Did you know that April is oral cancer awareness month? Yep and what a way to kick off the month by sharing my day with my vendors.
Most of you don’t know this about me but I am a oral cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in June of 2015 with squamous cell carcinoma and I was stage 4. On the high end of stage 4. A month and a half later I walked into Erlanger downtown at 5:30 in the morning on July 31 for my 1 of 14 surgeries that took place in a two week span. I was called back to the room got changed and answered 1,000 questions. I was fine until the runner came and got me and took me to pre-op. I lost it. This kind older man tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could sing for me. I shook my head and he started sing amazing Grace. He had finished by the time we got to the pre-op room where he rolled me into my waiting stall and took my hand and prayed for me. As he was doing that three of the sweetest nurses came and prayed too. Y’all… a sense of calmness came over me and I knew then I was going to be ok. So they started hooking me up to all the monitors, iv’s ..3to be exact, asked question after question all the while I was cracking jokes and asking how much longer. Dr after dr came in and signed off on my book as they do for all surgeries. The after the third dr came here came my hero. My ent came in and I was laughing and joking with the blood tech who was drawing blood for a few more cross and type thing they do and my ent looked at me then the BP monitor and asked if I was nervous. I told him no and what had happened and he just smiled and said ..good
Then it was time. The knock out medicine was already attached to my iv and after one last joke and hitting the syringe by accident I gave myself the first dose. Instantly woozy. Then the head nurses for each of my dr’s came and asked if I was ready and I said yep let’s do this. They unlocked the bed and one nurse told me let’s go and good night. And I was out. First surgery took 16 hrs. Emergency surgery 8 hrs later took 8 hours after that I don’t remember anything for 4 days. They put me in a coma to keep me still. Meantime I found out that after the first surgery I had a blood vessel pop and I was bleeding out so they rushed me back in to surgery. While there I coded and they did CPR. After that I was in a coma for 4 days then went to a regular room for one day and then sent home. One week later I was back in the er with a massive infection and was admitted and had 12 more surgeries in a 10 day span. BY’all I had what they call a total neck dissection. This is where they cut from my lip down to my collar bone the around and back up behind my ear. They shave the inside of my cheek off and replaced it with skin on the inside of my right arm. They took nerves,tissue,muscle and vessels and replaced the inside of my cheek. They shaved down my jaw bone and took all of my teeth on the left side from the canine teeth back. Glands were taken out and 72 lymph nodes were taken. Still to this day I am numb from the midline of my face around to the midline of the back of my head also my left shoulder down to my elbow is numb too. I will never get that back. My right arm is numb from my fingers up to just above the elbow. Oh yeah .. I also had a tattoo in that exact spot so now my tat is in my mouth. Anyways, I had 7 weeks 5 days a week of radiation and two out of the 3 chemo rounds because the 3rd one would of killed me. So I didn’t do it. My chemo was two weeks of treatment in one bag. A lot of chemo for one person to handle. Oh yeah I also had a GI tube so I could eat. I poured my meals into a extra large syringe and hooked it up to a tube to a port that was attached to my stomach I ate like that for 9 months. Lost 130 pounds but not in a good way. March 2016 I had it take out and started eating normal. Or trying.
But anyways I could keep on but just know that cancer changes people. We are not the same person we were before. And keep up with your dental hygiene. If you smoke or dip…stop! Or try to.
If you notice anything unusual go to your dr or dentist. l waited too long and it almost cost me my life. If I had waited two mor months y’all would be reading this in my obituary. But like I’ve always said to people when they say I was lucky. No…im just to damn mean to die! So be mindful of white patches or small ulcers ,fever blisters, weight loss, loss of taste, fatigue. Big one is the white patches or film on the tongue or walls of your mouth. Check them
So anyways thank you for reading this. And thank you for being a vendor. Now you know why I have a crooked smile. But if you have any other question please just ask. Don’t assume. Ok I’m getting off here for the night. And to my vendors… I will see you Saturday.
