Wednesday - Dining with Dead People

[ninanevermore]

Today on my drive into work, I was thinking about the bone graft the oral surgeon put in my jaw on Monday. More specifically, I was thinking about the cadavers it come from, and how I should never have asked where the bone for the graft came from because that is just the sort of thing I will obsess over.

When the surgeon, on my first visit, asked if I had any questions, I should have just said that I didn't. Instead, I asked about the source of the bone in the graft they were going to fill in my abscess with.

"It's cadaver bone," he said.

I thought about that for a moment. "Creepy," I said.

The doctor smiled. "A little, I guess."

A little? I have ground-up dead people in my jaw. What isn't creepy about that? It's a lot creepy, thank you very much.

My mind works that way. I'm the sort of person who wonders who they were. Is the bone from someone so altruistic that he or she wanted to donate every part of themselves for the betterment of other people? Or were they so hard up for cash that they took payment up front with the agreement that after they bought the farm their body could be harvested for everything they had? Maybe it was his family that made the decision.

"The drunk son-of-a-bitch walked on mom and us when we were kids," his son might have said, "We haven't heard from him in twenty years, and now you guys call us wanting us to spring for his burial? I don't think so. If anything, he owes us. How much can we get for his carcass, anyway? All of it, or just the pieces, whichever is more."

More than likely, it's from little bits of all of the above, processed in some sort of Soylent-Green type factory that grinds up all of the bone and ships them out to doctors who do bone grafts.

I really need to stop thinking about it.

I'll be much happier when I do.

I have dead people in my face.

I eat with them at every meal.

They help me chew.

Oh, yes. Creepy.

Definitely.

Comments

[bettybaker.livejournal.com]

Kinda. On the other hand death is normal, and if their bones have utility, and if they gave their consent, then you're benefiting and it's, uh, no skin off of their back.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Here's how warped I am:

I'm glad to have the drunk's bones; he owed his family for all of the heartbreak. It's the do-gooder in my face who is making me feel like a selfish jerk, and I hate him for it. ;P

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

Okay, you're gonna have to explain this jaw-bone absess thingy to your paranoid god-sister. How'd that happen?!?

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Easy! It happens in 11 simple steps.

Step 1: get a cavity on one of your molars when you are 12; have your mom take you to the dentist to get a filling.

Step 2: notice that filling is deteriorating in your 20's, but don't go to dentist because you hate your insurance at the time.

Step 3: Finally go to dentist when tooth starts to hurt every time you drink something cold. This is the point where you learn that diet Coke can be drank warm, if need be.

Step 4: Have dentist show you chart of what will need to be done. Notice that the chart is labeled "Root Canal" at the top, though dentist slyly avoids saying these words.

Step 5: Get root canal and have tooth replaced with a very nice, expensive crown that looks even better than the real thing did. Wait several years.

Step 6: Because you clench your teeth at night, learn that you have broken the root on the the root-canalled tooth (because the root canal gutted it and made it weak), and the whole damn thing needs to come out.

Step 7: Postpone this about a year longer than you should, because you did not put enough money in your flex account to cover it and you are mortally afraid of oral surgeons.

Step 8: Notice that crown can be taken out, played with, and put back in place. Gross out husband by showing him this can be done.

Step 9: Because you put off taking care of the problem, learn that what was a small absence (hole) in your jaw is now a large one that leaves the roots of one of the neighboring teeth exposed to the gape. This does not hurt, but it does endanger the other, healthy tooth.

Step 10: Learn that your insurance company does not have the faith in bone grafts that your dentist does, and will not cover it.

Step 11: Suck it up.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

My step-SIL is getting a new old dead person's vertebra in her neck. They're going to go in through her mouth.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Ouch!

[elsie777.livejournal.com]

I immediately think about all the horror movies and Stephen king stories about borrowed body parts that have a mind of their own and take over your body. Maybeyou should have an exorcism on your face, just to be sure.

[amacmillian.livejournal.com]

No, she should take her jaw to an AA meeting.

