Ouch and Good Things, Too

I hurt. Do you want to hear about it? Good, I'll tell you.

My cheekbones hurt. My teeth hurt. My palette hurts. I can't use my good prosthesis because my palette is too swollen and it won't fit right now. I have to use my old one which is a piece of plastic that fits on all my upper teeth with a fake one in the front. It's so uncomfortable that I can't eat anything that I have to chew because of the pain it is causing. I can't wait to get home from work so I can take it out. Oy, I'm a mess.

On the other hand, here's the good news: my surgery went as well as we had hoped it would. My surgeon warned me that he may have to remove a small group of nerves right behind the implant because of space constraints - I may or may not have had any feeling there again. Turns out that didn't have to happen. I had to have more bone put in because I produced only a very small amount of bone from my first graft. So, all of my efforts at being a vegetarian for the past 14 years have just been thwarted by the fact that I am now sporting a nice little chunk of cow bone in my upper jaw. I may as well just eat a steak now, huh?

Three or four months from now, when the pretty little titanium screw has fused to my mosaic of borrowed bones (I have cadaver bone in there, too), I will get a beautiful, new crown. After the past year of surgeries, pain and struggles with my front tooth, all because my little red bike hit a pebble on the sidewalk and I toppled face first (over three decades ago!), the worst of this journey is finally over and I will be able to smile again without feeling so self-conscious.

And my dentists will both be able to afford those yachts they've been wanting.