Christine,

Thanks for your information. I will try to answer the questions you asked. I apologize for the length of this reply, but I know that sometimes people might look for this kind of information (I know that I use this board to look for similiar experiences.)

We saw our local oral surgeon and posed the questions of our doctor neighbor to him. He answered all our questions and explained why protocols that work in orthopedic surgery do not work in oral/maxillofacial surgery.

My husband's procedure seems to be a little different than anything that I've found on this forum. There will be no "free flap", as I understand that term...i.e., no transfer of tissue from anywhere else. They plan to make an incision under his jaw on the left side of his face, behind his chin. They will lift the skin up to access the section of the jaw that they will remove. They will cut out the portion that has died and replace it with a titanium thing that looks like a bicycle chain...no bone or other tissue will be moved there. Then, they will sew up the incision. The surgery is supposed to take approximately three hours. They say that no one will be able to tell that there is ajust a titanium piece holding the jaw together. Perhaps the section they expect to have to remove is not as extensive as others have had.

His infection is low grade and it comes and goes. He has been taking penicillin prophylactically since the summer, and he increases the dose when his jaw starts to swell and get red. That calms it down.

He is in a good deal of pain, but he handles it amazingly well. His feeling is that while he can't make it go away, he is not going to let it rule his life. He is on Oxycontin (20 mg, 2 times a day) but still has breakthrough pain, for which he takes 5 mg Oxycodone when necessary. Most days, he is able to keep up with his usual activities, but occassionally, he just goes to bed with his I-Pod in his ears to try to escape the pain. They tell him that the surgery may eliminate the pain, or at least reduce it greatly. We will both be very disappointed if that doesn't happen.

He did have radiation...the cause of all of the problems for him. It was seven years ago.He had no surgery and just a little bit of chemo to enhance the effect of the radiation, which they stopped because he was reacting too strongly to it and they were afraid that he wouldn't be able to complete the radiation.

My husband's surgery will be done by Dr Marx at the University of Miami. He first went there in July 2010. Dr Marx told him that he had two options. One was to continue on antibiotics and pain medication and hope that the jaw does not break. The second option was to have this surgery. He declined to do the surgery unless the jaw actually broke, and his dentist and local oral surgeon agreed. Now, however, the jaw is broken and he really has no option but to fix it. We believe that he is in good hands with Dr Marx as he has done so much of this kind of surgery.

In addition, he has been under the constant (it seems at least weekly) care of a dentist for his teeth (mostly gone now on the bottom) and a local oral surgeon for his extractions and jaw problems. He regularly visits his ENT, who also keeps an eye on the jaw while addressing his recurring thrush problem. He completed 67 HBOT dives between Feb & July of 2010, and we hoped that this treatment might strengthen his jaw. It was too late to save any teeth.

Wow! You have been through unbelievable trials! You have a great spirit and are very generous with your time in helping others through their own trials! Thank you for your continued help for so many others on this forum!!

Anne