Re: lefort cancelled

[Guest guest]

Oh, Jee-zuz, !

I am sorry if that's offensive to anyone, but what isn't

telling you is how much she's already been through... Jaw surgery,

joint surgery, bone distraction twice, something on the order of --

what is it, nine years in braces, much of that on a soft-chew diet.

Six or seven -- or is it more, now? -- operations for a variety of

ills.

She is just an incredible example for all of us of a person who has

quite literally been through the mill, worked with her docs (been

mistreated as a child by her ortho, who said that her jaw wasn't

locking, but that she was faking, to keep him from doing the work!) -

- all in good humor and good spirits, with the support of a loving

family.

And now this.

I was counting the days until May 11 for you, hoping that finally

this stuff was coming to an end for you -- and a happy end, at that.

I am soooo sorry.

But I can certainly understand the relief. I suppose it's better to

have this happen now than after the next surgery. But it's a hard

pill to swallow, when I know you've tried so hard. I suppose this

sort of sorts out the priorities for you about when to get cracking

on the next baby, though.

Best to you, through it all. And thanks for your unending good humor.

Cammie

> Hi everyone,

> I haven't been here in a while. I've been working a lot of extra

> shifts to make up for the time I was supposed to have off post-op.

I

> was scheduled for upper jaw surgery (surgery #6) on May 11 to

> correct the open bite that remained after my TMJ joint

> reconstruction. Well, I started having increased pain in my joints

> about a month ago which I tried to tell myself was stress about

the

> upcoming surgery and work. Then last week, my bite started to open

> up even more. Within days, my open bite went from 5 mm to 7 mm and

> is getting bigger every day.

>

> Last Tuesday, I went for my pre-op appointment and my surgeon took

> one look at my bite and cancelled the surgery. X-rays confirmed my

> worst fears. All the new bone that had been created using

> distraction to reconstruct the condyles is gone. The arthritis has

> come back and is causing the bone in my lower jaw to rapidly

> deteriorate. There's no other option now but artificial joints. I

> knew I would probably need them eventually but we all thought that

> would be years from now.

>

> It came as a big shock for me at first. Now, I'm kind of relieved

> because there won't be any bone left to disintegrate. Artificial

> joints only last 5-15 years but even 5 years without jaw surgery

> sounds good to me at this point.

>

> My surgeon is putting a rush order on the custom made joints so we

> can do this as soon as possible. We're trying for a surgery date

in

> early June. After a year of being able to eat a soft diet, it's

back

> to a liquid/non-chew diet for me.

>