EXTRACTS FROM MY ONLINE DIARY LEADING UP TO THE DECISION, MAKING THE DECISION, AND GOING TO BANGKOK TO HAVE IT ALL DONE.
13 October 2006:
So then one of my broken teeth broke even more. Before it was just annoyingly broken - now its
painfully throbbingly broken :( Now its so broken I am too frightened to bit into anything that isnt
mush. I have lived on mash potato and pasta since then. Regular readers will of course be aware of that
little thing called DENTIST PHOBIA that I suffer from. So bad that a general aneasthetic is usually
required just to phone up for an appointment,
and even then I ring and cancel. So you know I aint going near one dont you.
2 December 2006:
A few hours after I got home from the Chris Isaak gig last week I started to get an earache. At first I thought it was from the concert - but that would have been unlikely. As the pain spent the night moving between my eardrum and my jaw - I realised it was more likely connected to a broken tooth :(
So I spent the night mixing concoctions of pain killers and swapping icepacks. It only got worse as the week went on. I seriously thought my eardrum could burst from the pressure.
I gave in this morning and went to the doctors. I got the one that spoke no english so all I could do was point to the various areas that were exploding in agony. She seemed to catch my drift and prescribed me a big shot of penicillian (which I am probably still allergic too but right now I really dont care!) and enough antibiotics to keep me going for the week along with a weeks worth of panadiene forte. The ad for cocaine toothache drops did sound awfully appealing but I couldnt find them in the chemist ! So anyway tonight I might even get some sleep.
29 December 2006:
In the morning I rested up with a joint toothache/earache and mum headed off to the famous Mount Romance spa and sandalwood factory.
5 March 2007:
I know I know - here I am crying about being in friggen agony again because of toothaches.
But seriously this whole toothache thing is outa control. The right side of my face feels like
someone kicked me. Its a full blown jaw and ear ache :(
I wouldnt like to actually count how many panadiene fortes and nurofen plus pills I have
popped in the past 3 days. Lets just accept that its lots. I still wanna know where exactly
I can buy those cocaine toothache drops !
I know I should go to a dentist. I know I sit here in a condition of undescribable agony in
the belief that it will go away. I know I know.
But a phobia is a bloody hard thing to get past. I had a really nasty dental experience at 15 and it left me in a state of complete and utter fear and distrust of dentists.
The last work I had done was under a general anaesthetic in 2001. What I really need is to just get them all pulled out and replaced with unbreakable fakes. I worked out that I have two teeth in my head that are "just fine" - all the rest have problems - big big problems.
I think I need about $35,000 to do what needs to be done :( Thats like the price of a car. Actually its probably more likely the cost of a nice yacht - ie the one the bloody dentist purchases after he finishes rubbing his hands with glee after signing the quote for me.
24 March 2007:
OK so most of you know I am a lifelong athiest but I did have to laugh today
when I discovered there is a patron saint available to pray to during a
toothache ! LOL. Look - this is a pic and a story about her.
Saint Apollonia was born in the third century and lived in Alexandria, Egypt.
Apollonia spent her whole life preaching the word of God. She took a big
risk doing this because Christians were being persecuted during the reign
of Emperor Philip. Even into old age, Apollonia still preached and bravely
risked her life to visit Christians in prison to comfort them. In 249 AD
she was captured and brought before a court.
When the judge asked her name, she replied, "I am a Christian and I love to
serve the true God". People who were trying to force her to give up her faith
then tortured her. All her teeth were smashed with pinchers and then
knocked out. Even this painful ordeal did not shake her faith, when she
was given the choice of rejecting Jesus or being burned alive she jumped into the burning fire
herself. When the pagans saw how heroic she was many were converted to Christianity. A
church was erected in her honour in Rome, it no longer exists but the square where it stood is
still called after her "Piazza Sant' Apollonia". The Catholic Church celebrates Saint Apollonia's
Feast Day on 9th February.
Because of the torture Saint Apollonia endured people frequently pray her when they have a
toothache and hence she has become the patron saint of dentistry. She is generally depicted in
art holding a gold tooth with a pincers.
So while I wont be resorting to prayers just yet (it would be pretty two faced for an athiest to
even consider it) - I think its cute to have a saint of dentistry just in case !
The nasty jaw and ear infection went away after an agonising 10 days, but it has made me
realise I cant put off getting something done. Its 6 years since I was able to bring myself to see
a dentist. So I have found the only clinic in Perth that specialises in Novum Same Day Teeth and
I have emailed them my tale of woe and phobias to see what they can do for me in the way of a
sight unseen quote. So lets see what horrendous dollar amount comes back and then I will think about it.
1 April 2007:
Oh - the quote for the teeth was a mere teeny weeny $140,000. So I guess its either "lets keep a roof over my head" or "lets get new teeth". The roof wins ! Panadiene and nurofen will continue to be my closest friends !
28 April 2007:
Those who read my blog regularly (hmm who are you exactly!!) will know the trials and tribulations of a dental phobia combined with a mouthful of broken teeth that has caused me much angst and much much pain in recent years.
A huge step forward. I have booked a trip to Bangkok, Thailand for the end of May where I will be having all of my wretched broken teeth removed - yes all 29 of them! This will be followed by the implantation of lovely new titanium implants. A pain free new smile is coming my way in less than a month. A life free of over strength pain medication and penecillan to look forward to. A life of fear free eating awaits me. And the phobia - well my theory is that I can be a different person in Bangkok so that person wont have a phobia - and if that fails - they have great aneasthetic.
2 May 2007: Countdown to new teeth has begun.
I cant believe how many emails I got since my last blog that said "what the hell are teeth implants?" So - here is a piccy of what exactly will be done to my upper and lower jaws after the extraction of all of my teeth. Yes its a pretty big deal. !!
In preparation for the surgery I have been taking daily dosages of Caltrate Plus - to boost my calcium levels in my bones to ensure my jaw can handle all this work. I am also taking daily penecillan to ensure I dont arrive with any infections that would hamper the surgerys.
In addition, I am taking a daily combination vitamin that contains Vitamin C, Echinaecea, Zinc, Horseradish and Garlic so I dont catch any of the dreaded office bugs that my building is so constantly full of.
I have also been researching travel insurance. What I have discovered is that - despite "medical holidays" being very popular over the past 3 years or so - no Australian travel insurance companies have started updating their policies to include or even disallow coverage for this type of travel. I have ascertained that being in need of dental surgery is indeed listed as a "Pre Existing Condition" and is therefore not covered - but what I have been trying to find out is - are we covered if something unforseen or unplanned happens AFTER all the surgeries ie a staph infection or something. Obviously there is a far lower risk of a staph infection because we will be nowhere near the Staph capital of the world - Royal Perth Hospital! But still - it pays to be sure.
