About

Carrie and Maizy

 Hi.  This is the “about” page if you are so inclined and interested to read…

Last year, I think September or so, I noticed a bump on my gum above my left eye tooth.  I was alarmed because it seemed to appear almost overnight.  It had a raw sore spot behind it as well.  I made an appointment to see my dentist right away-he squeezed me in.  I ran in and sat down for him to look at it and he said, “Oh don’t worry about it that is your bone structure and that is a little cold sore.”  So I was relieved and left feeling my fears were unfounded.  I did think that it was unusual that my bone structure would change in what seemed kind of radically to me.  I was also feeling very run down and tired, headaches and just not myself for quite some time.  I chocked it up to age and change… 

So, a year later I go in to the same dentist to get my teeth cleaned. He looks at it and is very alarmed himself.  Says I need to go see an oral surgeon to check into it.  I am shocked by his reaction to seeing the bump on my gum and tell him “well I came to you last year when I first noticed it and you said it was my bone structure and not to worry about it!” I was kind of upset.  

So, I went to see the surgeon and he said it most likely was a boney growth and in 99%  of the cases it is benign. In women over 50 it’s common.  We scheduled surgery and I had it removed on Dec. 8.  I went back one week later to get the stitches out and he said he could assure me that it was not cancerous and that there was one final report still out and would be in by my next visit in a week.

I returned one week later feeling confident and sure that all was okay.  It never occurred to me that there was a problem-after all, non-cancerous seemed to be the only giant bullet to dodge…  

Dec. 23 – So he began by telling me and my mom (luckily she came) that I had a very special case, a rare tumor (53 cases in 40 years I believe) called desmoplastic ameloblastoma.  He started talking fast and throwing in all kinds of words I didn’t understand and heads of skeletons he started pulling out, making markings on the jaw bone, then pulling up xrays of one other case he had-he must have put up 12 xrays.  I did hear him when he said he would have to remove 8 teeth and the jaw bone they were attached to and then the bone graft ( after a year to clear any possible reoccurrence ) I will have to endure in order to rebuild the jaw and finally, new implants after 6 months or more of healing time.  The whole process would take a few years.  It just got worse.  I noticed all of his assists were hovering around the doorway to the room, handing kleenex out liberally, because by that time mom and I were crying pretty good.  

We were supposed to go home and write down any and all questions we had and return in one week to form a plan since we should begin soon…..