Tooth problems

Jon is still too swamped to post to his blog. He gave me permission to share this e-mail that he sent me earlier this week. Thank you for your prayers for his tooth and his busy schedule.

"Another situation that could use prayer is my tooth, one on the upper right, that has been an issue for some time. Back at Pendleton, the doc thought it might be a hairline fracture on the tooth, so he put a special kind of cap on the tooth to keep if from 'splitting' and causing me pain--the only discomfort I experienced was when eating very hard objects, like corn nuts :) That seemed to work for about 6 months, and then, shortly before I deployed, it was getting pressure sensitive again. I went to the same dentist, and he said we'd eventually have to do a root canal, but it was too early (it would need to get temperature sensitive, to both hot and cold, before it would need to be done). He said there was a great dentist here that could do it.

Well, I spoke to the great dentist here, he's a great guy, but limited in what stuff they have, and he told me that he can't do root canals (at the base I'm at, and flying you after oral surgery is against military regulations), only pulpectomies. These are apparently stop gap measures, and he said they would have to go back in every 3 or 4 months to redo the pulpectomy to tide me over until I got back to the states. It is not something that can be done during the two weeks in the states, because it takes two weeks to get the temporary crown fitted, and then there is the not being able to fly after surgery thing again (I think its two weeks after). So bottom line, the dentist here suggested putting off any surgery at all until the last possible moment, and when I can't take the pain anymore, they'll rush me to the front of the line, do the pulpectomy, and then I'm on that three months cycle thing until I get back... So pray that God would arrest the corruption of this tooth and the attack on my nerve until I get back to the good ol' US of A."

Sheryl for Jarhedjon