When I am feeling brave - I may actually put up my before and after photos. That will be a pretty big deal for me because I dont even show my broken teeth to my doctor - let alone my friends!
I forgot to mention below that I will be having travel and surgery companions ! Mum and her partner Malcolm are coming with me and having work done too. Its a family bulk deal ! I dont invisige many day tours or shopping trips personally. I intend to take a lap top computer and a lot of dvds to watch on it.
19 May 2007:
My week was painful. Its like my teeth know they are going to be pulled so they are giving me as much hell as possible in the meantime. I got no sleep because I was up every few hours reheating my wheatbag and popping more penicilan and even more panadiene forte, then of course I felt like shit all day. I ended up staying home in bed all day Tuesday and Thursday.
27 May 2007:
Girls I have just started the whole "what the fuck do I think I am doing" thoughts this weekend. All weekend I have actually been seeking out online stories that feature "bad" stories about implants just to taunt myself.
Its not the going to Bangkok thing - I am fine with that and have perfect confidence in their hygiene and safety and professionalism (way more than I would have in a Perth dental clinic thats for sure !).
Its the "holy shit I am willingly removing 29 teeth".
Its the "what will the new teeth feel like? will they feel right ? will they be the same hieght as my existing ones ? will my tongue rest against them the way it does now ? will it affect the way I bite or taste ? will I have to teach myself to eat again ?" (yeah yeah ok the last one was about where the irrationality of my thoughts reached).
I have tried to preoccupy myself with practicalities. I have been creating little wallet sized laminated cards with conversions from Thai Baht to Aus dollars for all of us, and little mini maps showing the location of the hotel and the hospital, and practical word translations.
What else have I done - rang Thai Airways requesting meals for mine and mums allergies. I had a lady at work write up instructions in Thai script about our allergies and laminated them to keep in our wallets. It would appear I am allergic to every bloody food in that country (one of the reasons it has never been a considered holiday destination for me personally). Seafood products and nut products seem to be their staple diet. I have been warned that even in the Macca's and KFC that I may discover they fry the chips and cook the meat in oils containing peanut.
And now I have discovered that I think my travel agent has fibbed (or just not bothered to find out for sure for me) about my hotel having wireless or broadband access in the rooms. I was going through a last minute style site last night looking for maps of the district and I noticed that some hotels specifically listed wireless or broadband as a facility in the rooms - but when I clicked on my hotel - there was no mention.
Let me tell you - that will shit me ! I bought the laptop with a view to occupying myself in the hotel room because I wont be able to go out wandering the streets after general aneasthetics (they make my blood pressure go wacky and I pass out a lot) - plus I really have no interest in Bangkok as a travel destination - its big, crowded, shopping fixated, and extremely hot and humid.
Re coming home. My doctor here has said he will write me medical certificates for a week or two at a time (so I dont have to come in every few days) depending on my healing processes and I guess I will be pretty swollen and bruised so I wont be wanting to go to work. I have stocked up on tins of soup and noodles in case thats all I can handle and before Mum goes home we will go shopping and get fresh vegies so I can make big soups myself.
THE TRIP TO BANGKOK, THE SURGERY, AND THE RECOVERY.
30 May 2007
So - Karina is in the vile polluted car mad stinking hot and humid Bangkok! Believe me when I say I would never voluntarily come here for a holiday!
I spent 5 hours with the most incredible surgeons today. One is my prosthetic surgeon who is creating my new teeth and one is my surgeon who will do the extractions and imput the implants.
A 5 hour meeting at Bangkok Smile Dental Clinic on Asoke Road with my customer care lady Tak, my implantologist Dr Pimol (He is the head of Implant Surgery for all of Thailand. Apparently they decided before I arrived that my case would be very complex and so they called him in), and my prosthetics surgeon Dr Radjapas.
Much discussion was had about my phobia, my life and my needs, my decisions about my teeth. Xrays and molds were taken. I was shown slideshows of real patients and the surgery was fully explained to me. I was told about the many different types of implants and the pro's and cons of each. They explained the difference between plastic and porcelain teeth. Based on my age and the fact that I could very well live another 40 years, I chose to have porcelain teeth eventually. They explained that porcelain teeth were generally loaded a few months after initial surgery - because after such a lot of extractions it takes time for your gums and jaw to reshape itself and settle into the shape it intends to be.
The plastic bridges are similar to denture material. That allows the implants to intergrate to the bone etc and you eat soft food for 3 or 5 months (considering I have been eating mush for 5 years I can tolerate 5 months !).
They also explained that they cant tell until the surgery whether or not the jaw is strong enough for immediate loading - ie where the bridge of teeth is affixed to the implant screws within days of surgery. I felt that I was given all the necessary information to make my decision and that no surprises would come my way.
I was given the exact quote for the implants, the surgeons, the hospital surgery, etc.
They are not salespeople. We were concerned they would be trying to sell us the most expensive procedures etc etc - you know - cashing in on those rich tourists yada yada. But its totally the opposite. They have explained all the different procedures bit by bit and given the positives and negatives and actually talked me out of the very expensive procedure I had prechosen.
At this stage they believe they can restore my top teeth without extraction and just a single implant. So I will only be having all my bottom teeth removed (I think on saturday) and replaced with implants. I have to make a decision about the types of implants I want and apparently I can return in 6 or 12 months and have them refitted and changed to longer lasting porcelain ones.
Then you can continue on with the plastic ones or come back for porcelain ones.
So - back to the beginning - it was a boring 7 hour flight yesterday - managed to get the last remaining plane that didnt have in seat entertainment and the big screens further down were showing Norbit - oh god! I started watching The Queen on my laptop but the battery ran out!
Got to hotel (Classic Place) after midnight and were given the wrong rooms (smoking rooms that stunk and were tiny- we had paid for big suites). The rooms didnt even have a powerpoint/outlet except for the one the fridge was plugged into! So I didnt sleep from being angry and around 3am I was send nasty sms's to my travel guy! Buy noon we had a lovely suites with extra powerpoints! So the laptop has a home! And it turned out the hotel is split into two buildings - one is the cheepie short term stay smoking 2 star place - and the other building is non smoking posher longer stay suites. So we had been put totally in the wrong one.
So after a long stressful night and morning I had a nap around noon and went walking to find some lunch at 3! Then we went to the dentist at 4 and left there at 9!!!!!
