Giving a woman back the smile cancer stole from her.
Those moments when food just isn’t worth the trouble. Hurts to walk to the kitchen, hurts to stand long enough to cook, hurts to eat… yeah, no. I’ll try again tomorrow or something.
WHO: YOU
WHAT: RAISING MONEY TO HELP A CANCER SURVIVOR
HOW: REBLOGGING and SIGNAL BOOSTING
WHEN: RIGHT NOW
Donate a dollar or two, and if you can’t, please reblog so that someone else can see this.
It’s important to have teeth… and only a few thousand dollars separate a woman from a pretty smile.
#CANCERSUCKS
Mary was diagnosed with Stage 3 squamous cell carcinoma (tongue cancer) in July of 2009. As a non-smoker her entire life, this came as quite a shock. She had half of her tongue removed and remade from from a skin graft in her arm.
A month after her surgery, she began six weeks of daily radiation treatments and chemotherapy. She lost sixty-five pounds but managed to keep most of her hair, which she considered a fair trade-off. Unfortunately, the radiation also took a heavy toll on her mouth, killing most of her salivary glands. Without the use of saliva, a person’s teeth tend to go bad in less than a year and this is what’s happened to Mary.
Her surgeon and her dentist both told her that dentures and implants are they only way to fix this problem.
So far, she’s had her teeth removed and undergone fifty (50) hours of hyperbaric treatment at Virginia Mason Center For Hyperbaric Medicine.
♦ The first step was the extraction.
♦ Healing from that will take four - five months.
♦ Then the posts for the implants will be placed in her lower jaw.
♦ Healing from that will take another five months, but a prosthetic upper denture (for appearance sake only) can be made to fit.
♦ Then a piece will be made to fit her posts.
♦ Finally, an upper denture will be made for her upper plate.
HAVE: PROSTHODONIST who has offered to make new teeth PRO BONO.
NEED: $7500 to pay for the lab costs to make said teeth.
PLEASE: DONATE HERE and/or REBLOG.
Thank you so much.
EVEN MORE AMAZING, AWESOME, FANTASTIC NEWS!
On October 31st, I had an appointment with Dr. Warren Libman in Bellevue.
I’d been on the hunt for a new prosthodontist since I’d found out that Medicaid was no longer an option with the man I’d seen in August of 2011. I did a little Googling and Dr. Libman had credentials and testimonials that were incredible.
So, this appointment.
Apparently, he was interested in seeing how wide I could open my mouth since, well, I had my teeth out almost seven months ago and after that kind of time frame, it’s a little important if he’s gonna go shove teeth back in there. Fortunately, my physical therapist had given me a stick with a huge wax ball on it to practice widening my bite and my gums don’t even go together yet.
Then he gave me the most amazing news EVER: he wants to do my teeth for me… pro bono.
PRO. BONO.
You guys… he wants to do my teeth for me. Just like that.
All he needs from me are the lab costs and that’s like, seventy-five hundred dollars. MAX.
So, from $65,000 to $20,000 to $7500 dollars… and that’s the best news ever. :DI still have my fundraising page and that’s over here and if you could share this and reblog it and tell everyone you know, that’d be awesome.
THANK you.
SURGERY?! APPROVED!
YOU GUYS.
Today, I got a phone call from Shaina at Harborview Medical Center and she informed me she’d gotten a letter from DSHS approving the 45k surgery that was needed to put the posts in my jaw.
That lowers the goal SIGNIFICANTLY (to 20k) and totally made. my. day. :D I’m super excited. Dr. Dillon’s schedule is full until the end of the year, but in January? POSTS FOR MARY! And now that the goal is a third of what it used to be, I’m back to having hope for teeth.
Thank you all so much for your help.
Love, MaryPS: Jo @ Head-Nurse wrote a FANTASTIC blog post about this and if you could all go read it? I’d love you forever.
PPS: My fundraising page is HERE. Please pass it along? Every dollar is a dollar I didn’t have before and every little bit helps. :D THANK YOU.
SO, I’m going to preface this with: IT’S MY BIRTHDAY.
Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 tongue cancer. TONGUE cancer. For a non-smoker, this was quite the blow and because of intense radiation to my mouth and jaw area, I lost my teeth.
I need to raise $65,000 because dentures and implants aren’t covered by Medicaid OR Medicare. THIS is my fundraising site and THIS is my “cancer blog” where you can read my cancer story.
If you can donate, thank you so much. Every dollar is a dollar more than I had before. If you can’t, know that I appreciate all good thoughts that come my way. Please reblog my post anyway? That’s plenty helpful.
Thank you all (I love my fandom friends so much) for your continued support.
#CoulsonLives ;)
PROJECT NEW TEETH
… is HERE.
PLEASE DONATE. Every dollar is a dollar more than I didn’t have before. If you cannot donate, please reblog.
Thank you so much, Tumblrpeeps. You mean the world to me!
To read more:
(MY CANCER BLOG) - warning, graphic photos of surgery scars, etc.
My New Teeth!
So, in case you guys didn’t know, I’ve been fighting cancer since July of 2009. And because of that, I’m having to have my teeth pulled and replaced. You can see that lengthy saga (including my cancer story) here:
http://thebrightoptimist.tumblr.com/
Because of the extensive cost, I’m holding a (small) fundraiser to help offset some of the costs involved in having my teeth removed and reconstructed.
That page is here: Mary’s Denture Page
I know it’s a LOT to ask of all of you, but if you could donate even a dollar, that’s a dollar more than I have now. And if you can’t donate, can you reblog so someone else has a chance to see this and maybe donate? Thank you!
If you have any questions, my ask is open!
