It's Been Way Too Long!

Hi Friends!

        I am so very sorry that it has taken me so long between posts!  I know this is way overdue... I am going to do my best to catch up on everything!

I had my first upper jaw oral surgery on March 18th.  They went up into my palate, took out the two impacted adult teeth, and did a bone graft in hopes of my body creating bone where all of my natural bone had disintegrated due to the lack of teeth.  That surgery far surpassed my expectation for the worst possible recovery!  I was pretty beat up and swollen.  The hope was to create enough bone to be able to put two regular implants in the front and then the two zygomatic implants (anchored up in the cheekbone instead of jawbone) in the back.  I went back to the oral surgeon for my second surgical followup Wednesday and, unfortunately, the bone hasn't grown as well as we had hoped.  SO, there is still a little bit of hope that he'll have enough bone to do the regular implants in the front but a higher likelihood of having to do all four zygomatic implants.  However, I have been cleared for the next (and final!) step of oral surgery and that is officially scheduled for July 18th at 8:00am (arrive at 6:00am).  When I asked what this surgery would be in comparison to my last, he quickly answered "much more involved!"...YIKES!  The last surgery recovery was rough and they only had to go into my palate - this time they have to go all the way up to my cheekbone!  My longest oral surgery so far has been around 45 minutes and this one is supposed to take a minimum of 2 hours.  Oh what fun...maybe not!  I am trying to focus on the happy ending and final result!

Specific Prayer Requests:

*Surgery will go smoothly

*Post surgery pain control

*My airway will remain open despite all the swelling

I got my glasses shortly after my oral surgery... as soon as most of the swelling had disappeared.  They took some getting used to, but they have helped so much!

I had my hickman line replaced on April 16th.  When they evaluated my old line prior to the change, the radiologist said that it looked as though there may be the starts of infection in the tract so he was glad they were changing it.  They made a new insertion site and put in a new hickman.  Shortly thereafter, I ended up in the ER with pain and redness at and around the site.  They admitted me for fear that I was getting an infection.  They put me on IV antibiotics and watched me for a few days.  Then the infectious disease doctor came to the conclusion that he did not believe it was infected, took me off all antibiotics, and sent me home.  It wasn't long and I rapidly went downhill, becoming very, very ill with a blood infection.  So, back to the ER I went to be admitted for IV antibiotics.  They had to remove my new hickman line since it was the source of the infection.  Then, since my vascular access is dwindling and I get infections easier, they decided they wanted to wean (ha!) me off my benadryl pump before discharge so they wouldn't have to place another line.  Let's back up...I have been on a continuous benadryl pump for 10 years, all but one of my medications is IV and goes through my hickman, and oral medications are incredibly difficult because I react to the majority of the "extra" ingredients and then they have to be able to be crushed and put through my J tube!  I "agreed" because I know how doctors are if you don't try their ideas.  I did think they were nuts with how fast they wanted to get me off the pump, but I complied. :)  And, sure enough, after dropping my pump by two milligrams, I made it almost 8 hours before all the "fun" started.  After having two major reactions, they decided (against the infectious disease doctor's wishes) to put my pump back up to where it has been for the last 10 years and put in an order to put in another hickman.  I finally got to go home after 13 days.

I introduced Charlie James on my CaringBridge site right after getting him, but I will do so here as well... He is a 5 month old standard poodle.  I got him at 8 weeks old and began obedience and service training with him soon after.  He will, Lord willing, be stepping in as my Medical Alert Service Dog when my precious Ezra loses his health battle.  Ezra is doing very well for the health issues he has and is still plugging along, but it takes a while to train another pup so we are starting early! :)  Charlie has already begun to sense reactions and gets very agitated when something is going on...which is the first step to alerting!  Charlie is brilliant and learns very quickly, but I have had to find his method of learning and chisel away at his stubborn streak! LOL!  Thankfully, as he gets older, he is getting a stronger desire to please.  He is VERY attached to me without any effort on my part.  Usually you have to be the puppy's only source of food, water, and the majority of the attention they get in order to earn that connection, but Charlie has automatically glued himself to me, follows me EVERYWHERE, and screams when I have to leave him.  He is slowly getting a little better with separation as he learns that I do return when I leave him.  This connection is a very good thing though... a service dog needs that bond to their person!

Father's Day was really hard this year not having my sweet Daddy on earth with me.  Oh, how I miss him!  10 months without him feels like an eternity.  There are still many nights that I cry myself to sleep.  There will forever be a void in me until Heaven when I can finally feel his arms embrace me once again.  What a day that will be... this "vapor" feels so very long.

I have been having issues swallowing and had an endoscopy a while back.  That test showed no evidence of Eosinophilic Esophagitis which was a good thing, but was inconclusive of what was causing the issue.  My GI doctor thought it was probably coming from my uncontrolled reflux that I have had for quite some time, but there is a chance that it is caused by Esophageal Dysmotility which is when some of the muscles in your esophagus don't work as they should.  After 5 days of no acid reducing medications (I am on maximum doses of the IV form of these and still have reflux) and only clear liquids all day Monday, I had an esophageal manometry test done on Tuesday and then they placed a pH probe which goes up your nose and down the back of your throat, measures the pH level in your esophagus, and detects reflux.  They left that in for 24 hours and I had horrible reflux before and during this test which is an answered prayer because they should be able to see it in the testing.  If I don't have the Esophageal Dysmotility and they see the reflux on the test then I am a candidate for a new procedure that is very minimally invasive but has been very successful with correcting reflux!  They go in via endoscopy and use a heat laser to create some scar tissue that tightens the lower sphincter in your esophagus and helps it work better naturally instead of the big surgery thats very involved and makes it to where you can't vomit and such.  That surgery wouldn't be an option for me because when a food doesn't drain and gets stuck in my stomach, I end up vomiting.  They said to expect the test results in a week or two.  I will do my best to get y'all the results when I get them.

I think I now have y'all up to date on all the happenings.  I at least tried! ;)  I am officially done with CaringBridge and moved here so I hope I don't lose any of my faithful followers and prayer warriors!  You can freely comment on my posts here and I look forward to reading them all!  It has just come to a point that I can only get CaringBridge to somewhat work on my phone and I've gotten reports of some who can no longer access my updates on there...so here we are.  I really hope this works for y'all!

Allison