Osteomyelitis in the jaw bone

I've just left my mother again in the hospital recovering, this time remarkable well from a operation that has removed her left side of the jaw bone due to osteomyelitus. What started a little over a year ago as a painful gum and which resulted in three minor operations for bone biopsy and the placement of anti biotic beads, lead to a fractured jaw; and finally the removal of the jaw bone.

It's been a long journey for my mother that has left her now slightly deformed, but I can honestly say she is relieved that the pain, just four days after the operation has subdued. We as a family could not understand the amount of pain she was in, but seeing her now is a real joy. With the fractured jaw she had lost a lot of weight due to not able to chew her food so she survived on EnSure drinks and Nestle BuildUp with cream to double what ever energy/nutrician she was getting. after the removal of the elasticated mouth brace in Dec'07 and the string of anti biotic beads we all thought she would be able to chew some foods, but she had lost confidence to chew due to what she describe to me as stones in her mouth. The stones where actually pieces of bone that where making there way from the open wound in her jaw. Not being able to open her mouth to far and with the phyiscal dropping of the jaw to the left she was losing her battle....

Her surgeon, Dr Amin from the Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, whom through all this time had been a little cautions, rightly so, with how to treat her, finally came to the opinion that the removal of a piece of the bone would be the best way forward. Having spent more than a few hours talking with Dr. Amin over the last few months, he install a lot of confidence and trust in my mother and certainly with in me from not knowing nothing of this disease to examining her xrays with him highlighting why her jaw fractured to where we would cut the bone for the possiblity of a replacement piece from the thigh. Happy new year we thought driving home that morning from his practice.....

By the time the appointment for her to go in, my mother was in such much pain, now using morphine to boast up the pain killers that she was on every four hours, having little or no sleep, losing weight, down to 7st, shuffling around doing things three or four times due to as she said 'losing my mind', not setttling down to read or write a letter or write her Xmas cards that had gone two or three days pass, and just feeling so low that walking to the end of the road was a real task.

Our thoughts go out to all sufferers of osteomyelitus and through this web site which I'll be introducing my mother to when she has returned I would like to thank Dr. Amin and his staff for the patience he has shown towards us and the help that this site has shown me

[b:01b93a91e8]Thank you[/b:01b93a91e8]

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