Well my mom has her 13 hour surgery scheduled for November 16th at UCLA just in time for Thanksgiving. They will remove a portion of the small bone in her leg that does not bear any weight and using the bone and a titanium plate reconstruct her jaw and reconnect the nerves etc to the nerves & veins on the side of her face that did not receive radiation. He said that by doing this if there were ever a reason for more radiation she would be eligible and that the blood flow will be normal or as close to normal on the radiated side of her face. The only problem might be the muscles that make her smile may not work again because he has already had to reattach them in a prior surgery.

Presently she is only able to open her mouth about 1 fingers width and was so against anymore surgery but her ENT says there is no other option. The bone in her jaw is completely dead and will only continue to cause her problems until it breaks. She is in pain and as of late fragments of the bone have been breaking off. With this surgery she will have a trake for several days remain in the hospital for 7-10 days and she will get a PEG tube this time since during radiation and chemo last time she did not and she was definately malnourished which greatly delayed her healing process.

I am excited for the long term but I know the short term is going to be very difficult. I really wanted to share this with everybody because it has been 2 1/2 years since radiation end and out of the blue my mom woke up not able to open her mouth and she had severe swelling which were signs of a recurrance but it turns out it is not it is damage from the radiation - dead bone causing these symptoms. I thought my sharing this might help somebody down the road.

Take Care,
Dani