Anyway = its 2am and I havent slept for 3 days so am off to bed and will log on again when I return from my first dental work tomorrow (tho they are giving me loopy drugs so dont expect clever typing!!!!!!!!!!!!).
31 May 2007:
I slept thru breakfast today - I really needed the sleep after 3 days without any. Mum woke me around noon and I had breaky/lunch and went to my appoinment to fix three of my top front teeth. But after an hour it was established the loopy drugs were doing absolutely nothing to me and so it has been decided they will be fixed while I am under the general aneasthetic on the weekend.
So I have been booked into a private hospital about an hour away. I go first on saturday morning for more xrays and a meeting with the aneasthesiologist and my surgeon together and if they are satisfied I can go under - it all goes ahead on Sunday and I stay overnight. They will be doing the extractions and putting the implants in at the same time. Then the next few days are fitting the wax teeth molds for size and then the new prosthetics. Then the healing process begins !
I have stocked up on 2 min noodles and soy sauce and thats what I will be living on after Sunday till who knows when. So - off to get some sleep now - the humidity really wears you down. And really dehydrates you. We bought 6 litres of water for a whopping 40cents !.
2 June 2007:
Updating from sweaty Bangkok.
I caught a taxi to a private hospital called Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital very early this morning. My god I have never seen anything so swish. An avenue lined with trees, interspersed with giant yellow teddy bears, manicured gardens and fountains led me to the main entrance - complete with a doorman ! It made Perth hospitals look like they were built by a third world country.
I made my way to the floor I had written on a note and found my implant surgeon easily. He advised he was just about the go into a surgery and handed me over to some lovely ladies who spent the next 4 hours leading me from floor to floor to have tests (blood, urine, blood pressure, echo cardiogram, chest xrays and more) and speak to my cardiologist and my aneasthesiologist. Both advised they were happy with all my results and forsaw no problems with the general aneasthetic. They advised they definitely wanted me to stay overnight because of my "big body" (so polite - in Aus they just say obese!!!!) and the duration of the surgery so they wanted to be able to monitor me over night after the surgery.
Then I saw my implant surgeon again and he reinvestigated my teeth and jaw xrays. He felt that the teeth on the top jaw that the prosthetic surgeon felt could be fixed with fillings were actually too fragile to work on (my personal opinion too seeing as how they are basically transparent!). I advised there were also 4 more on the top that hurt with hot and cold - he looked at them and said they were already so overfilled (a bad Aus dentist habit) that there was hardly any tooth left to hold a filling together.
He asked if I still wanted to go ahead with my preference of removing all top teeth as well as bottom. I said yes that was my preference. He said he will speak to my prosthetic surgeon in the morning and discuss with him and that may be how we go - I said I was fine with whatever he decided during the surgery.
So then my final meeting was with hospital admin who needed to know what type of room I wanted ! They showed me a list and it was like a hotel. Standard, deluxe, executive, presidential ! LOL - I went for standard. Its a private room & bathroom with a private nurse. In Thai baht it sounded expensive but when I did the conversion it came to about $160aus !
So after 5 hours of admin stuff and tests I was presented with a green credit card sized card with my name in thai and english that I need to present upon check in. I got a taxi back to the hotel. I check back into the hospital tomorrow at 4pm.
So this is it ! Tomorrow I get every tooth in my mouth removed and big bits of titanium screws embedded into my jaw !
Its 2 minute noodles for the next few months after that. Hold breath in for a while then breathe out slowly Karina........................
6 June 2007:
So - me - its been a rough few days indeed. Let me catch up:
Tak from Bangkok Smile drove me to the clinic on Sunday where I prepaid for the actual implants, then she drove me to the hospital and sat with me while we waited for the operating theatre to become available. Around 4pm I was taken to my private room to change into a surgical gown and trousers. I was then put in a wheelchair and taken for more chest xrays, then I was wheeled into the operating theatre.
Basically the op ended up lasting 9 hours and thats pretty rough on any body. All 29 of my teeth were removed, along with with a quarter of my lower jaw which was discovered to be necrotic (ie dead). Six titanium screws were implanted into my upper jaw and four in my lower jaw.
My BP dropped dramatically & I had a fever etc. I threw up about 3 litres of blood. I was connected to no less than 3 different machines and if I wanted to go to the loo they all had to come too - along with the 3 nurses devoted to my every need !
Anyway - while chatting with the prosthetic doctor when he visited me, I was asking him about my surgery as he was one of 4 surgeons in there ! I said I had been looking at the bag of teeth I had been kindly given. I noticed one tooth had pure black roots and I asked if it was from the back bottom right side. He said yes and that what they found below it blew them away. My jaw bone was black the whole way through. He said they cut away almost 2 cm of bone till they found white bone. They sent the black bone to the lab during the surgery just to ensure there was no danger of cancer and apparently no lesions were found.
So that pain I have been describing on my blog thats been ongoing since November - where I said it was like an ear ache and jaw ache and in my sinus and my throat gland etc - and that I asked no less than 4 different doctors if it could possible be a bone infection and was pooh poohed - well HUH! It was ! No wonder I am right that patients have to diagnose themselves.
So I was telling my prosthetic doctor today that since november I had basically been living on daily penicillan and nurofen and panadiene forte. He was stunned. He said that explained why my body totally shut down after they brought me out of the aneasthetic. He feels I will now have 6 months or more of needing to rebuild up my immune system. He was so amazed at the pain I must have been experiencing since November. He said that he personally in 25 years had never seen a tooth pulled to reveal a black jaw bone ! He understood my explanation of how my phobia overrode the desire to see a dentist. I told him about the time I walked around on a broken ankle for 3 months before seeing a doctor and now he thinks I am some kind of pain killing wonder woman!
My surgeon and my cardiologist also came to visit me and explained that because of the problem with my jaw the surgery had taken longer than the 5 hours they had planned for. They had to send samples of the necrotic tissue and bone down to the lab and await results (checking for cancerous cells etc) so they knew how much of my jawbone to continue cutting away.
As with any lengthy surgery there are side effects. My swallowing and tongue muscles had lost a lot of function. I also had a triangle of numbness from my chin to my nose to my left cheek. My surgeon explained that this was due to so much work happeneing near a major nerve. The nerve wasnt damaged - just "bumped" and it would lessen over a few months.
I was generally weak and vomited several litres of blood. The cardiologist felt I should stay in the ICU where I could be observed and be attached to monitors rather than go to my private room. He was not keen to let me check out. He preferred to have me stay another night until my blood pressure had at least moved into triple figures again ! I was weak enough to agree ! They also explained that due to weakness in a section of my top jaw (in the site of an old extraction) I would not be able to have an immediate loading upper bridge. I would need to have an upper denture for several months until the screw had set firmly into the jaw.
