Getting Ready for the Move...It's surgery time

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Sat May 07, 2011 5:45 am

Joe,

Sounds like the right pain medicine and the right dose, if you can tell time by it ;) I was concerned when I first saw how late you were up... but then I realized you were just doing that last thing you needed to do to get a good night of rest.

Thinking of you and your wonderful Nestle. Our dog has ways to go to acquire full nurse status (or a modicum of maturity... we are hopeful, he's only 4), but he has still been a great and soothing companion on the toughest days. Glad you're in good hands (paws).

Love,
Sara

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Sat May 07, 2011 6:34 am

Yikes - the surgery sounds awful. Hope healing occurs quickly and the pain subsides. Get some good rest and cuddling with Nestle.

Mary Beth

hoosier1 · Post by **hoosier1** » Sat May 07, 2011 7:25 am

Speaking of dogs (and to cheer you up Joe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

This is funny too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

And an oldie, but a goodie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19a73pvyfsI

Rich

JLH · Post by **JLH** » Sat May 07, 2011 8:35 am

Joe, I'm hoping you have a decent weekend and that everything goes well with the healing.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Sat May 07, 2011 9:46 am

Rich those were great videos, thanks I needed that.

I again would like to say thanks to all here for your positive encouragement. I was overwhelmed by all of the wonderful support.

I am doing ok and am able to manage the pain ok with the meds. Gabes the bubble and squeak with veggies that are extra cooked and the poached eggs is wonderful to have at this time, it's been my main food this week.

The good news is that its over and I'm doing pretty good, and the cool part of this is since the bone that makes up that part of the jaw is transplanted there, are no nerves in it yet... and when I get the implants I most likely will feel nothing.... So there is a benefit here LOL

What I would like to focus this note on is how i dealt with this event from the perspective of having MC. As you can imagine all of the meds and stress can affect MC in a negative way.

What I have noticed is:

First just with the infection, the mc and or Crohns symptoms did flare up some, which since mc is an autoimmune disease makes sense. While fighting the infection your immune system will rally and at least in this case did cause the d to increase somewhat

Next stress as in a lot of things can and does affect mc, when we are emotionally or physically stressed this adds to the symptoms

I did find that antibiotics caused a fair amount of GI distress, I was given a 5 day course of azithromycin which from day 1 caused a fair amount of GI disturbances but was necessary to address the infection. One of the recommendations was to use a probiotic, I have in the past months tried a probiotic and did not have good luck with them, so for at least the moment did not try one.

On a positive note, besides addressing the pain quite well, the morphine does a great job of controlling the D. Although I would doubt this would be used as a normal anti-diarrhea medicine LOL

For the positives, having a great set of friends like this group, mainintaing a positive attitude and having a good doctor are key in dealing with events like this.

As a matter of personal growth I have noticed that as I was faced with the increased severity of this procedure, I found myself not reacting in an emotionally stressful way. Originally this was just going to be the replacement of just the one tooth that had a failing root canal. When I found out just this past week about the significant change in the procedure required, I was detemimed to remain relaxed. As little as a year ago I am fairly sure I would not have dealt with this event neat as well as I have. How we approach an event like this emotionally does have a significant impact on how well you will tolerate the procedure and the recovery.

Of course the most important part of dealing with a situation like this is having a Nurse Nestle around LOL

Thanks again for all of your support, I am doing pretty good and now have another task taken care of before the move to Oz... So I am now one step closer to Brisbane LOL

Thanks again to all.

Joe

Post by **tex** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:24 pm

Sounds like you're doing well.

Joe wrote:On a positive note, besides addressing the pain quite well, the morphine does a great job of controlling the D. Although I would doubt this would be used as a normal anti-diarrhea medicine LOL

The founding members of this board know of one or two people, (who were on the old board), who regularly used narcotics to try to control their symptoms. You're right - experience shows that it's not a good route to take, certainly not for long-term treatment.

I hope your recovery continues to go smoothly.

Tex

nancyl · Post by **nancyl** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:36 pm

I am happy to hear that you are doing well. I think being able to talk about it on this forum certainly does help a lot. Just knowing there are so many friends out there thinking of you an praying for you is a wonderful feeling. That was so nice of you to take the time to explain how you handled the situation. I'm sure it will be of help to us down the road as we hit some bumps every now and then.

