Where I am with my fight against Cancer

My story begins with a small blemish on the floor of my mouth, 7 years ago. My dentist found it. He referred me to a maxillofacial surgeon who cut the entire thing out with a quick swipe of a scalpel, then sent it for biopsy. (Only suspected to be Cancer), he told me to quit smoking and drinking beer. Or it would come back!, I didn't and it did.

5 years it lay dormant, then my dentist said "better get it looked at again". I ended up having the entire floor of my mouth removed at Sunnybrook Cancer hospital in Toronto, Canada.

The surgeons were brutal, knocking out teeth and slicing out all the lymph nodes from my neck. Cutting a big swatch from the underside of my left forearm, a piece of vein was removed for use in my mouth. The flesh acted as skin graph to re-upholstered the floor of my mouth. My shortened tongue was re-attached onto it. Then, twisting the skin together on my forearm, they managed to stitch that wound closed. (I have only minor numbness when I grip things with my left hand).

That was back in April 2009, over a year ago. The major swelling of my neck, and lower jaw took a few months to receed as I underwent physio-therapy to regain my neck muscles. I had quit smoking the day of my operation, but I continued to drink until August.

By early October, I had just been fitted with a new lower denture plate.
Having trouble getting it to fit comfortably, by November I ended up with the oral surgeon trimming the 'flap' he graphed into my mouth. He decided to biopsy the extra bits. The cancer was back, it came right through the New floor of my mouth! In December, more surgery, removing more tissue, teeth and a part of my lower jaw. A piece of titanium replaced the missing jawbone.

Because the cancer reoccurred so quickly, I was fast tracked into the radiation / chemo program during March.

Now I am trying to get teeth again, sigh.

My 2 surgeries, followed by 33 radiation tx with 3 chemo tx prompted me to write last time. The recovery was uphill & frustrating, so I went to a denturist and was fitted with a bottom plate (5 weeks after the final radiation treatment).
Having the option to wear teeth made me feel a lot better! but then on my first check-up by the surgeons & Rad Dr.s, I was told the plate would interfere with the healing. So until the next check-up I only wore the plate occasionally, (eating solid food carefully with knife & fork etc.).
My next check-up with all the doctors was good! I was healing fine, even the oral surgeon said it's OK to have the bottom denture realigned by the denturist. So I did.
Well my last check, the surgeon exclaimed I had 'Stage 1 Osteonecrosis'! and immediately referred me back to the oral surgeon/dentist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ont.
OK, so, what now?
I am advised to stop wearing my bottom denture, eat only soft food and come back in 3 weeks. I probably have to set aside 3 months for the medical establishment in Ontario, Canada to provide treatment.
They are a little vague about what that involves, however my understanding is HBO followed by more surgery.

I am just realizing that radiation treatment slows (or obstructs) normal healing, (no one mentioned this before I had it done!).

I am going to investigate alternative advice, I don't want to be laid up in a "Learning Hospital", again.

At this stage, I am not wearing the bottom denture plate, and I have stepped back, I am reassessing the whole situation.

The Cancer came back!, so I'm back at Sunnybrook Hospital

Back at Sunnybrook,
"Elevator up?"

I did stop my (over) 30 year smoking habit, April 6th., 2009, the same day as my original surgery. The painful & awkward recovery provided the motivation, combined with the latest smoking cessation drug from Pfizer, Champix. The pathology reports done after the first surgery did not show any signs of cancer left. It was all clear so radiation treatments were not necessary or advised. Which, after what I had been through, was good news for me.

No Turning back Now!

I returned to Sunnybrook to have a partial denture made for my lower jaw, the dentist here specializes in cancer patients, (and OHIP will cover a third of the cost). I was a "Patient" in the true sense of the word, It wasn't until the end of September that the denture was ready. I then had some on going fitting problems with more tooth extractions to be done, my dentist in Aurora was handling this, UNTIL he noticed some ackward healing and refered me back to the original surgeon. That's when I found out the bad news; it's back and it's aggressive.

¡Smoking Causes Cancer!

The plan now, as it has been executed so far. The doctors cut out the offending tissue, taking a wide margin around the tumor. This was done Monday. I went under for about 4 hrs. the surgeon also took a few more teeth off the bottom, and a chunk of the jaw bone. I had a replacement titanium bridge put in the lower jaw. So far so good, the surgical team claims it was a big success. All I know is it does not feel as foreign as it did the last time. (Don't Smoke / causes cancer!!).

It's easy to get frustrated.

The Resident Doctors,
Sunnybrook "Teaching Hospital"

Sunnybrook is a "Teaching Hospital" so the patient (at least I find) has to look out for their own needs. It's easy to be unintentionally forgotten, for example I had a I.V. Pole that would not roll very well, yet everyone wanted me to walk more (get out of bed). ALL had said they would get me a new pole, never happened, until I decided to go hunt one down myself! There was one not far from my room in a corner.

