BST: Appendix 1A

I know, not even 24 hours and allready Im adding crap.

I suppose I should add in a bit of backstory to the whole shebang.

First off, about early january 2001 I had a bad bout of backed-upedness. I was working my first desk job for a temp agency, it was pretty long term. I played it off as sitting on my ass all day. Probably was though.

It becomes very easy to attempt to attribute everything to the tumor, but sometimes you have to pull back.

So that was january. Come long about march or april 2002, I developed serious problems with my teeth. I have not had the best of experiences with my teeth, once cracking a tooth clear off the root while eating a Wendy's hamburger. Yeah, strange.

Finally my wife was able to talk me into seeing a dentist. Wonderful guy, Dr. Stigliano in Franklin Square, NY. Very caring, very funny - but always considerate.

He sent me to the uber-oral surgeon, Dr. Menzel - again, really nice guy. This dude was out to kick some rotten-tooth ass. I got the wonderful wrap-around x-ray, showing... oh - lets say 13 teeth that were so bad they all had little Hitler Moustaches.

Removal was manditory, and rather than spread out the panic over a few weeks - the good Dr. and my wife conspired to get them all out in a day. Well, I dont know that she conspired, but she thought it was a great idea. So I think it was about early june that I went in with a mouth full of death, and an hour and a half later - came out 13 teeth lighter.

But thats not all. The pain in my neck/head from what eventually was found to be the tumor was raging that day. I was given a general calming anesthetic, it was a nice office. Looked out onto traffic, lots of traffic to distract me from the procedure.

I got all those wonderful needles to the mouth, numbed up real well. He realizes that the teeth are holding on for dear life when he attempts to remove the first few. My roots apparently hook into the bone. yay.

So it made it a tad more difficult. But what really set the tone for the whole thing was the fact that my legs would not stop moving. I had no control over them it seemed, and they kept bouncing around - this way and that during the whole procedure. Now that, as we found out later - was because of the tumor. Essentially the stuff that was supposed to put me into 'twilight', only worked in sections. My midsection was calm, my mind somewhat relaxed considering. My lower half however, it was not with the program. Not in the slightest.

Then when it was over, as if it could not get stranger - I felt great. I felt like running a marathon. I healed without issue, quickly too.

Then it was back to Stigliano for the reconstruction phase, which involved saving as many of the remaining teeth as possible, taking casts for possible bridgework. Those type things.

All the while I was working at Home Depot, living in Queens. Walking the 2 blocks to work mid-day and home again mid-nite. Typical shifts were atypical - I could work 3-11pm. 4-10pm. It was varied. But I never enjoyed anything more than that walk home at night. Especially on a sunday night - with the sky clear and the air off the bay fresh (as fresh as air can be coming off of a polluted bay like that). Perhaps 2-3 times a shift, I had to take an informal break. I would be working my aisle (which is a whole other story in itself) when I would begin to feel dizzy. Or the tips of my nose, lips, and tongue would go numb. So I would run outside to catch some fresh air, sit for a moment. I would go online when I got home and check the symptoms as best as I could - mostly coming up with nothing more than hyperglycemia. Not once did anything brain related, or even seizure related come up.

When I was at home, generally alone - I would often sit on the computer doing not much of anything. Or I was off shopping at the local stores - buying some interesting produce to muck about with in the kitchen. I would cook massive meals, long laborous dishes. And on my days off - I was out where my wife was living, with her mother and aunt.

I took the train back and forth. I have always loved trains. Roanoke is not helping that. Not at all.

At some point just prior to the teeth removal, sometime in the winter - I had a big bad bout with food poisioning. Taco Bell style. And yet still I cant get enough, go figure. Laid up for 2 days, I went to a doctor who pronounced it food poisioning from the lettuce or tomatos - as they would normally be the only thing not cooked.

I was well acquainted with severe discomfort from that fun, so everything after it seemed to pale, for a while at least.

Poor Dr. Stigliano - when he heard about my brain issue, he was horrified. He told my wife he wished all the x-rays he took were tilted just a bit differently, then he would have seen. I felt awful.

But Im going to end this appendix for now, lest it should burst. Im sure I will have more later - but be on the lookout for the next entry, sometime around midnight.