On Sunday, my upper teeth and lower teeth made contact for the first time in over three weeks. It felt so good to be able to bite down, despite some residual soreness. You see, four weeks ago (starting on March 11th), a bit of my gum grew up over my lower right wisdom tooth. This was quite a painful experience; I spent a few days alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours, with alarms set to wake me up at night to take medicine before the pain got bad enough to wake me up on its own. I even took a Lortab at one point–I didn’t take any after my port-a-cath placement surgery, yet this gum thing caused me to resort to narcotics. I even tried wearing a mouth guard to sleep to prevent biting down on the gum at night.
I eventually sought medical attention when my face swelled up and I felt tenderness underneath my jaw. The emergency room doctors (why does this stuff always happen on weekends?!) didn’t seem too concerned – just some gingival hyperplasia, probably a side effect of chemo! – and sent me on my way after some x-rays ruled out infection.
The problem, really, was eating. I couldn’t chew! I couldn’t close my teeth at all because doing so involved biting down on this huge swollen bit of gum. I was limited to pureed soups and stews for several days. Certain foods, like soft bread, were doable if I tore off pieces large enough to sort of mash up with half-closed teeth, and then swallowed them in a semi chewed state. Same thing with pasta, if the pieces were small enough that I could basically swallow them whole.
After finally getting my appetite back from the last round of chemo, I couldn’t actually eat anything!
I finally went to my dentist on Tuesday, March 24th. He explained that it was probably a bit of food that got trapped in there, and normally the immune system takes care of those kinds of things, but with chemo I was more susceptible to infection. He gave me a syringe with a special tip to squirt some antibiotic mouthwash under the overgrown gum. I was secretly, desperately, hoping he would just cut off the offending gum, but I knew that wasn’t really an option while on chemo. Instead I went home and dutifully squirted Peridex under the gum twice a day, lamenting the lack of instant gratification.
It didn’t really seem to be making any difference, until Sunday. I woke up and the gum flap felt smaller. I could move it out of the way with my tongue and actually close my teeth! The pressure felt weird, after three weeks of not biting down at all. And today I can close my mouth without having to move the gum out of the way at all. Things are looking up!
Kristin has Cancer 