"A Little Sob Story"

That may interest you, or it may bore you.  At the very least I hope it makes you feel a little sorry for me.  What else would be the point of telling it eh?

I do think it may educate you a little. I know I have learned a lot of stuff that I don't really want to know.

It is a little story about a big word;  "osteoradionecrosis",  where osteo stands for bone, radio for radiotherapy and necrosis for cell death.  I first heard the word from the dentists at Victoria Hospital before my radiation treatments.

When bone is exposed to radiation it's vascular capacity is siginifcantly reduced....by as much as 90%.  That's not that big a deal in and of itself since my body is done growing anyway.  Also since it's just my face the bone doesn't have to bear any weight.

The big osteoradionecrosis threat comes into play only when the bone suffers any trauma and has to heal itself.  With limited blood flow to the traumatized area that healing simply does not take place and the bone may actually begin to die. 

So what trauma you may ask.  Sadly tooth extraction is the most common culprit, and I now have 2 of them that have to be removed.  One because it is broken right through the root, and another because of an abscess.  And as much as Michael says I don't need so many molars, I must tell you my son that the 4 you had removed I also had extracted years ago....so this means 2 more.

But! There is a positve side.  The best  hope of avoiding the problem is through the application of something called Hyberbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and I am on the list for the treatment.  What it amounts to is inhaling pure oxygen for 2-3 hours hours while inside a pressurized chamber.  The typical protocol for someone in my situation is 5 days a week for 6 weeks!!  Holy cow! The teeth would be pulled about 4 weeks into the treatments.  They claim that this procedure significantly improves the tissues ability to take up oxygen and thus encourages healing.

It looks something like this even though it is not the actual one.  The thing I will find hard is that you are not even allowed to bring a book inside.  Apparently turning pages can cause sparks and if that happens in a pure oxygen environment, you no longer need to worry about the osteoradionecrosis! 




The frustrating part is the wait.  There are only 3 facilities  in Ontario that provide this treatment and it has already been 3 months since my referral. They project another month.  While I am extremely grateful for our social health system the businessman in me wants to scream out loud.  The limiting factor is the chamber itself and of course they cost a small fortune.  Guess what?  They operate the machines for 8 hours a day,  monday to friday!!!  Un-freakin-believable!!  Pissin away our hard earned tax dollars because there is no incentive for anyone to actually make effective use of all those capital dollars!!  So stupid!!
For me the closest chamber is at Hamilton General and so I will also spend 3 to 4 hours on the road every day. 

Oh well.  C'est la vie!....pun intended.  As long as  I get a little sympathy.

(computrainer 30 kms)

I'll tell you where to find sympathy. It's in the dictionary between shit and syphillis."---Anon

Love
Peter