:)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Are you crazy? They will tell my jaw that it needs to stop hanging out with the other parts of my face (because they are it's drinking buddies). I would end up looking like a Salvador Dali painting!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Come to think of it, I have been wanting to bite people these last couple of days... ;)

[sidneymintz.livejournal.com]

ew!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

My point, exactly!

[manicmandi.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm jealous! I know that is odd for a person to say. I need dental work like WHOA! Thankfully, come November, we will have full coverage insurance. I plan to use EVERY-SINGLE-BIT of the dental and THEN SOME! Lets just say that I didnt have nice healthy teeth to begin with and 14yrs of bulimia hasnt helped *SICK*. :o( I know its my own fault.
Oh and about the dead people parts, my husband INSIST that I donate every single bit of him to whoever wants/needs whatever part. I told him no I wanted a lil to cremate and carry around (cause I'm weird that way) he said he wouldnt leave it up to me and he'd write it in his will that alicettlg is to take care of it cause she will do it the way he wants it. Whatever :o/ Maybe your "John Doe" was just a really good guy. Thats how you should think about it. I'd probably drive myself nuts with it too if you wanna know the truth. I'm just neurotic that way lol :oP

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I still like the idea of the donor being a jerk and a drunk. It makes me feel like he got what was coming to him.

I've heard that bulimia is hard on your teeth (as well as the rest of you). Hope you get all the work you need done. I admit it's worth it in the end. The recovery part is kind of annoying, though. Meh.

[manicmandi.livejournal.com]

lol Ok if it makes you feel better thinking he was slime.
Maybe it'd do me some good to have to wait around for my mouth to heal lol. But knowing me that wouldnt stop me. I had just had my wisdom teeth removed once and I made my husband stop at sonic for cheese sticks....yuh, I'm SMAAARRRRT!
Are you going to Ren Fest this year? I can't remember if I asked you already.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Should have got a slushee drink, instead.

I used to go to Renn Fest every year, but I haven't been since I had my son. I guess I should leave him with the parents and try to make it out there. I only live right down the road from it, after all. I'm gonna try to make plans.

[manicmandi.livejournal.com]

I will be there most every weekend :oD Let me know if you are going.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Will do.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Kantiandream - you changed your name! I didn't recognize you at first.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Allow me to beg for your indulgence.

I plead Not My Fault and Victim of Circumstance. Over the weekend, my internet was down. Monday, I was off line and doped up on painkillers (I could have read my friends page, but wouldn't have remembered any of it), and Tuesday I was sick and didn't care to log in (and risk getting sick all over my keyboard).

When I got back on my feet, I decided to just jump in midstream and try to figure what was going on with everyone rather than spend 6 hours reading the backlog of my friends page, only to discover you're a whole new man.

Boy, miss a few days and everything changes. Who wouldn't be surprised at such a transformation? ;)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Ah, what's a little thing like the death penalty to me? You forget I live in Texas. No place kills people quite like we kill people here. Under aged? Retarded? No problem! They're never to young or too dumb to know how to roll up their sleeve so an IV can be inserted.

I know who all the best lawyers are. In fact, I'm calling Rusty Hardin right now. I hear he's done pestering Anna Nicole Smith for awhile. I'm sure he'll take my case on appeal. ;D

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Isn't it obvious? I sent it to you over the Internet as a virus. ;)

Hope you feel better soon.

[babyalligator.livejournal.com]

hi there.
krissyfits tells me she really enjoys reading your journal, that you have really interesting stories. i can see that's true!
mind if i add you?

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

The more the merrier! I took the initiative and added you first. :)

[callmekili.livejournal.com]

i dont want to make the creepy feeling any worse but there is this show called bones on fox that had a story similar not too long ago... the only difference is this woman who worked for the hospital was salty cause she couldnt make it through med school so she kept up this lab that was supposed to send bones for grafts to area hospitals... come to find out the bitch had taken the bones from a guy who was in his 60's (when the patients and families were told that the bones came from a person in their 20's)... theres more.. but i think thats enough, i dont want to freak you out to the point of... well... we'll just leave it at that :)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Aggggghhhhhhhhhh!