cut hair since mid-December, so we worked it out that he cut my hair (badly needed) and he got in a little practice. It was easy to tell that he missed his profession and small talk with clients, and that he's not lost any of his skills from not working since mid-December. "Like riding a bike again" he said--and it showed. My days with Great Clips are now officially over.
He still has some more surgery ahead, to reconnect his colon. After that he should be on the road to a full recovery. It was a nice evening for all of us.
Bad News from Dr. Davis
I had an appointment with the prothodontist this week to discuss options for going forward with dental reconstruction work. The last time I saw him he took a molding of my upper and lower teeth, and from that made a temporary denture to help him line up the implants for Dr. Roser to put in later. Dr. Davis uses this very cool 3-D imaging technology that gives him very clear and accurate pictures of what's going on in my mouth, with great views of the grafted bone in there. He used the new mold to line up my future teeth for implants and superimposed that over the 3-D image--that's when the news turned bad. Dr. Davis needs 4 implants (posts) for the new denture and bridge. Unfortunately only 1 of those spots has enough bone to accommodate implants. The other 3 are over bone grafted from my arm, so the bone is not thick enough for implants.
Dr. Davis laid out three possible Plan Bs that we'll discuss with Dr. Roser soon. One option is to take bone from my hip and graft it in (after removing the previously grafted bone). That would essentially be a repeat of the 2015 procedure, and set me back 12-18 months. A spin off of that option would be to get bone from a donor (read, cadaver) instead of my hip. The upside of that is I'd only have one surgical site to heal. The risk is that my body could reject the alien bone. And, to be honest, I'm not sure I can take another major surgery, or be comfortable having a dead stranger's bone in my body.
Another option is to do some more work on the other side of my mouth to allow the denture more places to be attached to. We're not sure exactly what that would entail.
The third option is to remove all of my remaining lower teeth and put in a full detachable denture.
So, Dr. Davis will talk with Dr. Roser to discuss the specifics of each option, and at some point we'll need to make a decision. Stay tuned.
Bite, me
The only upside to the visit with Dr. Davis is that he doesn't need that mold any more, so I got to go home with it. For the first time in more than 2 years I had a full set of lower teeth in my mouth, and could chew with more than the very back lower teeth on my right side. So, to give the new temporary choppers a test ride, we ordered pizza from Shorty's. They make a very thin-crusted pie, baked in a wood fired oven--one of our favorites. I've had to pass on all pizza for more than two years, and only recently could eat a bit with a fork after cutting it with a knife. After test driving the new teeth with a few cut bites from a fork, I went for a full bite, right from the slice, and voila!, here's the result...
Peachtree Road Race Swan Song
I have a "Cancer Revenge" list of things I wanted to get back in my life after the Prairie Dogs took them away in 2009 and beyond. I was able to check off one of those things in 2010--running the Peachtree 10K Road Race on July 4th. I was able to run it in 2011, 2012, and 2013. I had to miss it the last two years due to the surgeries in early summer both times. With this year's surgery being relatively minor, I can run it again--but for the last time. I had a full body MRI early in 2015 that showed both of my knees could be heading towards replacement surgery--especially if I kept doing high-impact exercising. So, having more than enough of surgeries, recoveries, Caribbean Nazi nurses, Fentanyl-induced nightmares, Hotel Emory, and ICUs, I am trying to keep the two knees I got at birth for the rest of my life. My future exercising will be walking, the elliptical machine at the Y, and riding my recumbent bicycle.
But before I hang up my running shoes for good, I am going to walk/run the Peachtree one last time, with Jeff Rupp--who will also make this his swan song. By my count, Jeff and I have done about 15 Peachtree 10Ks together, so it's fitting that we do our last ones together. Neither of us have trained a lot, so we expect to do more walking than running--and maybe even stop for a beer along the way. If it gets too hard (or we're too drunk), we'll just call Uber to take us to the finish line so we can get this year's ugly t-shirt and "the coldest beer ever." Of course, we'll cap our participation the way we've done the last several times we've been able to complete the Peachtree--with a nap.
Have a safe and fun 4th of July.
Mike
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)