Take care.
Nancy

ant · Post by **ant** » Sun May 08, 2011 8:58 am

Dear Joe

Yeeks!!!. Just caught up on reading about your ordeal.

I am full of admiration with the stoic way you approached it. Thank goodness the worst part seems behind you. And thank goodness for Nurse Nestles. If I did not live in a city I would be very tempted to try and get a clone!

Interesting your dentist has MC and thinks it can be sorted with meds alone. How long has he suffered the disease? Maybe he will change his tune in a year or so?

Best wishes for a quick reduction in pain and successful implants, Ant

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:15 am

Joe,

Happy continued healing on this Mother's Day. I appreciated your perspective on personal growth - often when we can't control our circumstances, we can control our response (if we remember to try). I think that's one thing we can all truly share and help each other with, though our specific symptoms, food triggers, and backup plans vary considerably. Thanks for sharing that.

Love,
Sara

hoosier1 · Post by **hoosier1** » Sun May 08, 2011 4:22 pm

Joe,

Glad you are doing better. But put the wine glass down!!!

Rich

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Sun May 08, 2011 4:37 pm

Hi Ant it's good to hear from you, I'm not sure about being stoic though, they had to chase me to get me in the front door of the hospital

Yeah nurse nestle is something else, definitely one of a kind

Sara thanks for all the kind notes, attitude is everything and really does have an effect on how well we handle things and how well we heal...

Rich hello, I am loving this iPad it was great to have these past days as I could easily be online as a diversion while resting in bed. As far as the wine, that was Gabes fault... she kept driving us from one winery to another... it was a really great time, I would rather do that than have surgery though

Joe

hoosier1 · Post by **hoosier1** » Sun May 08, 2011 5:07 pm

I have to admit, Joe, that I have been drinking a little white wine on occasion too. Helps me to sleep on long flights. Was in Vegas last week and actually had a couple pina coladas (the fake kind out of the cheapo slurpee machine). And I did OK! Found another safe restaurant for me, Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffets). Had the mahi mahi, rice, and steamed veggies two nights in a row. Yummy and no ill effects. It is so refreshing to find "safe" restaurants, especially in sin city. Saw Phantom (4th time... and it was terrible compared to the Broadway performance) and "O" (Cirque de Soleil). That was neat but not really my style.

Love the iPad too. Still carrying both the macbook and the iPad though. Not ready to cut the cord on the laptop. Have you tried the Marware case for the iPad? It protects the unit very well and keeps the profile thin. I tried facetime on the plane via the iPad to my wife at home but they apparently don't allow that much bandwidth because Melodee told me it rang on her end but kept disconnecting.

But I do use it to stream Netflix movies in flight with no problem at all. And one of the nicest features I have found is that I can take a photo of a fire scene (albeit the camera resolution is marginal), and then do my sketches right atop the photo (inserting relevant electrical symbols, wiring, devices of interest, etc.).

Tex, going to be in Denton, TX for the early part of this week (through DFW). Looking forward to the 95 degree weather. It has been cool up here in the midwest, but that's great for the air conditioning bill :)

Rich

Post by **tex** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:38 pm

Rich,

If you're really looking forward to it, you should be able to get your fill of warm weather within a day or so, because the nighttime temperatures are barely cooling off to 70 degrees by daybreak. It's still around 80 degrees at 10 pm.

Tex

starfire · Post by **starfire** » Sun May 08, 2011 7:14 pm

Joe, I haven't been on to much lately and just found this post.

I got chill bumps when I read you had to have a bone implant. Like grannyh, I have have had really extensive dental work done (crowns, implants, sinus lifts). You have a wonderful attitude about the whole thing. I had to have a good attitude because I chose to do it and I pushed to do the next stage as soon as one was finished because I wanted it OVER.

I sure hope it all goes really well for you with no glitches at all. I'm praying for the best for you.

Love, Shirley

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Mon May 09, 2011 4:49 am

Best of luck Joe. Sounds like a surgery that would be best without but not in your case. I hate the dentist and alas, after all the work they did it wound up being false teeth in the end.

Love, Maggie