oroantral fistula (a post by Brendan... finally!!)

It's time I emerge. I had to kind of lay low after the Grey Cup, and now I'm back...with a weird kind of medical story of which I'm sure most of you have heard by now, but I'm telling it anyways.

It all started over a year ago when we still lived in Winnipeg. Man was I sick. I remember the first week that it really hit, I thought I just had a really bad flu and that I just needed a few days laying around watching movies. 6 months, 2 emergency room visits, countless doctor and specialists appointments and several courses of antibiotics later still no real progress. I was beginning to believe that it was all in my head (as did some others, including my doctor!) So we move to Saskatchewan in August and I'm not really feeling much better but I have decided that maybe this is life for me.

Fast forward to November, when Kelly informs me that it's time to go the dentist. When the doctor is examining my mouth I mention to her that I had gotten a root canal a couple of years earlier that I didn't think was done properly, so she took an extra x-ray and discovered that the root of that tooth was infected. I thought we found the problem and that all would be well after the molar was extracted. So we made an appointment for January and that was that.

I arrive at the dentist for my extraction and all goes well until...as she is rinsing the hole where the tooth was, the antiseptic was going up into my nose. She stopped, asked me to sit up and promptly told me that the infection had eaten a hole in the bone that separates the mouth from the sinus cavity and that it also eat through my sinus membrane and that I'd have to go see an oral surgeon. Two days later I had an appointment booked for a consultation.

I arrive at the surgeons office, ready for my consultation. They take me into the room and I immediately notice the tools and needles sitting on the tray. A nurse comes in and asks me if I'm allergic to Ibuprofen or penicillin. I'm starting to get nervous at this point ... this was only a consult wasn't it? If you know me at all, you know that I'm crapping my pants at this point.(sorry for the word crapping but it's only one of two words that fit the situation) So the dr. comes in and asks me to lay back so he can put the freezing in because he was going to do the surgery right away. At this point I ask what the surgery involves and he responds that I probably don't want to know until after and that I could have some laughing gas if I liked. I said no (of course) and all I heard was "I've never made any friends doing this" as he jabbed the needle into the roof of my mouth. Thirty minutes later he was done, and I was on my way to the car. Basically the dr. sliced a few layers of the roof of my mouth, folded it over the hole and stitched the skin down.

Three weeks later, one trip back to get my stitches redone, 20lbs lighter, and I finally ate something.

It's now been almost two months and man do I love eating again and besides the crater on the roof of my mouth, I feel good. Better than I have in a long, long time, actually.