The second round of PAOO surgery happened yesterday. I was coming out of the Anesthesia as Dr. Brownfield was finishing up, and since the doses are in 45 minute cycles, I woke up a little quicker than I would if the procedure had lined up with the cycles. This was due to the procedure taking a little longer than anticipated, since some unexpected discoveries were made. It was also not the most pleasant way to wake up from the surgery.
The Resorption has continued and ramped up, evidently. As Dr. B feared when she initially diagnosed it, it has been affecting the bone between the two dead teeth as well as the teeth themselves, and has caused an active infection. She cleaned the infection out as best she could and did a gum graft between the two teeth. She doubled the course of antibiotics for me from 1 to 2 weeks, and the elestics are back on as I type this. Obviously this is a less than ideal development, but it is not a complete surprise. I’m not sure if the resorption had been occurring all along and we just hadn’t seen it until now or it restarted when the damaged teeth got to a certain point in the extrusion process (pulling them down with the elastics).
I spoke with her on the phone this morning and she filled me in on all these developments (I was still out of it enough that any discussion we had right after the surgery is long gone from my memory). I’m going to see her again on Wednesday and going to see Dr. Hall in approximately 2 weeks.
When I asked her how this might impact the rough timeline that we had been working under she inadvertently quoted one of Asia’s hits, answering “Only Time Will Tell”, which didn’t really come as a great surprise to me.
The pain isn’t too bad right now, but I’m pretty tired and punchy. I took some Tylenol 3’s yesterday spaced apart properly and got some sound sleep, but woke at about 3:30 and never really got back to sleep (the fact that the paper was already delivered by then (shocking) was no help - I read the whole thing hoping it would wear me out but to no avail) mainly for fear of dropping into another deep slumber and turning onto my side, thus inviting another black eye. I went to the store and then had some pancakes and eggs at Teotihucan, so I’m going to see if that was enough to knock me out after I finish this and get it posted.
Many thanks to my friend Rebecca for transport to and from the office (Clint is out of town) and for bringing some delicious water ice from Rita’s later in the evening and hanging out for a bit. Sometimes the fact that I’m going through all this with out a constant companion (human - Bolt is always here for me) is the toughest part about it. But, I soldier on, with plenty of friends I know I can count on available and willing here in town and family a phone call away. I just have this stiff necked aversion to calling on them sometimes, thinking that I’d just be an imposition. Every time I voice that sentiment I get admonished for it, but it still persists, from where I have no idea.
More as it develops. Thanks for following the saga this far.