Finally released from the ICU yesterday arvo (Tuesday) after I was visited by my surgeon and cardiologist again several times and had chest xrays again. They agreed I could check out after lunch.
Checking out was so simple. A hospital clerk first came to confirm I would be checking out and asked for a survery to be completed about my treatment and service etc, then another clerk came to my bed with a fully itemised bill and a portable efpos machine !!
Obviously I had originally been given a quote for a single night in a private room so I knew the price would be different due to the extra night in the ICU. I had budgeted for any unforseen costs or mishaps when I applied for finance so I was ok financially.
I was given a check out package that included the gift basket from the private room I never got to stay in, The gift basket contained all the lovely goodies you would expect in a 5 star hotel bathroom like shampoo etc but also gels and creams and razor and hairbrush etc etc. And my medications in ziplock bags - each one woth a picture of the drug and clear instructions on how many and how often etc, and extracted teeth were presented in a gift bagwith lovely gold rope handles !
Mum came an hour in a taxi to collect me.
I look so disgusting. Like an old woman. No teeth - bits of metal sticking out. Lips all split from the long procedure. 30 stitches in my gums. Amazingly the inside of my mouth doesnt hurt.
BP is a bit better - just a bit spinny if I stand up too much. Coughing is hard because my chest feels like its been stood on (common feeling after a general from my other experiences).
So yes some pros and cons - but the same thing would have occured in Aus - Only it would be costing me hundreds of thousands by now.
So funny when I was discharged from the ICU - they bought down the gift basket from my private room that I never got to stay in - better than any hotel freebies -
Tak from Bangkok Smile came to the hotel to see how I was. Everyone was very concerned about my recovery after such a big surgery. She gave me a gift basket full of little bottles and explained that it was concentrated chicken extract that I could put in boiling water, to drink for strength.
With a mouth full of screws and 65 stitches, along with a massively swollen tongue, huge swollen cracked lips, and no swallowing muscles - chicken broth was exactly what I needed. I had purchased a big box of two minute noodles before the surgery - thinking that would be what I would live on - but soon found that swallowing noodles was very difficult and left me at risk of choking.
I was later excited to discover the nearby 7/11's sold hundreds of different prepared jelly cups so I purchased a huge supply and filled the hotel room mini fridge. I also discovered that chocolate milk in Thailand comes from Australia but tastes like the milk of our childhoods - before all the goodness was removed! So I pretty much lived on choc milk, chicken broth and jellies for the next few weeks.
7 to 14 June 2007:
I have spent the past few days travelling to and from by taxi to a lab an hour away to try out the wax models of my potential new teeth and have them reshaped etc. I have had a travel companion - a Russian lady who has lived in Sydney for 8 years named Marina - she has had the same work as me done and is extremely shy and very grateful to have "such a brave confident girl to catch taxis with" !!
The fittings have been painful some days because obviously I have gaping open wounds and more than 60 stitches in my mouth - and ordinarily if I was injured and had stiches in my foot - I would not be out trying on new shoes !!!!
Plus my diet of 2 minute noodles and clear soup for 4 days meant that thru lack of nutrition I have developed a bunch of mouth ulcers ! But I discovered that the 7/11s sell ready made fruit jellys so I have been eating them for 2 days and finally have a bit more energy. Tho the aneasthetic is still flowing through my body so I am still having blood pressure problems and getting woosy.
Each day we met up and travelled by taxi across to the other side of the city to Dr Radjapas' lab for our fittings for our temporary plastic teeth. In my case I was getting a plastic lower bridge and a plastic upper denture. The fittings involved molds being taken and wax models created and then fitting the wax models until they were just right. Then the wax models were sent to a lab to be built in plastic. Then I had several days of fittings with the plastic bridge and denture. Even though these were only going to be temporary teeth, the staff at the lab took the time and care to ensure they were as perfect as they could be.
My surgery is being talked about everywhere. Each clinic and lab I go into they exclaim "oooooh lady who had 9 hours in surgery - such long long surgery" and they pat me to make sure I am ok!
15 June 2007:
Hello from home at long last smile
Well after a shocking overnight flight home next to a non english speaking women who had NO concept of personal space - it that she believed what was mine was hers - we arrived home at dawn Thursday morning.
Bangkok airport (a mere few trillion dollars and 5 months old) is CRAP. I think we found 5 chairs for the tens of thousands of people wandering around wasting hours and hours. The only way (supposedly) down to the departure lounge (after three separate bag searches) was via an escalator and trying for all my might to explain a phobia and the need for a elevator was almost impossible. The departure lounge was just rows of metal seats - tired people were unable to stretch out. There were no water fountains so everyone who had had their water tipped out due to the new liquids laws had no where to refill their bottles. No shop or anything to buy a new bottle.
Then the flight - well nothing can describe the pain of the pressurised take off and landing hours. It felt like my implants were all trying to unscrew themselves from my jaws. I tried to sleep but the woman next to me was leaning all over me (and not over her neighboring husband) and her elbow was digging in my ribcage the whole night. When my special allergy free meal arrived long before her own meal - she practically leaned into my lap to glare at it. Luckily my "evil glare" needs no translation in any language.
Laughingly - it was probably the nicest meal I have ever been served on a plane - and there I was totally incapable of eating it! Nice piece of steak, asparagus and potatoes in a gravy. A roasted chicken salad on the side. A fruit salad. A nice crunchy hot bread roll! I managed to eat the potato!
We were woken at about 4am for breakfast which was stupid cos I am sure the whole plane would have preferred to sleep thru to landing.
We landed in Perth at 7am thursday. 2 hours to get through customs because poor mum - who had been vomiting for unknown reasons ever since we arrived in Bangkok airport the night before - had forgotten what she had packed in her suitcase and so it had to be unpacked by a customs person.
We dragged all the suitcases up my stairs and mum was asleep before I finished locking my door. I decided to lay down "for an hour or two" and we all woke at 5.30pm ! No idea if it was holiday hangover or just exhaustion from such a busy 16 days of appointments in such hot vile humidity. It really wipes you out. To return to winter and comfy beds with lovely doonas was a delight.
So - here I am back in Aus with my new temporary teeth. The dollar vs thai baht was so good that I have prepaid all my next lot of procedures - set for end of November. I will be returning to replace the fixed bottom implant teeth with porcelain teeth (more realistic and take up less room in the mouth and long lasting - guaranteed for 30 years). And my upper denture will also be replaced with fixed porcelain teeth. All I need to save up for is hotels and flights - and hopefully I will get a decent tax refund with all the medical expenses rebate to cover that. (Didnt find out till a week before my trip that I could actually claim the foreign expenses on the medical expenses rebate - what a relief).
