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July 10, 2006
Update on Courtney
I know, I know, it's been waaaay to long since my last update.
People haven't been complaining as vociferously when I don't post, so it was easier to ignore. However, people have started asking again, so here's the latest. It may not be as structured since I have a lot to cover. If in fact you thought my previous posts were structured.
Courtney is finally chewing a little, but still has quite a bit of discomfort in her mouth. She can barely open her mouth to insert two stacked fingers. By comparison, I can insert 4 (don't try this at home). She has two partial root canals that still need to be completed, and we haven't started the process of getting implants yet. The last time she went to the dentist was a few weeks ago, and he discovered that there was a dead sound when he tapped her four lower front teeth with his dental tool. In other words, on good teeth there was a nice, 'ting' sound, but the four front teeth sounded dull. He's not really sure what that might indicate, since there weren't any visible fractures on the x-rays. He's talking with some oral surgeons to see about getting an appointment with Courtney. It's possible that these teeth will need to be replaced with implants as well.
The 3 root canals that she had started (1 complete, 2 partial), served to reduce most of her acute nerve pain, however she still has a toothache-type throbbing that happens periodically throughout the day in the lower-right jaw that is a mild concern. It's in the neighborhood of the fracture and titanium plate. There's also a major nerve in that area, and Courtney still has a few chipped teeth that aren't fixed yet, so it's possible that the hot/cold sensitivity of those teeth is causing the pain. I doubt there's a serious issue with the fracture and/or bone.
Courtney also mentioned recently that her molar teeth on the back right aren't really touching. When she bites down, the left side comes together, but not the right. When you look at her teeth it definitely seems like her lower jaw is slightly lower on the right. In other words, if she partially opens up her mouth so that you can see the upper and lower teeth with a little gap in-between, the gap is larger on the right than it is on the left. I haven't had a chance to mention this to Dr. Park yet.
Courtney had a visit with the Opthalmologist a couple of weeks ago, and her eyeballs are back to seeing 20/20 which is great. Her eyeball motility (the movement in the socket) is also good. She still has pretty significant double vision looking up/down/left/right, so she has to look straight down to eat and read. Long term, this double vision is probably the single biggest concern. The opthalmologist still didn't think that moving the right eyeball forward was a good idea. In fact, when I asked if the depth issue was the reason for the double vision, he said that it wasn't. The scar tissue from the accident and surgeries has damaged/restricted the eye muscles and that the double vision was almost entirely muscular. There's a chance that as the muscles strengthen the double vision will improve. Please continue to pray that this will be the case. I think there's a surgery that they might be able to perform on the eye muscles, but obviously if things can improve on their own over the next 6-12 months we need to wait. From a purely cosmetic standpoint, he mentioned a surgery that they could perform on her good eye that would reduce it's depth to match the other eye, so that it wasn't as obvious. That surgery is relatively safe, and is usually employed for people with thyroid issues (which can cause bulging eyes). That would be 6-12 months down the road, and I'm not sure that we're really considering that.
This week, Courtney went to church for the third time since the accident. After not being able to go for such a long time, she's really loving it. A friend of ours recently had a baby, and was sitting to my left holding the baby. At one point during the service, Courtney who was sitting on my right, tells me that it looked like our friend has twins. While this serves to underscore the double vision problem, it was pretty funny.
The numbness in her face is a lot better. I think she still has tingly spots on the tip of her nose and chin, but for the most part it's improving. She mentioned last night that when she rubs the scar on her eyebrow, the spot on her scalp that was previously numb starts to itch. I'm betting that's a good sign of nerves regenerating. I haven't mentioned this earlier, but her sense of smell is still pretty limited. She can smell things like a grill cooking hamburgers, but couldn't smell the leather smell from her new minivan. Hopefully that will improve with time as well.
All of her scars are healing pretty well. The lip scar, and the trachiostomy scar both have a lot of scar tissue. Dr. Park mentioned earlier that he will probably "do some work" on those scars, whatever that means. When Courtney swallows, the trach scar moves and the skin bunches up on top of the scar. I'm sure she would love to make that less noticeable.
Courtney has started driving a little. She only goes to places that are accessible by secondary roads, and she is being extra careful. The prepared meals that were being delivered to our house by friends ended with June, so we're on our own. Now that she can make it to the grocery store, cooking meals is feasible, but I'm sure I'll be grilling an/or eating out a lot.
As far as Courtney's spirits, she's holding up pretty well. She still gets really tired, and needs a period of time every day for rest. As I mentioned previously, it's difficult knowing that some of the facial changes are likely permanent. As all of you know, Courtney's strength is her personality, and thankfully that hasn't changed one bit. I'm really proud of her and how she strives daily and has succeeded up to this point in keeping everything in the proper perspective. However, it's not easy and she would appreciate your continued prayers. A good friend of ours wrote something to the effect that our scars only serve to point to Christ's scars and the beauty of His sacrifice. That's exactly the sentiment that Courtney is trying to hold on to.
On a sad and unrelated note, Courtney's grandfather died last night. While his health wasn't great, it was still somewhat unexpected. We're leaving tomorrow for the funeral on Wednesday. We would appreciate prayers for her family and for our travels.
Posted by mark at July 10, 2006 9:44 AM Subscribe (FeedBurner)
Comments
Thank you for the update. We continue to keep Courtney in our prayers....as does my mom. Courtney's strength through all this has been an inspiration to us all.
Posted by: Kathy Fox at July 17, 2006 2:50 PM
Mark, thanks for updating us. We think of you too often and pray for conctinued healing, range of motion, scar healing, etc. We are so blessed to have Courteny with us... we have been driving a lot lately and I have really been thinking about how fortunate and protected Courtney was, despite her injuries. Talk with you guys soon...
Posted by: Nate at July 25, 2006 8:34 PM
Just got back from vacation. Am thankful for your update. Saw Courtney briefly in WalMart just as we were leaving town a couple of weeks ago. She looked as beautiful as ever to me!! It was so good to see her out.
All of you stay in our prayers. Tom & Gina
Posted by: Tom H at August 2, 2006 8:11 PM
Hey guys! Sounds like things are much better! So glad to hear that you are getting out Courtney! Hope to see you soon. Amy
Posted by: Amy at August 3, 2006 8:59 AM
We continue to pray for Courtney. How is the healing process? Dental work? Kathy Fox
Posted by: Kathy Fox at August 17, 2006 11:27 AM
Mark and Courtney, I hope you are both doing well, you in particular, Courtney. It seems that you are very busy, Mark had not blogged much lately, which I think is a good sign! :) We awlays check the blog to see what has developed, we pray that healing has continued and that your body is returning to normal.
Love you guys.
Posted by: Nate at August 24, 2006 6:44 AM
Any more updates? We'd love to hear how things are going or see pictures of the family. Are there ways that we can keep praying for you, for Courtney?
Posted by: Nate at September 6, 2006 10:28 PM