16 days after

Today we are 16 days out of treatment.

Rich is doing better, he still tries to do 'too much' and push the limit, but that is in his nature right now.
He feels that he has fallen behind and lost time to the treatment.

He saw Dr. D, the dentist today and had his teeth and mouth cleaned.  Dr. D said things looked very good in 'there'.
And Dr. D will be making some temporary teeth to fill in the ones that were taken before radiation/chemo treatments. The permanent ones will take longer to make than 30 days.

Rich is pretty excited to 'get' some teeth back!
Watch out world, he will be chasing after steak again!

His throat is still very painful but compared to some cases, I guess he is doing quite well and healing quite fast.
It seems like a miracle ... we don't have an appointment now for nearly a week and a half!

I feel like I could drive to the VA hospital with my eyes closed.  
Total mileage for driving back and forth for treatments and for other appointments since April 28th?

6, 250 miles.
Whew.

I return to work at midnight tonight.
So things are returning to normal, something I wasn't sure would happen at the end of April.

So far, so good.

Taking of The Teeth

From my journal ~ April 2, 2015

Our drive to Madison was fairly normal, we talked about the weather and the farm fields we passed.

The tooth surgery wasn't going to be a big deal or so we thought.  Heck, it would save Rich from getting infections and all of the other awful things Dr. D. had described that come along with Radiation treatment.

We still we on edge about 'what' or 'how far' the cancer 'may' have gone. The waiting was wearing on us.
He'd get short and say something snarky.

I'd get frustrated and throw something when no one was around.  Let's face it, not knowing if the cancer is local or spread all over was unnerving. Nothing would be settled until we had the 'almighty-all knowing' PET scan.

This had to be approved through the VA to be done at the UW Radiology Department at Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research or ... WIMR for short.

But for today we had to concentrate on the oral surgery.

When Rich got into the dental chair, a whole slew of people came in the room wearing gowns.  Dr. D. showed Rich his x-rays from last time and said upon review they would take the 4 bottom front teeth.  There was some bone loss there and they had to go before the Radiation.

Rich protested a bit.  "Doc, what the hell am I supposed to eat with?  I don't have many teeth anyway!"

Dr. D. said, "Rich, better to lose them now than during treatment, the risk factor for infection and troubles is high if we leave them.  I'll give you some bright beautiful new ones after you are all done with your treatment."  He grinned and gave Rich the thumbs up sign.

A gowned nurse ushered me out of the room to the hallway and told me to wait in the waiting room.

A bit later Rich came out with his face stuffed with a wad of gauze.  We made the follow up appointment and headed home.

He motioned for me to drive.  I figured I would.
Traffic was heavy when we got on University Drive.  
Rich started to motion to me and in some garbled way tried be the back seat driver. 
Naughty me, I ignored him, reached down and turned on NPR to listen to the news.

The drive home was silent except for the radio.  Rich reclined in the passenger seat.

Enter the whirlwind

We checked in at the Kiosk for the Dental Clinic.  The printer shot out future appointments and we both looked at the date.
March 31st.
MAD Oncology.

So things were moving quickly and we were not even aware of any meetings with Oncology.

We sort of had to chuckle at the 'shorthand' that the VA used for its appointments.  Appointment at the Madison VA were shortened to MAD and then a dash followed by the clinic or doctor a patient was seeing.

Dr. D. presented himself after x-rays and did a dental exam.  He told Rich that he'd be removing some teeth.  Because of the Radiation Treatment oral issues can happen.  Removing teeth that are not in good health was standard protocol.

Dr. D. is quite the character.  He explained some things to Rich but wouldn't go any further to say that he has known people with this cancer that had done well and tried to set our minds at ease.

Of course he couldn't tell us what he knew that would be up to the Oncologist. We left MAD Dental and headed home knowing we'd be coming back in a few days.

Our drive home was pretty quiet.  We watched the last of winter melting away in the farm fields.
Rich asked some questions.
"Did Dr. D. say he was taking just two teeth?"
"Yes."
"Now why was that?"
"They could cause issues once you started Radiation Therapy," I replied.
"Oh, I don't remember that."

I decide my next step was to get a digital voice recorder to start bringing to our appointments, especially the upcoming one with the Oncology Department.  The 'MAD' one.