Meanwhile I have to learn to speak and eat and drink with a denture. Its a wierd feeling. I am extremely conscious of it - especially my new speech impediment. The top denture couldnt be matched exactly to my old teeth because they were so small and low. To have made a denture like that would have meant it would always be falling off. So I feel a wee bit bucky beaver - even tho the difference in size is probably only 3 or 4 mm. The bottom permenant teeth look normal tho.
So for now I have to heal myself - tonnes of stitches to keep my gums together, loads of ulcers. Body still wiped out from being in ICU.
Will be seeing my doctor on monday and will discuss how much time I can have away from work. Still only able to eat soft foods and I wouldnt say I am really "eating". Tuesday was my first solid food in 2 weeks. Fried rice - and I had to chop the pieces of chicken into miniscule pieces and let them slide down my throat. Need to get some vitamins to boost myself up again after 2 weeks of jellys and weak watery soups.
Anyway - to those who live nearby I should be up for weekend or weeknight visits. But expect me to be really self conscious cos I am not really feeling like me just now. I know people will say "oh you look fabulous" etc etc - thats what the russian lady I was going to the denture lab kept saying. But I didnt get this done to look anything - I got it done to eliminate daily pain. Its done that (except for all the new pain of stitches and ulcers and dentures, but that will go soon!) but there is a change to the shape of my face and mouth and smile and its me (not anyone else) that has to get use to that.
Its also disconcerting not being able to make your tongue speak the way it always has. Its so wierd. I have to say the alphabet and read books out loud etc to practice.
I have spent today boiling up huge amounts of rice - freezing sections of it. And making up jellys!
So - the first leg of the new Karina journey is over. Updates will continue on my blog. Already researching airfares and hotels for the November trip.
Oh - to those who emailed about the "black jaw" - more info here:
The black jaw - well as much as I have no medical training - I asked 3 different doctors since november if it was possible to have an infection in my jawbone because it felt different to a toothache. Those who were on holidays with me in 2001 when I cracked a wisdom tooth in half know what I can and cant tolerate!! It was more of a classic broken tooth style toothache - where breathing air, hot and cold food and drinks causes sharp shooting agony through your head.
The pain I had since November was nothing like that. It was more like a dull constant ache - similar to being punched in the face (as a former domestic violence victim it was a pain I could relate to!). It felt like my eardrum was going to explode and my jaw and sinus thumped in pain all day and all night.
Each doctor simply opened my mouth and said "oh its probably one of those broken back teeth - heres some penicilan".
Even the final doctor I saw before the trip said "oh well bone infections are kinda out of my line of expertise" !
The Thai surgeons saw a darkness in my initial xrays and were ready for signs of infection - but the black jaw did blow them away. And apparently it was like jelly! They didnt need a bone saw to cut the bone away. (sorry if this is grosing people out - we surgery survivors tend to get very blase about descriptions!!!). I was extremely glad when they told me they had immediately sent it off to a lab for confirmation on the cancer side of things while the surgery was still in progress.
I was very lucky that inside that OR I had the top 4 surgeons in the country (my implantologist, my prosthetics surgeon, the extraction surgeon and the aneasthesiologist who specialises only in oral surgerys). I actually saw news articles about all of them while I was in the hotel. They are all very famous there. And my prosthetic surgeon who was building my new teeth in the lab each day said that my implant surgeon (the head of implantology in Thailand) called him every single day and sometimes twice a day to ask about my recovery progress.
22 June 2007:
I am still on 12 hourly pain meds and also a pill four times a day for the nerve damage in my lip and chin - thats down from 7 pills 4 times a day!!!
I know my denture is literally only millimetres longer than my original front teeth - but to me it feels like centimetres. I know its only temporary. Its making me so self conscious tho.
On Monday I went into the CBD to see my doctor. I had to go to my chemist first and I found myself trying to think of words that didnt contain "s" or "c" because I cant pronounce them right now. I found myself speaking with my hand over my mouth. In the doctors office I was close to tears trying to explain my reasons for not wanting to return to work. Aside from the self conscious appearance related anxieties - I have a huge speech impediment and as my job relys on fast talking negotiations with lawyers and barristers and accountants - I am just not ready for it mentally or physically.
Plus - well try living on a liquid diet for a few weeks and you will understand why I dont want to be far from my home right now.
One of my favourite co workers came over for a cuppa yesterday. She is one of those upfront and honest people. She said yes she could see the change in my facial features between my nose and chin and yes it made my lips more into a cupid shape than my usual straight lip shape. But then she said that was because she had been my friend for 5 years and that really - most people in the office take utterly no notice of changes to peoples appearances anyway because they are all so self absorbed.
I do know what she means - when I first cut my waist length hair to above my shoulders it was nearly 3 weeks before anyone in my team noticed - yet people from other floors who I would run into twice a year in the lifts and barely know, all made the effort to comment immediately.
So yes - I am collected enough to know that other people will hardly notice the difference in me. But I DO notice the difference and to me it feels HUGE.
Anyway I told my doctor that while I am having after effects from eating liquid diet, and still have nerve damage on my lips and chin, and still have the speech impediment - there is just no way I am returning to work.
22 July 2007:
The upper denture - its just not me. They tried to make it as small as possible to match my original small teeth - but any smaller and the denture would have constantly fallen out. So the front top teeth - to me - feel like enormous buck teeth. I know they are not to other people but I can see the physical change it makes to my face - instead of my usual straight lips I have cupid shapes and my lips dont meet up easily. I know the wretched thing is temporary and will be ceremoniously burned in November but I hate the change it makes in my face.
Anyway I rewarded myself by flying to Sydney the next day and having 3 nights in 5 star luxury and seeing my current favourite musical each night and drinking cocktails with the actors afterwards.
Flying with the implants was still friggen bizarre. The part of my face that is still numb - basically a triangle from nose to chin over to the middle of left cheek - felt like it was in a suction pump and getting tighter and tighter. And the implants themselves - man oh man the pressurisation in the cabin really hits them bigtime. So hard to describe but you really really feel it.
Anyway - this whole teeth thing continues:
I got very brave and had more work done on my mouth on Wednesay. I had a lot of bone chips and fragments that had made their way thru my gums were ripping my tongue and cheeks etc to shreds. They hurt like hell.
My doctor (the one who ignored my ramblings about possible jaw infections all year) felt they would just recede back and dissappear. But I spoke to a few other people - friends of friends - who had oral surgery and all said the floating bone chips were common after major surgery and that it was better to get them removed.
