One Year Ago

Well, three days from today will mark the first anniversary of that dreaded phone call when the nurse said "Roger, you have cancer in your parotid gland". I don't think I will ever forget that phone call. It was much worse than the one I received almost exactly one year prior to that when the Doc said "Roger you have a cancer in your prostate". The prostate issue was very young and very curable and I don't even worry about that any more. The parotid cancer was much worse, of course and changed my life forever. But, as I reported just a few weeks ago, my one year scan showed NED. That was certainly great news, but the latest development has me down in the dumps again. I have been having jaw/ear/cheek pain that is absolutely horrible. I don't mean just irritating or annoying, but bad enough to make me gasp/yelp/flinch/double over, etc. I nearly asked my wife to drive me in to the emergency room last night, but a leftover supply of Darvosets got me through the night. My ENT is calling this TMJ disorder after a few weeks of antibiotics/anti-inflammatories gave less than spectacular results. I go to see my primary care Doc tomorrow to see about what treatments can be done for this. I have been reading about injections of cortisone or Botox that may help. Has anyone else here developed TMJ disorder after facial surgeries/radiation? The docs have to get this figured out because I cannot continue to function with this much pain. I have found a few web sites so far for TMJ pain so I will continue to look for some advice there. I sure hope I can find a site for TMJ that is even close to the great folks and great advice that are available here.

Roger