Tooth and Nail

It’s been a long time since I updated my blog. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to; it’s because it’s terribly difficult to get my son away from the computer. He loves researching things and looking up really old lego instructions and then building what he finds. He will soon be 8 years old. I cannot imagine where the time went.

I spent the last couple of weeks getting the multitude of scans, blood draws etc.. that it takes for Dr. J. to decide if I am finished with this round of chemotherapy or not. The answer was not. However we are getting a lot of good results. Just a few spots that didn’t get taken care of yet around the outside of one of my lungs and some close to the surface of my skin on my chest.

My body is tired of chemo though…my toes are nearly numb. And I am losing some of the toe nails. My big toe’s nail is about completely off. Ouch. Dr. J. advised me to keep holding them on with Band-Aids, which I had been doing, and eventually they would grow. The toes hurt. I can’t stand to even have a sheet cover them at night. And my hands are getting harder to work with, a little numb, but mostly just weak. I have a hard time opening a package of crackers and things like that.

Then about the same time I surprisingly had a tooth fall out. My jaw has been a mystery for a couple of years now. I started to have tooth pain right before I started radiation 2 years ago. I went to a Dentist who did the usual x-rays and turns out I only had a couple very small cavities to fill. I was surprised because I was in a lot of pain, especially in one area on my upper left side. He said I had sensitive teeth and was grinding them at night, and that was the source of the pain. True; I do have sensitive teeth and I tend to grit my teeth during the night.

I also was on a drug that has a rare but devastating side effect of causing the jaw bone to fall to pieces. Fearing that possibility Dr. J. eliminated that drug right away and I haven’t been on it since. So here it is; two years later and I suddenly have what I thought was a loose cap. Interestingly on the tooth I had the most pain from. Working hard to baby it so it doesn’t fall off before I get to the dentist…my whole tooth came flying out. I’m momentarily stunned; my son is excited because he wants me to put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy.

I look at the tooth and it strangely looks as if it was sawed off at the gum line. And even weirder to me all of my jaw pain disappeared and I felt a huge relief of pressure. I saved the tooth and took it to my next appointment for chemo and showed it to Dr. J. I was fearful that I had a jaw that was about to fall apart. But thankfully no. My jaw is fine. He said it looked to him like I had an abscess and finally it caused the tooth to fall out. Whoa…how does that happen? I have yet to visit the dentist. I find myself reluctant because this is the first time in 2 years I haven’t had jaw pain. I don’t want to mess that up! Lol. Of course I will go eventually.

I’m happy to report that the cortisone shots in my knees are working fabulously. And the generous gift from my sister of the stair chair has helped enormously. Every house should have one. Yes of course we send laundry down on it and believe it or not, one of the cats loves riding it up and down. But the pain it has eliminated every time I had to up and down those stairs makes it indispensable. Thank you Joan. What better present could there be than something that takes away someone’s pain? I’m very grateful