Anyway I went to a dentist around the corner from my house - several friends recommended him. He took one look and said it was too big a job for him and that I would be wanting to not be awake for it !
So he sent me to a surgeon in Subiaco. It cost a bloody fortune - more than $1500 once I had also paid the aneasthetist. I had a 2 hour twilight aneasthetic and they cut them all out and also filed down a group of really sharp bones along the top gum. (when so many teeth are removed - the sockets where they use to sit start to turn direction and their sharp edges come thru).
So another 20 stitches and I felt like I had been bashed with a baseball bat. I cant wear my top denture at the moment because of the position of a lot of the stitches so I am housebound and not going out in public.
I am glad I had it done now rather than later - or even waiting till I returned to bangkok because it was so painful and bruised (far more than all the work I had done in June !) that I wouldnt have been able to handle the fittings in November.
So all this should now have time to heal before I return to Bangkok and get my permenant porcelain teeth loaded onto the implants. Counting down the weeks !
Anyway - I discovered I can claim back 20% of my medical expenditure in my tax return so I lodged my return this week and await my biggest ever tax refund so I can put it back on my mortgage and pay for the flights and hotel in November.
THE RETURN TO BANGKOK FOR PORCELAIN BRIDGES.
13 NOVEMBER 2007, Tuesday:
Flew into Bangkok at midnight on Sunday night. I had one of those great runs of luck thru the airport. No queue at passport control so I walzted straight thru, got to the bag ramp and as I walked up there came my bag first! Walked thru customs without a queue, straight out to the greetings hall where thousands of tour companies hold signs up for passengers - there was my guy with my sign right there at the front ! He walked me out to a lovely town car that took me straight to my hotel!
Hotel is gorgeous. Centre Point Petchburi 15. Far far nicer than the one I was at last time. This is a suite with a kitchen etc. Massive king size bed that isnt two beds pushed together - so no nasty seam down the middle!
Lovely extra touches in the room, such as a safe big enough for a laptop and extra stuff, an unbrella, a torch, a USB cable for the free broadband. The bathroom has big plunger containers of lovely aromatherapy shampoo, shower gel, and body lotion. There is a 7/11 in the hotel foyer so you can stock up on water, ice cream (there is an entire freezer of hagendass - yummmm), alcohol ($1.60 for a schmirnoff ice !), noodles etc etc.
Locationwise its not out in the boondocks like the last place. This one is right next to all the big shopping malls and markets and there are KFCs and Burger Kings in every direction !
Anyway - by the time I checked in, went to my room, unpacked, showered away the sweat of the plane and airport etc it was 3am so I went to bed !
Monday morning I sussed out the complimentry breakfast buffet. Not very exciting. Lots of asian foods and then baked beans, toasts, pancakes etc. So I had pancakes without syryp because some greedy sod took the entire jug away ! I put strawberry jam on them instead.
Then I caught a taxi out the the prosthetics lab.
While sitting in the waiting room I got chatting to a man from Seattle who realised he knew me from a travel forum and he and his wife were here seeing my dentists because of all the stories I had written on the forum ! Then another lady Liz arrived who was from Sydney and was here solely because of my recommendations - her mouth was similar to mine and so she had the identical work. Apparently there is a couple from Alaska here as well that came because of my reports on the travel forum but I havent run into them yet ! They are staying two hotels away.
My day in the lab was not the best. Of course all the staff greeted me like a long lost friend - hugs galore. And they were tickled pink that I had brought back copies of all the photos I took of them on my last trip.
But they had warned me by email that the procedures were not going to be pleasant. First I had to have my top gums re cut open to access some of the implants.
Honestly - as enormously phobic as I am - when Dr R said "all done" I asked him if he had finished looking at my mouth - and he said "no I have finished giving you 6 injections and cutting your excess gums away" !!!!!!!!!!!!
I swear I felt ZILCH. Not a slightest hint that a needle was in my mouth - not a thing. I didnt even realise he had both hands in my mouth plus a needle and scalpel !
Unbelievable. Liz and I just have no idea what it is that Thais do differently but its clear thai kids dont grow up with phobias about needles and dentists !
Anyway then I had to have the new molds taken. This was the bad bit. First they attach spikes to your implants - then insert a big frame into your mouth that gets filled with a liquid that becomes putty and hardens then they pull it and the spikes out together. Now the bottom jaw was so so - it felt freaky but tolerable - had to keep the frame of putty in your mouth for 7 minutes and that feels like such a long time.
But then it was time for the uppers. That was a whole dif story. The putty hits the gag reflex of the back of your throat and you cant help gagging. Even tho your brain knows you can just breath thru your nose - part of you forgets this and is convinced you cant breathe - its like drowning.
So then the gagging gets worse and worse and because there is nowhere to go and 3 sets of hands are holding this thing in your mouth - well lets just say it turned into a massive panic attack and I was crying and vomiting and having shooting pains across my chest and shoulders.
Dr R was so good - he of course sees every patient do this and he knows its the worst bit. He just calmly kept reminding me to breathe slowly thru my nose while one staff member massages my feet, and another my shoulders.
In the 7 minutes it took for the putty to dry I had 3 separate panic attacks. So scarey. But as Dr R says - 14 minutes in total is not so bad when you get permenant teeth as a result.
Anyway - because I was so tense in the chair etc my shoulders and neck and back have totally siezed up. So today I will go wandering the alley and get a massage. They gave me a rest day today! Tomorrow I return to try out the frame for size. Not sure what the next stages are after that!
And I chose my porcelain colours. Its natural B1 ! Its not hollywood white - more a natural shade. And I also asked if it was possible to have taller bottom teeth and shorter upper teeth - because when I smile I usually only show my top teeth and it would be nice if both could be seen ! So they have taken this into account with measurements and draw them into one of the putty molds !
Weatherwise its no where near as oppressive as last time. You can stand outside for 5 minutes and not be drenched in humid sweat. Its still humid and hot - but milder than June.
Anyway - Dr R assures me yesterday was the worst day for me. The rest of the weeks will just be fittings - no more yucky molds.
(I will add photos when I have finished downloading them.
17 November 2007: Saturday.
Another update from Bangkok.
Tuesday 13th was spent relaxing in the hotel and getting a back, neck and shoulder massage because everything
was so tensed up from Mondays ordeal in the chair. So I relaxed and caught up on emails and watched a few dvds etc. Also checked Aussie news online because honestly, if you relied upon BBC and CNN on cable here you would only think news occured in India. Apparently the only politics and disasters taking place this week are in India !
