What's up Doc?

Hello World, its been a while. A lot has been going on in the Bowden household, mainly a lot of medical hooha. Just warning you now, this is going to be a long post. We will really know how much you care if you read through all of it. ;)

Im going to get my whining, I mean story, out of the way first. A few months ago, I was having some horrible jaw pain, which then linked to awful ear pain. I could barely eat on the right side of my mouth, and I couldn't get through the night without some major Ibuprofen. I was sooooo worried it was my wisdom teeth. I had had some major gum and tooth pain before and a dentist friend said it was because of my wisdom teeth. I hoped and prayed that it wasn't the cause, but as time wore on and the pain worsened, I almost payed my father-in-law to grab the pliers.

I didn't have dental insurance either, so that was a big stress also. No oral surgeon would take payments, and they were charging rates that made me cry a little inside. I concluded that there was no solution and I would have to live with this pain forever. What was I to do!?

My wonderful mother suggested that I call my relief society president and ask her if she knew any solutions. I thought this was a bit silly, but called anyway. I tried to be strong in asking her, but the pain, and pathetic-ness, kicked in and I sobbed like a baby when I called. She told me of this place, that sounded like the exact place I needed. I called and made an appointment and nervously waited.

Thats when I found out, I am terrified as HECK of the dentist. It was like somebody punched me in the face and was like, "WHY ARE YOU BEING SO CALM ABOUT THIS, THEY ARE GOING TO TEAR OPEN YOUR FACE!" Then I started panicking. I couldn't change my mind now, I was in too deep. I made an appointment just five minutes prior. But I couldn't shake this fear that my mouth was going to be hacksawed and I was never going to eat solid foods again, and Colt was going to have to sell me to the circus.

Finally the day came, I shook all the way to the reception desk and weakly gave her my name. She handed me this clipboard of papers, and told me to read all of them and sign them at the bottom. Colt and I sat down and started reading the papers.

Colt--"Ooooh, sometimes you can have more than 4 wisdom teeth! Thats weird!"

Me--"DON'T TELL ME THAT. THEY CHARGE 200$ A TOOTH, WE ARE SHOOTING FOR 4 OR LESS HERE."

Colt--" You can't suck on a straw afterwards because you can dislodge your blot clot and get a really painful condition called "dry socket"

Me--"STOP TALKING."

Colt--"You will have bruising from the pliers for a couple of weeks."

Me--*face in hands* "I want to die.."

Then they called my name and I had to get the X-Rays done. Then they told me to go to Surgery Room 4. It was down this hallway of doors, all of which were surgery rooms. I walked down it imagining horror movie type scenes on the other side of the fogged glass. What was I getting myself into!?

Does anyone else start to freak out more when they are left in a waiting room? When I was sitting in the dentist chair, waiting for the surgeon to come in, my anxiety took over and I was snot faced and puffy eyed when the surgeon finally arrived. He was surprised I was crying already, and I told him straight up that he was scary. Then this conversation happened.

Oral Surgeon--"Sooo, who told you that you needed your wisdom teeth out?"

Me--"Uh, a friend....who is a dentist. A dentist friend."

OS-- "Hmm, because where you told me you are experiencing pain, you don't even have a wisdom tooth there at all."

Me--*dumbfounded look on face*

OS--"And your other wisdom teeth aren't even close to being ready, and I don't think that they will ever need to be pulled."

Me--*feeling even more stupid and pathetic* "But...but....but...it hurts!"

OS--"Thats because your very back top right molar doesn't line up with your bottom right molar, so it is growing in sideways, and that might be the main cause of the pain."

Me--*horrified*

OS--"So I am just going to pull that one out."

Me--"huh....uh...ok...I guess..."

Then, POKE, PULL, BAM! I wake up at home with bloody cotton in my mouth, and glazey eyes.

Colt said that it happened so fast, he didn't even have time to really sit down in the waiting room. And evidently Colt and I did this great dance number in the driveway, trying to get into the house. My legs don't work too great when I am medically high I guess. I got plopped down on the lazy boy, and was given a bag of ice.

aint I pretty..

All in all, I am glad that is it over, and I am glad that the guy poking me with the IV covered it with a blanket so I couldn't see it. Colt said that when he put it in, blood spurted out onto my arm. If I would have seen that, I think I would have passed out faster than with drugs.

I still have a big hole in my mouth, but at least Colt didn't have to sell me to the freak show.

Part 2. The Great Thyroid Mystery!

It was the last week in August, and it was the night before I was to hop on a plane to go visit family in the great North West for 10 days. We were laying in bed, when I looked over at Colt, and noticed that his neck looked swollen. I asked him about it, and he said that he didn't know what I was talking about. We looked in the mirror, and noticed that there was an egg sized lump in the lower front of Colt's neck. This concerned me greatly, and I was freaking out a little because I was about to leave him to go on vacation for almost 2 weeks! I made him promise me that he would try to get to a doctor when I was gone. Evidently there is this thing with men, that they won't go to a doctor by themselves, they have to be either nagged, pushed, or dragged to one. Or they have to be an inch from death. Seriously. what is up with that.

So finally he went to the doctors (when I was back home of course) and met Dr. Bloink.

Best. Doctor name.

Anyways, I guess Dr. Bloink is BYU's main "lump guy". He was concerned with the lump on Colt's neck and sent him to get a Thyroid scan. It was all radioactive and what not. We hoped it would give him super powers, but no such luck.

This doctor was kinda weird. He didn't even tell us his name or bothered to learn ours.

This was the picture from the test. As you can see, there is a reasonable sized lump in his thyroid. It is a cold nodule, which in medical terms, means that it is in the thyroid, but it isn't functioning like the rest of the thyroid. Or, it isn't part of the thyroid.

So, after that, Dr. Bloink told us that he needed a ultrasound. Another day, another appointment later, they saw in the ultrasound what they thought was a lot of cysts. A lot. We were feeling better about this, because that meant that it wasn't hurting anything, and that they could dissolve all by themselves, and no one would be the wiser. Dr. Bloink said that it just might be a goiter.

Goiter, man, does that word just gross anyone else out? Goiter...... *shudder*

But. Right after the appointment with Dr. Bloink, we got a call from him saying that, another technician from the ultrasound place looked at Colt's file and said that he would need to come back in for a biopsy. They needed a second opinion.

That is another thing that scares me. When doctors say that they need a second opinion. Scary times all around.

Not stoked for this biopsy thang.

Zombie faces always lighten the mood.

Patching the poor guy up.

Lets just say I wouldn't give the "Greatest bedside manner" award to the doctor who did the biopsy. He was a grump! He injected the numbing meds into Colts neck, only to start the biopsy 2 seconds later! No time to let the lidocane (sp?) start taking effect. My poor husband, my heart broke for him. From what I could tell from looking at Colt when it was happening, it must have been a very, very, painful experience. There were definitely tears going on for the both of us.

:(

I guess if it was a cyst, the fluid that they drew out would have been a yellowish clear color. Colt's was this nasty chunky blood. The doctor said it was the most blood he has seen in one of these biopsies. He then made Colt feel even better by saying that if there was too much blood, they would't be able to get a good reading and they would have to do this whole fun experience again. He then told us, that he doesn't think that it is a cyst, but he is not sure what it would be at this moment. We are still waiting for results.

We are praying for the best, but its this waiting game that is driving us up the wall. All of the "what ifs" are scaring the pants off of us. But we know that what ever it is, we can get through it together.

GO TEAM BOWDEN!

What a trooper.