Lord, Jim sure can't do anything easy. So he sees the new maxo-facial surgeon today about his teeth. He's been having some pain and we weren't sure if this was from an abcess or just his jaw healing. To provide some background info here, the doctors at Lahey had told us prior to Jim's surgery that they had planned on cracking his lower jaw open at the front, and then peeling it back to get the tumor out. I never really knew for sure if they had done this because 1) I never asked...I was too into worrying about everything else that was going on and 2) he looked too "put-together" afterwards so it just didn't seem like they had done it. Well, Dr. Eichen took a panoramic x-ray and gave Jim a copy and they most certainly HAD done it. He's got a big plate in his jaw. He also told Jim that they had swung his whole jaw open on the hinge...BACKWARDS...so yeah, it hurts now. The hinge of your jaw is not supposed to move that way. Dr. Eichen said they had done a good job of it...they couldn't have done any better...but that's why he's having pain. Here's a picture of Jim's jaw. You can see the plate. It looks like a chain.
But Dr. Eichen won't touch him. He said no one will since Jim's had both his carotids tied off. He has to have his teeth pulled in a teaching hospital setting so they can have a vascular surgery team on hand if needed. Dr. Eichen said that it's unlikely that anything would go wrong (oh, where have I heard THAT before) but you don't want to fool around with something like this. He had a name for me at University of Pennsylvania so we'll try there. The doctor was pretty slick. He told me to not mention that Jim needs his teeth pulled. Just tell them that he has TMJ, it needs to be fixed, fax them a copy of the X-ray and get in THAT way. They'll see he needs the teeth pulled once we get in for the appointment.
Jim's also having a swallowing study done this Tuesday. If he passes for at least liquids then he can get the PEG tube removed amd live off his Boost shakes for awhile while he continues his therapy. Now I have to find a gastroenterologist here that will do it.
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