It’s a simple question. Most people under normal circumstances would answer, “Fine, thank you very much. And you?” Naturally you would expect a response as, “fine, good, not bad.” A few simple words. Does not really mean much. I would often answer in the positive when I was in quiet an irritable mood. After all it is the polite thing to say.
But no more. I have not said I was fine since Tuesday, October the 2nd. 3:14 PM if I remember the time right. Not since I heard the words benign Ameloblastoma Tumor. Amelo what? Tumor? I have what? Ameloblastoma. I believe he said Ameloblastoma. “Sorry Doctor can you spell this for me? I need to put this all in my blog."
Naturally I rushed home from work. “He said benign. He said benign. That’s good. Not cancer.” I kept saying that to myself all the way home. When I finally got on the internet the first listing that popped up was good old Wikipedia. Figures. They describe it as a rare (lucky me) benign tumor that develops in the mandible. Yes, the doctor told me this much. I did not want to ask him too many questions while I had him on the phone as my head was going to explode just from hearing the words tumor. I had a consultation with him scheduled in a few days.
But how does this happen? Did I not brush my teeth enough? Is this a gum disease that the denist never mentioned? Upon reading what I could find on the internet I got scared. Deep breath. Just wait till you see that doctor. He will answer all your questions... Or maybe not.
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3 comments:
Hi, I'm sorry you have this....but I know a place you can obtain a ton of information from fellow sufferers and others familiar with the disease. There is a yahoo ameloblastoma support group - here http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ameloblastoma/
You can read the archives and get a lot of information - some of which is very reassuring and some of which is frightening. The most important thing is to get appropriate treatment as, although it is usually benign, ameloblastomas have a very high recurrence rate unless all tumor cells are removed.
My son had an even rarer ameloblastoma tumor of the maxilla (only 1% of jaw tumors are ameloblastomas and only 1 in 10 occur in the maxilla - most occur in the mandible as you already know.)
My son was diagnosed 4 years ago when he was 18 years old, had surgery and just had a second jaw reconstructive surgery in August.
If you have questions, you can post to the group - where there are lots of knowledgeable folks who have been through what you are now facing. God bless -
Hi I am a fellow female Amelo sufferer and know how you are feeling now. I have had surgery in Feb 2006 and am still having on going treatment, if you feel you would like to talk to someone who has been through this then i will give you my personnal email address
Pdurant, I am so sorry for your son. He he doing ok? I did in fact join the support group. I have loads of questions and its good to have a community of people to ask f or help.
Val I would love to share emails with you. Are you a member of the support group too?
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