teeth and vigilance

Those are two different topics. The tooth update is, teeth 15 and 18 are going, though I suspect they'd have quite a number of years if I left them in -- just can't promise 15-20. The periodontist was quite sure; clearly he thought it was a no brainer. He gave the teeth a "poor" prognosis for the next FIVE years! He also said that sometimes he gives teeth a "hopeless" prognosis, and then a few years later they are in exactly the same place........ Anyhow, teeth 15 and 18 are my furthest back molars on the left, since the wisdom teeth are long gone. And I had a crown put on another tooth, yesterday. That was #14. It's a temporary crown; I go back for the permanent one in a week and a half. (They have to make it.) It's quite good, I must say -- feels exactly like my tooth, except a little rough.

The vigilance is.... I'm not sure the right choice of title (though frankly I'm not sure how many people are still reading this anyway.)

I went to see my radiation onc today because I have a funny cold tightness when I breathe in deep, like when I have bronchitis-becoming pneumonia. Thing is, I don't really have any other symptoms....... and he had told me that 10% of my lungs would be affected by the radiation.

So today he listened to my lungs and said that they sound like the lungs of an athlete. (And so they should!) He said there are going to be some changes, some things that feel different, because I'm "just done" with radiation. He explained that he would still call a couple of months out "just done," and that there will be more changes in the next few months. I tried to get him to tell me what kind of changes, but I guess there's a lot of variation -- all I got was, the pectoral muscle may get somewhat hard and sore -- and it may get tighter. (Swimming will help with that -- but he said it might happen anyway.)

The other thing he helped with is my confusion about which doctor to turn to to check out which sort of issue. He said basically anything that I get concerned about in the next 3 months, I should try him first, because it's so soon after radiation. I have his email address, so I can just shoot him an email -- that's how we worked out today's appointment.

Then the final thing he helped with was my thing about how to find a cancerous recurrence in the radiated area, should one appear. He described them, but you know, I missed that stuff before..... it SHOULD be easier to find without a breast, but who the hell knows? SO he said, first of all, I should see the breast surgeon every 6 months after my MRI or mammogram, because she's great at finding stuff in confusing breasts. (Indeed, she did show me my cancer in my old "negative" mammograms -- BOTH of them.) He also said that I could schedule an appointment to see him on the same day, and he will check out the right breast post-radiation area -- since he knows well the difference between a radiation scar and cancer. (He even said that if I made an appointment and didn't show up he wouldn't be upset -- say if I was just pretty sure everything was fine. Now why can't all doctors be like that.....?)

So nice to get clarity. One more doctor to be grateful for. I have a fantasy of making up a thank you card with pictures to send to all the doctors who helped me -- and everyone else, if the cards aren't to expensive or difficult to make. Maybe this summer.