Tumor-versary (Central Giant Cell Granuloma)

*Remember when I said I wanted to work on getting my blogs between 300-500 words? This isn't one of those blogs.*

2010
I had my top 2 wisdom teeth and a couple bad teeth removed. Those couple bad teeth were from the bottom of my mouth, and one was on each side.

2012

I noticed the bottom left space was squishy and the right wasn't. I had no clue what that meant, but I didn't have dental insurance, so I just didn't worry about it. Well, that squishy spot started growing. Before long, it was big and noticeable. When my mouth was closed, there was a big bump on the left side of my lips. I don't know how people didn't notice it, but only 3 people said something to me while at school that fall.

When I came home for Thanksgiving, my ma noticed the bump, so I had to show her and my dad (I was planning on telling them later in the week). They were furious that I hadn't mentioned anything before then. I knew money was super tight, especially without dental insurance (I didn't know it would end up being covered by my medical insurance), so what was I supposed to do? Anyway, we got hooked up with the dental office where I got my teeth removed, but I had a different oral surgeon.

I first saw my oral surgeon during Christmas break, and she was amazing. She was super nice and didn't make me feel bad about my teeth. She was super laid-back and told me everything up front. I had to have a lot of tests, x-rays and random stuff done before I could get the squishy thing removed, so I was at the hospital and / or dentist office multiple times a week for 3 or 4 weeks.

2013

Have you ever had a biopsy done? Waiting for results has to be the most nerve-wrecking thing I've ever experienced. I would much rather have results right away, especially if they are bad. The scenarios I made up in my head were driving me insane, but I couldn't stop. I can't even put into words how bad those 2 weeks were. Fortunately, the squishy thing was benign and we had a name for it: Central Giant Cell Granuloma. CGCG is a benign tumor of the jaws, and is twice as likely to affect women than men. While they are most common in people younger than 20, I was 24 when I was diagnosed. Aggressive tumors (like mine) have a higher chance of reoccurring. If you're interested in reading more, here is the Wikipedia page (or ask me - I am more than willing to explain what I know and experienced).

Since my tumor was reoccurring, we had to take some action to prevent that. I needed to see a hematologist, but since I was on such short notice, I had to see an oncologist instead. As if that wasn't scary enough (even though I knew it wasn't cancer), she Googled it right in front of me. I had done some extensive Googling myself, so I told her everything I knew. With the little bit of research she did, she decided that interferon injections every few days would be my best bet. The only problem was they had a flu-like effect. I was really hesitant because I had a super busy semester coming up, so I was hoping there was another option. She threw in nasal spray, but she was pushing for the shots. I met with my oral surgeon, and she decided to go with the nasal spray.

We scheduled surgery one week after my results, because I had spring semester starting in 2 weeks. In my surgery, every tooth the tumor touched had to be removed. I had a total of 6 teeth removed in the surgery. When the surgery was over, I had no teeth on the bottom left part of my mouth.

The tumor was pretty big (about 3cm X 3cm - which I know doesn't sound big, but it was in my mouth...that's huge), and it was by some nerves. My oral surgeon said she didn't hit a nerve, but since she was so close, the nerves froze up in order to protect themselves. I had absolutely no feeling on the left side of my chin or the left side of my bottom lip. There were quite a few times I had drinks on my shirt and food on my face :( haha.

To use the nasal spray, I had to do one squirt up a nostril each day, while switching nostrils every day. To make sure I wouldn't get confused or forget, I bought a calendar and put it on my fridge at school. One of my roommates, Katie, had a lot of fun with my calendar, and this is what I came home to one day:

It was really funny, I'm not going to lie. I still get a smile on my face when I see this picture. I was on the nasal spray for about 2 or 3 months.

In May, after I got home from school, I went to my oral surgeon for another check up. I had an x-ray done, and everything looked really good. There was absolutely no sign of my tumor coming back, so she was happy - as was I. Here is my x-ray from that visit:

It's weird seeing my mouth with no teeth, but it's even better seeing my mouth with no tumor :)

2015
I still don't have teeth on the bottom left half of my mouth. I didn't realize how expensive they are. I'm trying to save money to get some teeth, but I still need to fix the teeth I have. I do have dental insurance now, but it only pays up to a certain amount, which I am going to exceed pretty quickly.

My lip and chin are still numb, but not numb at the same time. I don't feel when water or toothpaste drips down my lip and chin (until it's too late), but I can feel whenever something else touches those places. I still have faith that I will get full feeling back, but even if I don't it's better than where I was before the surgery.


I have a few notes that I wrote on Facebook that I can transfer over to blogs if any of you are interested in reading them. Writing has always been an outlet for me, but it was even better this time around because I couldn't talk for a while.

I hope you enjoyed reading my story, and if you have any questions or comments, please let me know! :)

XOXO

Jen