Redirect
I was going to post my long overdue blogs about the Jalometalli fest but instead I get to post this:
This X-ray was taken in March 2008 after I consulted an orthodontic surgeon about treatment of my TMJ disorder. See the dark spot I circled? Read on to learn more...
This Friday, my lower teeth started zotting with mild nerve pain. My uppers do it a lot when my allergies are bad, since several roots protrude into my sinuses and get inflamed along with the sinus cavity. Lowers, however - unusual. I started probing around in that muscle attachment, thinking my masseter might be super tense from TMJ crap, causing inflammation and thus sensitivity. Massage might help.
Then I felt the lump.
I was sitting front row at the MMA Tournament of Champions in Tyngsboro, MA at that time. Pea-sized, hard and immobile, the lump was directly underneath a tooth which has given me problems with sensitivity in the past. It's had a filling at the gumline. Of course, instead of proceeding in an orderly fashion to "tooth abcess" my brain jumps straight to "cancer." Do not collect $200 and do not pass go.
So I'm shitting my britches while guys are kicking the crap out of each other not 30 feet from me. Suddenly, all my teeth on that side felt crowded and the zotting increased in intensity. I could practically feel that lump growing, eating into my teeth, getting bigger and bigger. Images of surgical steel plates replacing jawbone started to flash through my head. Not for the first time in my life, I wished I was ignorant of all things medical, one of those people who can walk around with a lymphoma the side of a VW Bug hanging off their ass and act like there's nothing to it.
Denial is a luxury I have no idea where to buy.
Stuffing my anxiety down, I held off telling Norma until we were about half way back to her house. By that time, I had calmed down enough to start thinking of the lump as an abcess that just needed to stay under control until I got home.
The rest of my weekend was spent feeling spacey and unreal while every 15 minutes or so, the great agitator that is my brain shouted, "HEY YOU'VE GOT A LUMP IN YOUR JAW!" For a while I was afraid to touch it, not wanting to feel the hard realness of it. Eventually I gutted myself up, stuck my finger in my mouth and felt along my gums until I came to the lump. Hard as a rock. My medical knowledge is deep enough that I knew this was no abscess. Abscesses are usually soft and hurt like fuck. I had no pain, just that vague sense of crowded teeth and the occasional neurological zap bolting along my jawline.
Today, I sat down in the dentist's office, got an X-ray and said, "That ain't right." A dark, globular shape lay underneath my tooth, extending out of the X-ray's field. My dentist came in and pretty much said, "My my, I have NO IDEA what that is."
Dark shapes on X-rays are bad.
Two hours later, stupified by my brain's now incessant screaming: "LUMP! LUMP! LUMP!" I sat in the oral surgeon's office, watching a woman play with her black lab in the park across the street. Calm, I said. It's going to be an abscess that's just unusual. The surgeon came in, felt around, commented on the hardness of the growth. I got a panoramic X-ray.
What had been a round shape in March 2008 now looked like a black, three fingered upside down Hamburger Helper glove, extending from the roots of my #19 molar almost all the way to the bottom of my jaw.
FUHHHHHHH...
I think I said something like, "Holy crap, would you look at that!"
A 2cm x 2.5cm odontogenic cyst has eaten away the bone in my jaw and invaded the nerve canal. It is probably benign but there are more horrifying options available. The lab will determine how much pants-soiling will be in my future.
I'll be opened up intraorally from the farthest back part of my jaw to the middle, an incision about 4-5 inches long. Then, the mass will be chiseled off. Whatever is inside it will be removed. Maybe my tooth will make it, maybe not. Then they'll tease any involvement off the nerve. If all goes well, I'll wake up sore as hell but with all my nerve function intact. If something goes wrong, I get a numb lower lip for life.
Cutting and chiseling will be done this Thursday.
FML.
This X-ray was taken in March 2008 after I consulted an orthodontic surgeon about treatment of my TMJ disorder. See the dark spot I circled? Read on to learn more...
This Friday, my lower teeth started zotting with mild nerve pain. My uppers do it a lot when my allergies are bad, since several roots protrude into my sinuses and get inflamed along with the sinus cavity. Lowers, however - unusual. I started probing around in that muscle attachment, thinking my masseter might be super tense from TMJ crap, causing inflammation and thus sensitivity. Massage might help.
Then I felt the lump.
I was sitting front row at the MMA Tournament of Champions in Tyngsboro, MA at that time. Pea-sized, hard and immobile, the lump was directly underneath a tooth which has given me problems with sensitivity in the past. It's had a filling at the gumline. Of course, instead of proceeding in an orderly fashion to "tooth abcess" my brain jumps straight to "cancer." Do not collect $200 and do not pass go.
So I'm shitting my britches while guys are kicking the crap out of each other not 30 feet from me. Suddenly, all my teeth on that side felt crowded and the zotting increased in intensity. I could practically feel that lump growing, eating into my teeth, getting bigger and bigger. Images of surgical steel plates replacing jawbone started to flash through my head. Not for the first time in my life, I wished I was ignorant of all things medical, one of those people who can walk around with a lymphoma the side of a VW Bug hanging off their ass and act like there's nothing to it.
Denial is a luxury I have no idea where to buy.
Stuffing my anxiety down, I held off telling Norma until we were about half way back to her house. By that time, I had calmed down enough to start thinking of the lump as an abcess that just needed to stay under control until I got home.
The rest of my weekend was spent feeling spacey and unreal while every 15 minutes or so, the great agitator that is my brain shouted, "HEY YOU'VE GOT A LUMP IN YOUR JAW!" For a while I was afraid to touch it, not wanting to feel the hard realness of it. Eventually I gutted myself up, stuck my finger in my mouth and felt along my gums until I came to the lump. Hard as a rock. My medical knowledge is deep enough that I knew this was no abscess. Abscesses are usually soft and hurt like fuck. I had no pain, just that vague sense of crowded teeth and the occasional neurological zap bolting along my jawline.
Today, I sat down in the dentist's office, got an X-ray and said, "That ain't right." A dark, globular shape lay underneath my tooth, extending out of the X-ray's field. My dentist came in and pretty much said, "My my, I have NO IDEA what that is."
Dark shapes on X-rays are bad.
Two hours later, stupified by my brain's now incessant screaming: "LUMP! LUMP! LUMP!" I sat in the oral surgeon's office, watching a woman play with her black lab in the park across the street. Calm, I said. It's going to be an abscess that's just unusual. The surgeon came in, felt around, commented on the hardness of the growth. I got a panoramic X-ray.
What had been a round shape in March 2008 now looked like a black, three fingered upside down Hamburger Helper glove, extending from the roots of my #19 molar almost all the way to the bottom of my jaw.
FUHHHHHHH...
I think I said something like, "Holy crap, would you look at that!"
A 2cm x 2.5cm odontogenic cyst has eaten away the bone in my jaw and invaded the nerve canal. It is probably benign but there are more horrifying options available. The lab will determine how much pants-soiling will be in my future.
I'll be opened up intraorally from the farthest back part of my jaw to the middle, an incision about 4-5 inches long. Then, the mass will be chiseled off. Whatever is inside it will be removed. Maybe my tooth will make it, maybe not. Then they'll tease any involvement off the nerve. If all goes well, I'll wake up sore as hell but with all my nerve function intact. If something goes wrong, I get a numb lower lip for life.
Cutting and chiseling will be done this Thursday.
FML.
posted by Skullgal at 3:03 PM
3 Comments:
Ugh! Good luck to you lady! Just keep telling yourself it's going to work out perfectly.
Thanks, Raff! I will definitely do that!
Wow! Best wishes for a successful procedure and speedy recovery!
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