Anyway so Wednesday it was back out to Dr R's prosthetics lab. It was time to try on the titanium frame built from the molds made on Monday. It fits across the tops of the implant screws and had "teeth" on it except that they were tiny teeth because the porcelain still has to go over the top of it all.
The bottom frame seem to fit just fine straight away. But the top frame was being obstropolous and they ended up cutting it into 3 pieces. Doing the screws up with the frame on felt like a big fence getting tensioned. You could actually feel the titanium implants getting tightened in your jaw. Quite freaky because it reminds you they are in there!
Every few minutes it was back out for an xray to check the fittings. Its a low dose machine that you stand in and it whizzes around your head and takes a digital 365 degree pic of your jaw only. The pictures come up on their computer instantly. They would check the fit and shape etc and then whiz me back to the chair for more ajustments. Then back to the xray. This took about 6 hours all up. Quite arduous because your mouth is open with several hands in it for the better part of the day. At one point they were so unhappy with the top frame that they said they would have to go upstairs and make a whole new frame and this would take 2 hours. They apologised profusely that they were taking up my time but I simply explained that my time was theirs - I was not in Bangkok to sightsee or shop - I was here to get new teeth no matter what was involved and how long it took.
So one of them jumped on a motor bike and went and got me some snacks, another let me use their computer for a while and then I just read a book and listened to my MP3 player.
Finally my technician appeared from the mysterious "staff only" door that led upstairs. She waved a new frame at me and beckoned me to come and try it on. To her disappointment it was still not right. She had to cut it into two pieces in the end. Its strange how well behaved the lower frame has been. They were able to just put it on in one go and examine it and draw on a digital print out of the xray and a photo what changes were needed. But the top one is causing all kinds of problems.
Meanwhile I was taking pictures of me looking like the character Jaws from the old Roger Moore James Bond films !!!
Finally they announced they were happy to proceed to the next stage. The next day their porcelain technician would bake a draft layer of porcelain onto the frames and they would be ready to try out on Friday.
It was dark when I left the lab and full blown peak hour traffic had commenced. Bangkok traffic all day is like peak hour traffic anywhere else - but Bangkoks peak hour traffic is MENTAL ! It took about an hour and a half to get back to the hotel and by then I was ravenous. Grabbed some Burger King and wolfed it down.
Later that night I was in the bathroom when I noticed one side of my face was considerabley larger than the other ! I looked like the Elephant Man. The gland below my left ear was growing so fast and so big that I could not see my ear, or where my face joined my neck ! Initially I was concerned it was an allergic reaction - what with me being allergic to 90% of food products here ! But I realised it was only affecting one side and there was no swelling inside my throat. The gland itself was agony to touch and hard as a rock. I made a hot compress and went to bed.
I spent Thursday exploring the Sukhumvit area with Liz from Sydney. We went to a cute waffle house for soft food ! And sat their listening to their only background cd - a greatest hits of easy listening Readers Digest 1975 special ! We gossiped long into the night and it was midnight before I returned to my hotel. Liz noticed throughout the day that my face doubled in size each time I ate or drank and she had worked with enough medical practitioners to believe it was a blocked saliva gland getting infected.
Friday it was back to the lab to see the draft version of the porcelains. Dr R checked out my left glad which had reduced somewhat - he looked at the photos I took the previous two days and agreed it was a blocked saliva gland. He gave me a weeks worth of penecillan and a super strength antiseptic to hold in my mouth for 3 minutes after meals.
So - fittings began with the draft porcelains. Once again the bottom frame seemed to fit quite well straight away, needing only some minor adjustments and cosmetic changes with the height and shape of some of the teeth. The top frame was troublesome again. They had decided to make it in two halves after all the hassels of Wednesday ! Fitting the two pieces together was problematic. Again it felt like a fence getting tensioned as the two halves pulled together.
At one stage they asked if I would be ok if they used a drill like grinder on the teeth while they were still in my mouth - as it was faster than unscrewing each one, taking them out, screwing them back in and seeing if it was enough. They fully understood this was still very much a massive part of my original dental phobia. So they agreed to do it for a second and see what my reaction was. One of them massaged my legs to calm and distract me.
It was a strange feeling. For so many years I have had a total lack of trust with dental practitioners because of their disbelief that I was in pain. The severe fear and panic I would feel as they drilled, knowing they would hit the painful bit any second.
Suddenly here I was ready to feel all that again. Instead what I had was the noise - which of course I still associate with eventual pain - but it was like I was removed from it. I couldnt even feel any vibration as they worked on the porcelain teeth. And of course my brain finally realised there would be no pain because the teeth were not real. They had no nerve !
It was quite a realisation after all these years.
So then a few hours was spent on "bite tests". Where coloured plastics and papers were put between the teeth and bite impressions were taken and they would file away and grind down the areas that were connecting too much.
Anyway after a few hours of fittings and xrays it was time to "cosmetically criticize". First from Dr R's technical point of view - particularly he didnt like the shape of the top of the upper teeth. He felt the canines should be longer. He also drew some new shapings on a digital photo where he felt that the teeth could be shaped into the gums more he is after a very natural looking fit. Unlike plastic dentures and bridges which have a false gum to cover up the wonkiness of your own uneven gums - porcelains have just the teeth and therefore need to look like they are coming out of the gum like natural teeth even tho they are merely resting against the gum. Its quite an exact science getting it just right.
From my point of view I felt I had chosen the wrong shade of white. Once I saw it with my skin tone and lip colour it looked far too yellow. So they brought out all the sample shades again and I reselected a new shade of white.
I also felt the two top front teeth needed about a mm off the bottom - just the teeniest bit smaller.
So it was explained to me that the technician would spend saturday rebaking the porcelains with the changes and I could try the final product on on Sunday. Dr R did explain that while its called the final product - its not really final. There is still ample time to make any changes, cosmetic or fitting wise. He then said I could wear them for a few days and eat with them etc before returning for any final changes that might be needed.
So today I had a big sleep in. Didnt get much sleep on previous nights with the whole "swelling face pain". With the penecillan and pain meds I was able to knock myself out !
Today I am meeting a couple from Alaska who contacted me via the internet after my dental experiences here. They are having some work done and one is seeing my implantologist surgeon Dr Pimol this week.
Till the next update!
18 November 2007, Sunday.
Well, last night I met up with a lovely couple from Alaska and we had a fabulous Italian meal together and gossiped about dental procedures etc. Terry is having some pretty major surgery on Tuesday - he needs plates inserted above his jaw to attach the implant screws to because he has so little jawbone left. I will catch up with them again a couple of days after his surgery and escort them to the prosthetics lab.
