A Date with the Oral Surgeon

I had felt nervous about today's appointment..thinking now that I subconsciously had known that this would be a dead end. We had hoped that Ron would be able to get dentures, but the necessary procedures to make that happen are too complicated considering his overall poor health. Ron has two partial teeth, and the rest have broken off at the gum line. He has no infection or pain with this, but it does of course limit his eating/chewing. That being said, oral surgery to remove all teeth would be risky for him, and it would involve many months of healing. At that point he would most likely not be able to have dentures because of dry mouth and other problems with his mouth tissues from graft versus host disease. GVHD also has also caused skin and lung problems and is possibly a contributor to his brain damage. His ECP treatments at U of M treat the T cells in his blood, so they do not attack his own body as vigorously. Like an autoimmune disease.
We saw an oral surgeon in Bowling Green, so Ron has been referred back to UofM For follow up. At this point we don't think he will have this surgery due to possible complications from surgery, and he would be able to chew/eat less than he can now. And he probably wouldn't be able to get dentures anyway and would have a liquid diet. He wanted to have teeth again, and we had decided to undergo whatever was necessary, but I think we are at a dead end on this issue. Ron is compliant, accepting and luckily has an "oh, well" attitude about things. The fiery old Ron would have been extremely distressed. I felt much like I had when he lost the vision in his left eye 3 years ago. Fortunately his hearing aids have compensated for his hearing loss. So we move forward; Ron's bravery and gratitude for life continue to be amazing.