Mom update...

amazing what some news does to you...whether good or bad, huh?
of course, i couldn't wait until the afternoon (as we had agreed) to call my mom to see what the doctor had reported... i called her when both of the kids (mine and the one who i was sitting yesterday) went down for a nap, the telephone was in my hand and it was dialing...
home...no answer...
cell...no answer...
it had been nearly 3 hours since her appointment time...of course, my first instinct was to panic...she was at the hospital...they admitted her for immediate testing... then i just stopped myself from being rediculous... my mind was too negative...so i thought, then, they were probably at WaWa getting some coffee... :)
within about 10 minutes, my mom called... they had just left the doctor's office... 3 hours... wow...
she had a cat scan and it was clear (Thank GOD!)...the area where her jaw bone is exposed is due to the root canal, probably...but basically, the doctor told them that she has NO ability to heal due to her treatments. apparently, the radiation she had, which was extremely powerful in its dosage amount, destroys the vessels that carry your blood, esp. to the jaw and the gums. (since her radiation was specific to the head and neck area, this is not surprising) without that blood flow, you don't heal...and the bone and the gums die... that's what's going on right now... BUT, because she's NEVER taken any osteoporosis medications (like Fosomax ?sp?)...she can have treatment...
(by the way, I hope you don't take those calcium meds - like Fosomax - they're showing, now that they can destroy the bone of your jaw, and it's NOT repairable or treatable...just take calcium and vit. D, if you ever need it)
sooo...the treatment is... she has to have 20 hyper baric chamber treatments, which will stimulate the blood flow to her gums/teeth/jaw (and her whole body, for that matter!)... after those 20 treatments, she is going to have surgery, outpatient, but still put under, and the oral surgeon will basically scrape away the dead bone and i guess repair that area (not sure what all that entails) and possibly extract any teeth that need to come out... then, she has 10 more hyper baric treatments to help her heal even more...

sounds like a little adventure...kinda neat, if you ask me... i have heard that hyper baric treatments are EXPENSIVE, but it will be well worth it, no doubt... :) and, now that i'm hearing this, it's "dusting off" the memories of the research that i did 2+ years ago when she was first diagnosed... i seem to remember reading something about hyper baric chambers for patients...

she's doing well, especially now, i think... after she told me everything, she said "just another bump in the road..."
i know she feels a tremendous amount of relief... and, honestly, so do i... :)