Today was a long day. LaDawna took Darlene and Russ to the Oral Surgeon. After they left I found out that Hilary was planning on going. Hilary said she had been telling Dar for five days that she was going. It appears Darlene left about an hour early. Hilary was very upset. At the Oral surgeon LaDawna and Darlene waited outside. It appears that Russell was taken inside and given an IV and put to sleep. The doctor then, as I understand it, took out a bit of jaw bone and put in a "window", I would call it a shunt, and I am not sure what else he did. After Russ was awake the doctor made sure that LaDawna and Darlene saw the X-Ray. LaDawna was shocked by the X-Ray. Russ has a very big cyst and almost no jaw bones on that side. The jaw bone is thin like paper. The doctor make it clear that Russ not to chew anything. No chewing of food or anything. He is to be very careful not to break the jaw. The doctor gave them instructions. Russ was sent home. When he got home Aaron helped him into the house and upstairs. Russ started to throw up. He layed in Hilary's lap and she took care of him for awhile. I think her taking care of him and Darlene staying in the other room ..may have helped clear the air and help with the problem between the two of them. Russ has a bunch of medication to take. He has a mouth wash, pain medication and other medications. He also has a syringe to stick in the port/shunt and attempt to drain the cyst. Russ got sick again later. Jimmy went and rented two movies. Darlene, Jimmy, Russ and Hilary watched a movie. LaDawna, Aaron and I went to Wal-Mart and got some more medication for Russ. Later LaDawna and Aaron said goodby to us and went to their motel. Tomorrow early they start their trip back to CA. I felt sad and sorry to see them go. I hope we don't have to wait four or five more years to see them. LaDawna has taken a bunch of photos. She will send the film in and then scan the photos and her photos will be here online in a few weeks. I wish I had the money to buy her a good digital camera. She in very good at photograpy and only wants a good digital camera. Russell has an Odontogenic Keratocyst (OKC Cyst). They are very rare. I did not know that Russell could be so brave and good about something like this. I found out something that I did not know...Russell did some research on his own on the Internet. Before they went into see the doctor he told LaDawna somethings. She asked if the doctor told him that information and he said no he found it on the Internet. He was correct ...later the doctor told them those very same things. We have to wait for the doctor to get back with us on the lab test. I am sure each of us has our own fears about all of this. From what little searching I have done on the subject... I am worrying about infection and about fact that they can return. Also I am worrying about his maxillary sinus. We all have to pull for Russell. We got to make sure that he takes his medication and keeps doing everything that the doctor said to do.
ODONTOGENIC KERATOCYST The odontogenic keratocyst (OKC) derives from the dental lamina and its most frequent location is the 3rd mandibular molar area (80%) with a ratio of 2 to 1, mandible to maxilla. OKC has a marked tendency to recur, the recurrence rate has been estimated to be around 60%. They can be single or multiple, if multiple. they most likely are part of the nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (Gorlin syndrome). Based on various reported series the OKC represents between 1.5 and 11% of all jaw cysts. They can be found at any age but with a peak incidence in the 3rd and 4th decade of life. OKC is more prevalent in males than in females with a ratio of 2:1. The clinical appearance of OKC varies from a symptomless incidental radiographic finding to painful cystic lesions. Paresthesia may also be present in some patients as well as secondary fractures when the cyst is large. The maxillary OKC tends to be secondarily infected with greater frequency than the mandibular ones. That may be due to its vicinity to the maxillary sinus. The above information came from: http://www.dent.ucla.edu/ftp/pic/visitors/Cysts/page2.html
