#I still can't believe I wrote Nathan's story arc before I knew I had metal poisioning lmao

[thebibliosphere]

Been following you for years and am very, very glad you're not only still here but are in fact continuing to recover! Loved Phangs, can't wait for book 2!

No pressure to answer but did your awful dental situation get resolved yet? Did you have all those poisonous fillings removed, or is that still on the list? I'm guessing your other health crises took priority, and then the whole pandemic thing?

Much love and appreciation, and pets for Holly Mop :)

Aw, thank you. That's very kind of you to say.

Magic Dentist Man managed to remove enough of my contaminated fillings for me to heal and recover from the mercury poisoning/major jaw bone infection, and my mouth is now much better. My last x-ray even showed that most of my jawbone has regrown, so all those painful surgeries were worth it.

I still have two fillings that need to be replaced, but they are not contaminated. (I'm just mildly allergic to them, lol.) I had to take a break from a lot of the procedures we were doing because my overall health became too unstable in 2018-2019, and I was too weak to undergo any more procedures. We also found out that due to my MCAS/EDS, I'm not a good candidate for metal braces, which was the initial plan to try and correct my unstable jaw. My dentist was looking into whether I'd be a good candidate for Invisalign when the pandemic hit, and all my non-essential care ground to a halt.

I've been back for a couple of cleanings since then. I was petrified of what they might find because before the pandemic, I was getting my teeth cleaned every 2-3 months to keep on top of the bone infection(s)/gum problems I'd been having from all the procedures, but my mouth is pretty much healed! There are none of the infection or high inflammation markers I had before, and my mouth and jaw are mostly pain-free these days :)

The nerve damage that makes it hard for me to swallow is still there, but that's life.

We're still hoping to try and stabilize my jaw and fix some of the gaps in my smile that I was left with, but I can afford to wait, which is nice. It's nice not to be throwing 10+k a year at the dentist to stay alive!