by Bonnie O'Sullivan on November 26, 2009
Today is Thanksgiving and the thing I’m most thankful for is that Sandy didn’t need surgery last week after all.
We drove to San Ysidro on the Mexico border on Monday, November 16th, and took the shuttle into Tijuana to see Dr. Villafana on Tuesday, but he thought all she needed was her dentures adjusted (he showed us how completely out of alinement her dentures were after he examined her bite and marked the places where her dentures were not meeting as they should).
He also spent over an hour with us explaining Sandy’s MRI that was taken in September and, on a light box, carefully pointed out all the pictures where her jawbone looks healthy and solid — even at the area where Sandy thought there must be more infection because it was so painful and “soft” to the touch.
Then he spent another hour working on her dentures and made them fit perfectly. He sent us home warning us that it would take at least three days before Sandy’s headaches and body aches would diminish because it takes time for the adjustment to correct the alinement of all the bones connected to the jawbone. (We understood because Sandy had cranial adjustments — back in 2002 when she didn’t have teeth or dentures for nine months because of the amount of surgeries she was having at the time.
It took more than three days (about a week), but now she is feeling much better and feeling very positive about her future.
by Bonnie O'Sullivan on November 16, 2009
Sandy is much better than she was when she came to live with us eight and a half years ago. Even one year ago. But it seems like the closer she is to getting her jawbone free of infection and dead bone, the little bit that’s left is able to let her know it’s there loud and clear.
She has been having pain in her jawbone at tooth sockets 21 through 23 (bottom left of her jawbone near the front) and it radiates up the side of her head across the top of her head and down the back of her head into her neck and down into her torso and breasts. The headaches this causes makes her nauseous (coffee enemas, eating soft foods three times a day, and taking two aspirins a day are all helping her cope).
The sharp, stabbing pains have gone from her breasts since her last oral surgery on September 18th, which was to remove abnormal nerve endings growing out of a bone graft at tooth socket number nine (for which she had to be put to sleep).
However, her breasts are still swollen and they hurt and her back hurts — and the pain is excruciating whenever she does anything that causes her to move her arms like cook. She loves to cook and it infuriates her when she can only bear to stand in the kitchen for a half hour at a time.
So she is going to have another oral surgery on Tuesday, November 18, 2009.
Her doctor who diagnosed her as having osteomyelitis of the jaw (infection of the jawbone) and osteonecrosis of the jaw (death of a section of the jawbone) in 2001 has told her many times that this condition is chronic, hard to treat, difficult to have, and is rarely cured.
But, judging by how healthy her jawbone looks everywhere Dr. Villafana has removed infected and dead bone in the past five years, and that he has not removed any from tooth sockets 21 through 23, we think after this surgery Sandy has a better than good chance to recover completely.
