Pat

Sorry that you are having to deal with this disease and its treatments. I have had to have nearly all of my lower jaw replaced and reconstructed due to osteoradionecrosis ORN. ORN can be a life threatening disease. When the blood flow through the bone is damaged from the radiotherapy it kills the bone, if there is no blood flow, the bone is dead.

In my situation they had a very good idea of how much of the bone would have to be removed from the scans and xrays but until they actually get in there and see exactly how much of the bone is dead they keep removing more of the bone until they see that there is live bone with blood in it. Then they fill it in with bone taken from a doner site. My jaw bone was replaced with bone from my hip.

It is a huge operation. The area that has been radiated can take months longer to heal than normal healthy tissue. At the same time as my jaw was done I also had to get my tongue flap reconstructed due to the damage from the radiotherapy.

If you think I can help with any questions, please send me a personal message.


Karen