chemo 11

Not the best of weeks, although the main culprit this week isn’t the cancer or stoma.  I hate going to the dentist, and have told my dentist that I want to wait until all my treatment is over before I have to face his sort of torture.  But my teeth let me down.

On Tuesday, my back left molar, which had already lost part of the tooth, but as it hadn’t hurt I said not to worry about it, to the dentist.  Well, the rest of it broke off, and I was left with a tiny bit of tooth, with a sharp as a razor edge to it.  I knew I would have to see a dentist, as it was cutting into my tongue, and not only eating and drinking were painful, so was talking. 

But Wednesday I had invited my next wall neighbours around - and considering I had been meaning to do it for 4 years - since they moved in - I didn’t want to cancel it again.  So I found that if I cut a dried apricot in two, and put it over the awful tooth, that sort of protected the tongue.  

Thursday I had chemo, and also a clinic visit with the oncologist who was interested in investigating my abdominal pain, which I’m sure I have mentioned before. He sent me for a couple of xrays, and they came back fine, so we went ahead with the chemo. But by this time I was taking paracetamol around the clock, and various numbing agents. 

Finally I got an emergency appointment at the  locum dentist at 1 on Friday.  I called a taxi to come at 12.30, and started panicking when it hadn’t arrived by 10 to 1. So I tried calling the taxi company to find out what was going on - and no reply. So I started on local friends, and on the 4th try, found one home.  I got there at  a quarter past 1, but the dentist made me wait until 1.30 before she saw me, and then was annoyed that a broken tooth was considered an emergency.  The tooth inself didn’t have a cavity, so she said she would put a temporary filling and I could come back when the regular dentist was back to discuss the type of crown. 

So the tongue pain was set to not get any worse, except of course, mouth ulcers and sores are part of the side effects of my type of chemo - so I expect they kept up the pain longer than it would naturally have done. Mouth sores usually heal quickly, but mine didn’t and I spent most of Saturday in bed, or watching TV from a semi-prone position.  

So what have I learned from this week? Maybe a stitch in time saves nine.  I always wondered what that meant. 

I’m off to church now, and looking forward to my next dose of pain killers.