The Two-th and Final Version of the Tooth Story (we hope!)!

Woody had a dentist appointment today at 9am. He "thought" that all they were going to do was look and make sure that the problem had been resolved yesterday. What "really" happened was that the young dentist called in a seasoned dentist to confer with. I sat in the room while they discussed back and forth what was best and what the real problem was. The older dentist said that he was sure that it was the tooth that had the crown. The young doctor continued to think that it was a problem in between the teeth or with the tooth on the other side. The older dentist took the dental mirror and thunked it on Woody's teeth and said that by the sound he was sure that it was the crowned tooth. The young dentist just knew that he needed to do whatever needed to be done and do it quickly. (Woody was considered an emergency case.) The word that the dentist used for Woody's team yesterday was aggressive...and he wanted to solve the infection issue to their approval and in their time frame! The young dentist wanted to remove the crown and work from there...the older dentist said that he might crack the crown and then have Woody's dentist upset with them messing up his work! It was really "almost" funny to hear them go back and forth! The older dentist wanted the crown to be drilled through and the infected part/parts removed that way. I left at a point...a dentist office isn't my favorite place and I really didn't want to watch. So I went to the waiting room...and watched the young and old dentist continue their discussion out in the hall! My prayer was that whatever was decided that it was what was needed to be done! In the end the young dentist did what the older dentist suggested and that was the right decision. He drilled in to find the root partially dead...so that was what was causing the problem...he got it out...did whatever needed to be done after and sealed up the hole that was drilled in the crown. As far as Woody knew, he had no deadening...and he said that it didn't hurt.

This afternoon his nurse came in and was talking to us about the next days and what to expect, etc. She did talk to him about the dental situation and she said that if it had gone untreated that it could have proved "lethal," as there need to be no infections in the body when these chemos and immunotherapy are being done. Woody had no idea that he had a tooth problem till two nights ago in the middle of the night...our thoughts are that it was a "God Thing." God saw to it that the problem showed up prior to Woody starting his chemo. Once again Woody is getting in just under the wire...he had two chances for his tumors to grow the cells needed...it took the second tumor...this chemo was supposed to start yesterday and take seven days for him to have two different chemos before he started receiving his cells...but they can double up and give both chemos over five days...but tomorrow the chemos must start as next Wednesday he must start getting his cells back...once again under the wire! Tomorrow is considered Day-5...next Wednesday is considered Day 0. So the countdown will begin tomorrow sometime between 11am and 1pm. I'll report tomorrow as to how his day goes.

Tonight's blog picture is of one of the residents living here at the Safra Family Lodge with me (at least on the grounds of the Safra Lodge!). I walked around the grounds this evening and spotted him when I was about to sit down in one of the gazebos.