A Jaw Dropper

This February we had a little scare when Melanie had a routine CAT scan of her jaw durning an orthodontic appointment.  What the orhtodontist found was a lesion in Melanie's lower jaw down by the roots of 3 of her teeth.  You can see it in the image above by looking at the lower teeth and counting 5 teeth in from the left and looking down by the roots.  That roundish dark area is the abnormalty that was found.

Here's another view where you can see that it is deep from front to back of the jaw as well.

And one more view just for fun.

Melanie was referred to an Oral Surgeon, Dr. Nix, for evaluation and treatment.  I tried to keep cool about the whole thing, but I was distressed by the rough edged appearance of the lesion and the fact that it was eroding the cortical bone (hard outer bone).  These are signs of aggressive tumors that require aggressive surgery to remove.  In addition, Melanie has been sick more than normal this past year, and when Dr. Nix did her evaluation her lymph nodes were enlarged.

I pretty much had myself stressed out about the whole thing.  It's funny I discovered that having a bunch of knowlege and information about oral pathology stored in my brain is a wonderful thing when I am diagnosing a patient's disease.  However, when it was my own daughter, it was almost as if I knew too much and could picture too many possible awful outcomes for it to really be beneficial.

Fortunately, I also know the value of prayer.  I prayed for knowledge and peace and a good outcome.  Immediately upon finishing my prayer my mother called just to talk, and she is always a wonderful source of comfort to me.  In that conversation I discovered that she and my dad were planning a trip to come visit us in April.  Also upon completion of my prayer I was prompted to discuss the information and x-rays with my friend, mentor and all around best dentist ever, Dr. Palmer.  He was the one who put my mind at ease by letting me know that it was most likely a traumatic bone cyst (basically a hollowed out area of the jaw) which would require surgical debridement and biopsy then heal nicely on its own.

The day before her surgery, Melanie received a priesthood blessing from her father and Uncle Kimball.  The next day Melanie had her surgery, and she came through it really well.  Dr. Nix indeed found that the area was hollowed out and consistent with a traumatic bone cyst.  The biopsy results confirmed the diagnosis a week later.

I am so grateful for the way things turned out.  Melanie's face was swollen for a few days, and she had some residual numbness in her jaw, but she has healed well.  I am grateful for the power of prayer, priesthood blessings, and the comfort and support of family and friends.

Another Year Another Derby

My cute cub scouts with their Derby Cars

We had another fun year at the Pinewood Derby.  Lots of participants with lots of cool cars.  Here is the pre race lineup:

Harrison and Ryder built their cars themselves with just a teeny tiny bit of help from their dad.  I am so glad that this is a dad project and not a mom project :)  They used lots of high tech and dangerous equipment, but the only injury was Ryder's thumb on the belt sander.  Let's just say it's a good thing he had a long fingernail, or more than just the corner of his thumb would have been sanded off.

Every car raced in 8 computer generated heats.  Both Harrison Ryder had plenty of 1st and 2nd place finishes.

Harrison's car - far right

Ryder's car - middle

When the racing was over, the boys anxiously awaited the awards ceremony.

Ryder's car won the award for "Best Police Car Design."

And Harrison's car won the award for (drum roll please). . .

Fastest Looking Car :)  I just love that.

Great job guys!

Memories From Omaha

This past February Nicole and I did some traveling - to OMAHA.  Yeah, you heard me right, Omaha.  The word Omaha kind of looks like a cross between the words "Aloha" and "Oahu" which are wonderful travel worthy words.  But alas, Omaha in February is just, well, cold - and definitely not travel worthy.

Now, don't get me wrong, it was fun to get away for a couple of days and enjoy the. . .ummmm. . . well, we went there for a volleyball tournament, and the volleyball was good.  Nicole got to meet the Dutch National Team, a bunch of very talented 15 year olds who were playing in the 18 year old division.  She had her picture taken with them.

They didn't really speak any English, and it was fun to listen to them on the court.  Whenever they would score a great point they would shout, "Ohpah!"

We were supposed to fly out on the last day of the tournament, but as we finished packing we discovered that our flight had been cancelled, and EVERY flight out that night was booked.  So, lucky us we got to spend an extra night in Omaha!  Which was great, because then we had extra time to enjoy. . .ummmm. . . well, we watched some TLC on TV and slept in the next day.

Before we ever left for Omaha, I told Nicole how I had visited there in the winter about 12 years ago.  All I could remember were the ginormous piles of dirty snow everywhere.  Nicole just looked at me funny.

Enjoy the memories m'dear :)