Tuesday May 1, 2007 9:33 PM

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.

Sunday April 29, 2007 5:38 PM

Jim seems to be back to his normal self...neglecting everything else that needs to get done in favor of putzing with his computer. And every time I ask him to do something I get this...."I can't bring down the laundry, I have a PEG tube! I can't take out the garbage, I have a PEG tube!" Yup. He's back to normal. Thank God for Lexapro. Or not? No, I'm glad he's got his personality back. Why I really don't know.

As for me, thank God I've got a cardiologist appointment next week because this Atenolol is dropping my blood pressure way too low. Yesterday it was 105/50, and that was after two cups of coffee, a decongestant, and a cigarette. It's really embarassing when you keep feeling like you're going to pass out. During Dale Carnegie class on Friday we had to stand up and have a conversation with a partner and after about a minute I really had to sit down. My poor partner ran to find me water. At the break I told the instructor, "Listen...if you ask us to stand up and you see me sitting, I mean no disrespect. I just don't want to keel over." I could stop the beta-blocker but you're really not supposed to stop those things cold turkey. Jim suggested I take one pill every other day instead of every day. I've only got 8 more days to go before I go back to Deborah. I think I'm just going to stick it out until then and let them see me in my low-pressure state and they can figure out to do with my meds situation then. In the meantime I'm smart enough to know when I need to sit down. I'm so exhausted though. It's really a struggle to get out of bed in the morning.