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| God bless endodontists |
So, radiation is a blessing and a curse. I believe that radiation treatment has preserved my life this long so that I could find a definitive solution that wasn't available a year ago. But, it hasn't been kind to my teeth. Yesterday I spent several hours with my dear friend Daniel Burr, an amazing endodontist. I don't want to show up in Houston with infections. They tell me that would be grounds to eliminate me from the study. High levels of radiation damages blood vessels. In my case the bone has been damaged as well as my teeth. Yesterday Daniel and I decided to find out just how many teeth might have died due to loss of blood supply. It was an exciting day. I had 8 more root canal treatments yesterday, a new record for my friend to start on one patient. Essentially all of my back teeth on the right hand side but one had died and a few front teeth as well. That brings the count on root canal treatments to ten in the last two weeks. I am so grateful to my friend for taking so much time to take care of me. And to my patients I want to tell you, I'm sorry that drilling is so unpleasant. It rattles, smells bad and is just generally unnerving. I have done this to people for 26 years and I need to be more sympathetic.
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| Slightly used mandible for sale |
On an interesting note, JoLynne has been researching how my jaw might be rebuilt once the cancer is defeated. There are amazing things going on. One of the pioneers is a Dr. Marx from Miami. He is using stem cells and cadaver bone scaffolds to grow new jaws. He grows it in the patients back and them moves it over when it is ready. My friend the oral surgeon just downstairs from me just returned from Chicago listening to him speak. Where do I sign up? I need one of those.