Today I went back to the lab to see the changes made to the porcelain bridges. They are now less yellow and the top front two teeth are shorter. The top side teeth have been reshaped at the top where they meet the gums.
They have sent me away to give them a test run for a few days. Eating meat and crunchy things etc. Seeing what I like or dont like about them. I return on Tuesday to have any necessary changes made.
Liz from Sydney came out to meet me at the lab and share her tale of being bitten on the leg by a teething baby tiger the day before ! We travelled back to my hotel together and went to the hotel restuarant where I dined on an actual pork chop !!!!!! I actually chewed meat properly for the first time in years. And it was accompanied by crispy asparagus and baby corn and carrots. I chewed ! I masticated !(dont misread that!!!!). For desert we had icecream and I let it rest on my teeth! You cannot understand what its like to do that after so many years.
Its also lovely to have the roof of my mouth back. To actually be able to taste your food as you chew it - and not taste a nasty plastic denture.
So for the next 30 hours or so I am going to purposely eat things I have avoided for years - I may even try a crunchy bread roll!
And I am going to repeat the alphabet over and over and retrain my tongue. Its had to adjust to the shape of the denture since June and now there is another whole new shape in there to talk around.
Tomorrow I think I might actually venture across the 10 lanes of traffic to the huge IT store opposite the hotel. Its about 10 storeys so I am sure even I could find a treat to buy !
ciao for now from me with a permenant set of teeth !!
21 November 2007, Wednesday.
Well after a couple of days with the porcelain teeth I returned to the lab on Tuesday to have some alterations made. The bite at the front just wasnt quite right - but the bite at the back was perfect. The upper left side had a couple of gaps between the teeth and gums so I was concerned food would get trapped in there. And the colour. Much as I wasnt doing all this for appearances sake I still felt like the colour I chose was too dark. I didnt want to get home after all this time and effort and money and be disatisfied with the colour forever more.
My original teeth were actually quite white (well until they started turning black!) so I really just wanted something as close to their original shade as possible. Still natural - not hollywood blindingly white!
So the technician now has to strip all the porcelain off the titanium frames and rebake a new set. I agreed that he only needed to do the front 6 teeth as no one is going to see the sides !!
I went out to dinner to a German restuarant that night with a fellow dental traveller. With her new denture and my plastic lower teeth - it was mush for both of us!
Tomorrow its back to the lab to see if my teeth are ready.
23 November 2007, Friday.
Well another update from hot Bangkok. After several cool days and nights where I didnt even need the hotel air conditioning turned on, the weather changed today to rather hot. I think its to do with a cyclone off Vietnam somewhere.
Yesterday I went back out to the prosthetics lab to collect my teeth again. It was the busiest I have ever seen the lab in all my visits. As well as Terry and Kristen from Alaska, there was another lady from Perth there - along with some Thai's who were there for emergencies. As I didnt have anything else to do I was more than happy to let the emergencies be dealt with first.
I was able to watch Terry have his wax model uppers adjusted while they were in his mouth. They melt the wax and move the fake teeth around and let the wax harden again while his wife and I watched on !!
I also had my first look around upstairs where the wax, plastic and porcelain teeth are made. I was shown all the different areas, including the foundry where my titanium frames were melted and remade etc and I was introduced to the lovely lad who actually did the porcelain part of my teeth.
It was really interesting to see hundreds of molds of peoples teeth and all the different processes involved.
Then it was my turn. They loaded the remodelled porcelains into my mouth. The colour is now just right. Natural but not glowing white. The fit on the upper left is perfect. There is not a single gap anywhere between the teeth and the gums. Its incredible. The bite has been adjusted so that I can now perform the very important task of biting my lips ! I couldnt do that the other day and while its only a little thing - the idea of not being able to do it for the rest of my life seemed important to me.
They feel fabulous. They feel real. They look real. I have a bit of a lisp as my tongue needs to readapt itself from the size and shape of the denture - to the size and shape of the porcelains. Thats just something that takes time.
I then had to have upper and lower pink alginate molds done while wearing the teeth. The pink stuff solidifies a lot faster than the nasty 7 minute one - but its still a difficult gagging moment. They are using these molds to make me some mouthguards. Apparently I need to sleep with them in for a while to protect the teeth while I get use to them at night. Plus activities such as 4 wheel driving, skydiving, roller coasters (anything mega bumpy and jolty) will need protection so as not to shatter them against each other.
So I return to the lab on Saturday to collect the mouthguards and also my own personal screwdriver that fits my implants, for allowing Australian dentists to remove the porcelain bridges twice a year for cleaning.
After a long long day at the lab I caught a taxi back with the Alaskans to their hotel and then we went to a huge german restuarant opposite their hotel. Terry had no teeth so he stuck to goulash while Kristen and I had a roll of beef stuffed with vegetables. Apple tart for desert - yummmmm.
Having a quite night at the hotel tonight. Watching dvds and testing out some of the room service menu so I can really try my teeth out. Still not allowed to have anything overly crunchy as it hasnt been 6 months since the implants were put in my jawbone. After Xmas I can venture into crunchy apple territory !!! But I can chew tender meat apparently so I am keen to try some!
24 November 2007, Saturday.
So last night I ordered fillet mignon ! It was accompanied by crunchy vegetables. It was divine ! Initially I found that I automatically went to chew on my "good side" - before remembering its all "good side" now ! I purposely tested each and every bit of my mouth !
I returned to the lab today and had the upper screws tightened one final time, then all the screw holes were filled with filling solution. I paid for my mouthguard - its so lovely and soft !, and also my screwdriver and some spare screws, and picked up my old denture and plastic lower bridge for souvineers !
Then it was some final confirmations with the lab staff. Yes I would continue to use the waterpic, yes I would remember to use only a soft toothbrush with a gel toothpaste - not an abrasive paste, yes I would smile !!! Yes I would return to a dentist every 6 months to have the bridges removed and cleaned.
Then it was hugs all round as I got into my taxi and left them for the last time. I will never forget Dr Rajapas's fabulous staff at Spec Lab. Each of them had a special part to play in the construction of my teeth and when I see those teeth in the mirror I will always think of them.
So thats it. My dental journey is all over. I have a mouthful of brand new teeth that will hopefully last me forever. I am no longer in pain. I can eat without fear. Its all done!
An update: May 2008 - 12 months after my initial decision:
A year later all I can say is how wonderful it is to be living without pain. Loving the joys of being able to bite into chocolate straight out of the fridge, being able to chew meat, being able to bite into a crunchy bread roll, being able to eat ice cream. All of it.
Loving the fact that I was able to change my own life.
