My Dick Cheney Smile Revisited

Well, I won't know anything about wrapping up my chemo and radiation therapies until Monday. Deb and I will drive to the chemo center for some blood tests as early as possible on Monday, and the results of those tests will likely determine what -- if anything -- happens next. My white blood cell count needs to be significantly higher if my chemo doc will even consider a third and final pair of chemo sessions. And my radiation doc wants to see the results of these tests before he determines when to start up the last several radiation treatments (I have six sessions left on the schedule).

Given the state of the skin on my neck (it's quite fragile and is bleeding just a bit in a couple of spots), he may decide to wait even longer. I believe the two docs want to co-ordinate their decisions. But all will be revealed (we hope!) on Monday.

In the meantime, I should document something that my Ear/Nose/Throat doc (who performed the major surgery on my neck) told me several weeks ago. Back in May, I posted under the title "My Dick Cheney Smile" that the left side of my lower lip didn't respond the way it had before the operation. So that when I put on a big smile, my lower lip draws a diagonal line across my teeth.

So I asked the E/N/T doc during a recent visit what was going on, and when -- if ever -- would my lower lip respond the way it used to. He asked me to pucker my lips, then try to whistle and a few other activities. He asked if there had been any change in the smile since the operation, and I told him no.

Then he explained that the facial nerve (which exits from the brain through a hole in the skull be the ear) fans out across the cheek, with each fanned-out sub-section carrying out a specific function. The lowest of these fanned nerves drops down to the chin and then comes back up to control the lower lip. And this section of nerve was damaged during the operation.

He said that normally, it might take a year for this nerve to repair itself -- if it ever would. (And Hal had mentioned in an e-mail that nerve repair might take an extended period, so I was not surprised to hear this from the doc.) However, since that area of my neck has been heavily bombarded with radiation during my treatments, it might be two years -- if ever -- for complete articulation to return.

I don't really mind the Dick Cheney smile, although I don't know how other people looking at me respond internally to seeing the crooked smile. But I'm sad that, because I can't pucker the way most people can, that my harmonica playing and Indian flute playing may be done forever. Maybe I can work out some alternative lip positioning, but I haven't had any success so far...

Time will tell.