Monday, August 16, 2010

Follow-up Drs. visit

We went for Steve's post-op doctor visit today. He has been in unusual pain this time so we were anxious to see the doctor. The good news is that there was no cancer found in the bone that was removed during surgery : )

The other thing we found out is that Steve's mouth has not healed at all so far. In fact, it is worse than it was immediately after surgery. Dr. Grist had left a small opening in Steve's mouth rather than sewing it up because it would tether the tongue too much causing his speech to be much worse. Because the tissue has been affected by radiation it is taking it a very long time to heal and in fact it has opened up even more.

Dr. Grist gave Steve an antibiotic and pain medicine to try to take the edge off the pain in the meantime. Rather than go back in to surgery to try to put a graft of skin on it, we will wait to see if it will heal on its own.

In the meantime there is some concern about the healing causing other problems. During the surgery, the muscle that allows Steve to open and close his mouth was affected. As the healing occurs the muscle may tighten causing Steve to have a hard time opening his mouth. Steve has already felt the stiffness. Dr. Grist said there is a metal apparatis that can be used to help him exercise his jaw muscle. Steve has chosen to work on this himself because of the pain that would be involved in placing it in his mouth in the first place.

So, to recap, we would truly appreciate your prayers for healing for Steve. He is having a tough time this go round. And to top it off, he goes tomorrow to have the Mohs procedure done on his nose to remove the skin cancer that was found there. Poor guy. At least we were able to get him some more effective pain medicine. Thanks for everything! God bless you all.

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