Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Here's to the Last

Tomorrow, April 24th is a pretty important day. Firstly, it's Nala Hall's birthday (happy birthday!). Secondly, it's a pretty substantial day in my road to recovery.

(This might be old news to some of you, so brace yourselves)

In December 2012, 16 months ago, I underwent a tremendous surgery after receiving news that my cancer had come back. This time, it was in my jaw. Using my fibula, they replaced half of my lower jaw. Yeah. It's a medical miracle all in itself. Crazy, right? Because they replaced the jaw, all but four of my lower teeth were removed. And I've been without them for the last 16 months.

It's not as hard as you might think. It is hard, but I'm so used to eating on my left side and talking that some people don't even know I have teeth missing, another miracle all in itself.
As time has gone on, we have talked with doctors about dental implants, because who wants to be without almost half of all their teeth for the rest of their lives? Certainly not me.

We've been blessed beyond compare with having access to such an awesome facility like the Huntsman Cancer Institute so close. We found a doctor in Salt Lake as well who specializes in dental implants and dental reconstruction. Last summer, we went to him for a consult. Throughout the process, I was bumped down to three bottom teeth left. Here's the just of how it all went down:

August 2014: First procedure to drill the bases into my bone. These are what the implants screw into.

December: Cut down tissue.

January 2014: Cut down tissue again, put in the caps so the tissue will heal around it (if you have looked in my mouth recently and seen all the metal pieces, this is what those are).

Feb/March-ish: Fitted and impressions of my teeth and bite made for the "bridge", the base that the teeth are put on.

March: Two weeks later, the bridge had come back from being made. We tried it in. It fit. After this appointment they started work on putting the actual teeth on.

Which brings us to tomorrow. The implant is ready to go. And I am so SERIOUSLY freaking excited. Basically, it's like Christmas.



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As per tradition, we have sort of a "last supper", so to speak, the night before a surgery or procedure. It's been places like Red Robin, In-N-Out, whatever sounds good. Tonight's plan, Red Robin.

The best thing about tonight's "last supper" is that it's the LAST one. No more surgeries or procedures planned for my neck or teeth (knock on wood).

It's amazing finally being at the end of the tunnel of this trial (once again, knocking on wood here). I have seen a lot of answers to questions I've had. I'm a completely different person from even 6 months ago. I see in myself true happiness. I am finally, finally at peace with how things have played out the last few years and why I'm in the place I'm at. I love the end of the tunnel.

So here's to the last. 
Keep running.



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