July 8 I bit down on my temporary resin bottom plate with my one remaining top tooth and broke it for the third time – in my sleep. Only one person can work on my tricky mouth and he was away for three weeks. I tried to use orthodontic wax to stop the edge injuring my inner lip but had to settle for a strip of rolled up paper towel. It was uncomfortable and I longed to have it fixed.
30 July – saw the prosthodontist and plate came out and would be fixed but the surgeon who was seeing me the next day wanted it to stay out so he could take a biopsy. I was sad not to have the bottom plate put back in because when it was intact, it did a good job of keeping my paralysed lip out. It was only going to be one week and over that time I was back to the implants being covered with healing abutments, one of which is annoying the place where the surgeon took a biopsy the next day.
The biopsy was clear! Most of the other redness the surgeon was worried about could be because of thrush, I was happy! However, when I travelled back to Middlemore this week (leaving ridiculously early as usual) I got part way there only to get the dreaded message on my phone. The appointment had been cancelled late because both the scheduler and the prostho had Covid or RSV. Gulp. The scheduler has been my humorous sanity saver through the more recent stages of my saga. She’s not back yet!
Going back to the long 30 July appointment, I have to admit that a lot of it was exciting. Another temporary plate had been made for my bottom jaw and it felt and looked fab. It was simply a model though to synch the top and bottom teeth. Once both sets had been fitted they were whipped out to be put in place at a later appointment.
The most exciting thing is that the prostho went and got the max fax surgeon who came in and virtually offered me upper implants to anchor a denture. The upper plate being made at the moment is not likely to stay up without a lot of glue. I will be overjoyed to try it but I doubt I would be able to eat with it. A couple of implants to hold it up would be a dream come true although he said there were three conditions 1. The HNC surgeon has to say I’m good to go (that probably depends on more biopsies) 2. I’ll have to consent to bone grafts (don’t ask) 3. I’ll have to have a general anaesthetic – something I hate.
People really annoy me when they say, “Dont wear a mask for my sake” but NOONE understands how hard it is to control your saliva when you have a paralysed lip and hardly any teeth. I have a bag of masks in my pocket and change masks when the first one gets wet or coffee stained.
This year I broke my foot. It took a while to heal and had some downstream effects. I’m glad to have my foot back but not as much as I hate not having teeth.