Now, this has happened twice before, but it never gets old. This morning, I was doing my usual nouching routine.* Usually, I spit out a bunch of schumtz and start my day. However, this morning, like a fragment of pottery, a little piece of bone showed up in my mouth and clattered on my teeth. It was dead--like a black and brown, crispy bit of sponge.
As I have said, this has happened twice before. I have had an absurd amount of radiation to the skull just behind my nose over my life, and, at some point, a chunk of skull just called it quits. Now, pieces of dead skull occasionally drop off, and I spit them out. It's almost as disgusting as chewing tobacco.
But, this is never routine. The part of my skull that got so fried is a superhighway of important nerves and arteries. I worry that someday, some chunk will come off and take something important with it. Maybe it would be an artery, which would be a dramatic way to go. (If that has to happen, I hope it happens at a party just after I said something really funny. What a performance!) The other possibility is that it would take out a bunch of nerves. That would make my uniquely sexy face even more suave than before, all saggy and 'thpeaking lige thith.'
Now, there are actually much more immediately important things going on in the family right now, but a little bit of skull for breakfast does make one a bit self-centered for a while.
This dog wishes you a happy dog day!
Eww. But, what? How is everyone.
ReplyDeleteEww. But, what? How is everyone.
ReplyDeleteUm, Tom? We’re going to need an update on this sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteProbably not much to update. I just have a little less skull than I used to. I will get a CT scan to find out what part is missing, and the fragment is at pathology being analyzed to make sure there is no tumor, so I guess i will update when those come back.
DeleteKinda felt that way when i woke up with one side of my face paralyzed. Rather than being panicked, i was just like "Well, wtf now?"
ReplyDeleteWe are old pros.
DeleteFrancie, the dog is undergoing surgery to remove a tumor on her chin. It could be worse. It tends to be locally invasive, but rarely metastisizes, so if they get all of it, they cure it. But I can't help but worry about it today.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I went with K to an appointment at Dana Farber to discuss what to do about her ductal carcinoma in situ, a 1 cm breast cancer. When handled correctly, long term survival without recurrence is well into the 90th percentile, but it's still scary to think about. We still may be talking about unpleasant surgery and radiation.
I'm the one who's supposed to get sick. I'm an old pro at that. Usually does not rattle me. This is a whole other thing.