Ho, Ho, Ho - OUCH

Week of Dec. 21 - Tuesday addendum:

You probably know this already but just in case you didn't: cancer, and all that it entails, doesn't take breaks over the holidays - what's with THAT?!

Today, Tuesday afternoon, it was back to Dr. Ha, the oral/maxillofacial surgeon. We met him at his Edina office (he has a couple - all over the city). Based on the very prelim "map" Dr. H faxed to him last week (location for the radiation; it is going to potentially overlap with Matt's right jawbone) Dr. Ha is recommending Matt's right side upper and lower wisdom teeth be removed by surgery prior to radiation. This due to the long-term effects of radiation to your bones (jaw) and teeth in terms of their ability to heal, blood flow, infection-defense, etc. If Matt doesn't deal with this now and something goes bad down the road, it will be twice as worse and twice as hard to deal with successfully. So we say, okay - count us IN.

Given Matt's age, and given the extent of the "impactness" of the teeth we gather this will be again, not a very pleasant surgery - it is significantly tougher then getting wisdom teeth out in your teens. I was reading a little bit about it and evidently the roots grow that much deeper with age, and the jaw bone is that much denser, making this a bigger deal at 48. As Dr. Ha pleasantly warns Matt, "this is going to be able the same as getting the tonsil's out." Oh goody.

In addition, yet again, Matt is "special": the wisdom teeth are close to both Matt's sinus/nasal cavity (you should see the x-rays - they are cool) as well as his jaw bone. Given both plus the desire to move to radiation (which is just plan old permanently hard on teeth and bone) soon, he wants to treat Matt's mouth carefully. He is actually going to consult with a colleague to see if he (the colleague) has any additional recommendations. Much of it comes down to being very, very careful with the jaw. Also, he said, the reality of it is he will know more when he does the surgery and can see what's what with the teeth and the jaw.

To top this off, given Dr. H's desire to start radiation in mid-January and the need to let the mouth heal - yet again! - for at least 3 to 4 weeks (during which time he has to be particularly careful not to stress his jaw bone and as such has to nibble only, once he can handle more solid foods), Matt-a-rooney has to get this done as soon as possible. We made an appointment for the Monday right after Christmas, Monday, Dec. 28.

So, just when Matt was thinking he would be getting a break for a couple weeks, AND was going to be able to eat anything he wants before radiation, this tooth surgery has to happen! Is that fair?! NO! Gosh DARN it! Get those Christmas buffets ready McFarland's - Matt is MOVIN' IN.

So, more - yet again - then you all want to know, but what can we say, sharing out helps us on many fronts. Thanks to everyone again for your notes, emails and prayers.

We look forward to enjoying Christmas with family and friends (and a good old-fashion, MN snowstorm too? The kids are supposed to fly to Florida with Lisa Christmas Day morning - yikes) and a "date night" (a movie and a fab dinner out) on Saturday - then we'll get back to all this cancer crap.

Our best wishes to you all....
Cathy with and for Matt