Been getting myself anxious about the prospect of the proposed future dental extractions. I have a new Dentist, a very pleasant young man. Kind, reassuring and extremely confident. He’s newly qualified and he’s never treated a patient before who has had radiotherapy to the jaw area. I tell him that I’m worried about getting Osteonecrosis. But he assures me that he learnt all about it during his training and he has also been on a special course. He also tells me that there is no risk of Osteonecrosis after 6 to 12 months.
I am not convinced and embark on further research. I then begin to get very frightened. I am also remembering a traumatic experience 35 years ago. A similarly young and confident Dentist assured me he could remove my impacted wisdom teeth, then discovered he couldn’t, and I ended up being carted off in the back of an ambulance. It was such a terrible time that I still find it hard to talk about. I probably should have sued him for negligence but I forgave him after he sent me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. My head was easily turned in those days by handsome rich men in sports cars. The Dentist had a shiny red Porsche.
Anyway by the time of my check up with the Oncologist I had worked myself up into quite a state of anxiety. I told her all about what had happened last time someone tried to extract my teeth, and I told her what my Dentist had said. She shared my concerns and has guaranteed me that if and when my teeth have to come out that it won’t be my Dentist doing the work. I feel a lot happier now.
She seems reasonably pleased with me but she says she has her eye on my blood count which still isn’t quite back to where it should be after the chemotherapy. She also says that there is a higher reading than she would like for some brain hormone which is to do with my thyroid. I don’t really understand it all, but she says it’s nothing to worry about. I am being sent for more blood tests.
So I have decided to stop fretting about medical things which I don’t understand, and to get on with more important matters like watching LA Law. I am now half way through the second season. I am enjoying it very much apart from the constantly embarrassing reminder of the crush I used to have on Arnold Becker in my youth. I cringe at most of his antics now. He is a ruthless man who treats women appallingly. I used to adore his sun tan, the Hugo Boss suits and the mansion with the swimming pool overlooking the ocean. But most of all I loved his white Porsche.
