Second Debridement Done...You Know What is Coming Now

The second debridement was done yesterday (10/25) and it looks like it was a good decision.  The doctor poked around and found two "large" (no exact size given) chunks of dead and detached bone tissue.  (Why does it sound less gross when you say 'tissue'?).  He also cut out a small piece of healthy bone tissue that was left in the first time to help promote healing.  That strategy obviously didn't help any, but it made sense at the time.

I came out of the procedure in a lot of pain--most of it from the insertion of a breathing tube down my throat as a safety measure.  After being given a percocet pill that hardly lowered the pain at all, I came home and went to my old stand-by friend the Roxicet bottle to get some relief.  That worked very well--too well in fact.  If that's what I'll need to manage the pain, I'll also need to be very careful about how long I stay on it so I can try to avoid the terrible detox I went through after Debridement #1. As bad as it was,  I was lucky to go through that in warm weather at the beach in Florida while on vacation.  I don't even want to think about going through that in chilly fall weather, at home, while trying to keep up some kind of work schedule.  And, we got the kitchen knives sharpened recently, so I definitely don't want to get sideways with Terry from a prolonged detox period.

So, once again it's more wait and see.  It should take 4-6 weeks for a healing trend to appear and stabilize, and another 2-3 months for a significant amount of healing to occur (if it's going to happen).  It's way too early to know anything, and this is going to take a while, so please send along more Good Vibes from time to time.  I'll send updates when I think they are necessary.

Speaking of Good Vibes of a different kind, let me say "Thanks" for all the great 60th birthday cards many of you sent last week.  Almost all of you followed Terry's secret instructions that your cards not be serious, or spare my feelings in the least.  I haven't laughed so hard while getting insulted by friends, family, and total strangers since, well...my 50th birthday. 

Mike

Coming soon, "Debridement, The Sequel"

It looks like my run of good luck was a short one.  First, I learned that I have some swelling in the retina of my right eye, apparently caused by the cataract surgery two months ago.  While it's not causing any pain, it has diminished the vision in that eye which is a bit troublesome.  The plan is to continue the drops in that eye and see a retina specialist in 2-3 weeks.

A bigger problem is that the swelling and pain in my jaw came back and I've had to increase my pain meds a bit.  I saw the oral surgeon yesterday and it was decided to do a second debridement of that area.  A CT scan shows that some small pieces of dead bone have become detached from my jaw and are irritating the nerves in that area--causing the pain and swelling.  The hope was that my body would reject the dead bone tissue, but it's way past the time for that to have happened, so a second surgery is the best option.

So, we are calling Team Mike back into action on October 25 to send Good Vibes for the Debridement Sequel.  This one won't be as extensive as the first one, with no teeth to be extracted, but the Good Vibes are needed to help this thing heal once and for all so I can eat food without every bite hurting.

Mike