Jenn R.N., Day Nurse

All is to be expected when going through cancer treatment, and I am lucky there are great surgeons and caring nurses in our hospitals. However there is a shortage of professionals compared to patients, so when I have to write and rewrite the same answers to the same questions to different caregivers, because my mouth and throat are so swollen I can't speak. It's easy to get frustrated.

Gums after first surgery

Hole "healed" into Gum

The first operation was mammoth compared to this time, It was 8 months and 1 day ago from the original surgery. At that time the lymph nodes in my neck were removed along with the skin graft from my arm. So no wonder it was a long healing process, by the time I had bottom partial plate of teeth made, (and got them to fit properly), the cancer came back! So now I am almost back at the start again.

Oral Cancer Surgery / cont.

First surgery took 10 hrs., many teeth and some jaw bone!

After many consultations and all the pre-operation work my cancer surgery was scheduled for April 6th. 2009. The procedure would require a patch of skin to be grafted from my arm to cover the floor of my mouth after the tumor was cut away. A vein would have to be transplanted to the floor of my mouth.

The breathing tube and swelling
complicated things

When I awoke after the 10 hr. surgery, I panicked because of an tracheal tube (breathing tube) I wasn't prepared for, and I thought I was drowning! I began flayling around with my arms, tearing at the life support tubes.

I got so bad that the nurses wanted to have me restrained, to protect myself! But it didn't get to that, I managed to rip loose the vein the Doctors were trying to re-attach. I had to be sedated and go back into surgery for another 2 hrs. while the damage was repaired.

I recovered quickly, but endured great discomfort. The feeding tube was sewn into my nose and caused a painful laceration, it had a wire running through it that acted like a ballast, putting stress on the sore.

The most frustrating aspect of the first 4 days was that I could not speak because of the swelling in my throat and the breathing tube. I had to quickly write out answers (on a clipboard), to impatient Doctors and nurses who asked questions as if I was hard of hearing!

Oral Cancer Surgery

I have an aggressive cancer of the mouth, or had! This is the second surgery to remove a tumor that developed on the floor of my mouth. April 6th. of this year (2009).

Fancy photo effect, Showing off teeth that finally fit!

My dentist (Dr. Jordan Talsky) first discovered the tumor during a routine cleaning sometime in 2005. It was cut out and biopsied, then followed up with a "Cat-Scan" and a ear, nose & throat exploratory.
The condition seemed to be in remission at that time, with only a small scar where the original pock mark was. I decided to let the dentist monitor it after that. I was strongly advised to quit smoking, but I did not. (could not?).

Four years went by with dental appointments approximately 3 months apart, then it returned while my gum's deteriorated from gingivitis. It was time to get back into Canada's "Socialized Medical System".

Dec. 6th. (the night before surgery),
Showing off teeth that finally fit!

Dr. K. Ford Moore is an oral surgeon located in Newmarket, ON. he was the first step to confirm the cancer had returned. He was able to refer me to a family doctor which I did not have! The infamous Doctor shortage in Ontario. At least this "Specialist" who does not get paid by OHIP could give me a lead to a "Doctors pool", where Dr. Norma Carter could then refer me to a Specialist who does get paid by OHIP, so I could have another biopsy done and send it to Sunnybrook Hospital. So I would be seen by an expert at SunnyBrook in order to get operated on.

Apple VS. PC

First off, Apple products are cool. I like them, for ease of use and elegance. Simplicity in design that's the key. Microsoft copied the idea.

The Macintosh, advertised as "the computer for the rest of us", was the first PC that aimed at a user-group of novices. Apple believed in a system of combining hardware and software to a whole. Users were always forced to buy Apple's expensive hardware to use the Macintosh GUI. And the GUI was the essential revolution: it enabled everybody to use and understand a computer within small time. The Mac GUI superseded command-line interfaces that were only known by specialists, and became a paradigm for Human-Computer Interaction that has not been broken until today.


Windows 1995
In 1990 Microsoft, a software company selling a command-line Operating system called MS Dos, finally managed to introduce a GUI for their Windows Operating System, using exactly the same metaphors as Macintosh. Windows 3.0 was very successful - it became the standard operating system on the PC-market, later followed by the even more successful Windows 95 package. Microsoft's strategy of monopolising the market by selling whole software-packages and introducing an upgrading system for software soon made Microsoft the market-leader in PC software.

Art2Go Web Site

Since I received a comment about having my blog available on the Art2Go web site, I thought I would explain why.

Simply put, the theory is to increase traffic to my web site. It also adds another dimension of user input, allowing comments to be posted while surfing the site.

It was quite easy to accomplish, using HTML frame-sets to create a wrapper for the E-Blogger web page. I incorporated the navigation bar from www.art2go.ca so visitors could continue browsing it after visiting the Blog.