3 Tough Years
In 2013, Things began to get hairy for me medically. At the time I just
assumed that these things that were happening to me were random and not
connected. We now know that while they are isolated on their own (the KS
did not cause them) the KS did affect how they affected my overall body. ‘
I went to the dentist in November of 2012 and found out that out of my 27
teeth left that 17 of them were going to need root canals. I did not have the
insurance as an actor to get those fixed so I just put my oral issues on the
back burner until I could afford them. It is important though before we go on to mention a Dental Rarity called Taurodontism that affects a lot of XXY men and often goes on untreated
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927363/
Then in January of 2013 while at a
local Amusement Park, I saw a spider on my right ankle. I brushed it away
and about 10 minutes later saw a bite arise. I went into the bathroom
washed it with water and then went to first aid for treatment. 1 day later my
foot was the size of a small Ham. Within 8 days I was in a local hospital
with MRSA and a confirmed Brown Recluse bite and spent that weekend
wondering if they were going to amputate the leg below the Knee. The Dr.
at the time decided at the end of that week I would be released and could
not return to work until the ankle had healed and the treatment at home
had ended. I spent the next two months at home, entertaining a home
nurse. I also had a picc line inserted under my armpit for easy assertion of
the 24 hour admission of Antibiotics. I was on the highest dosage of
Vancomycin and Zosyn (We have since seen each other multiple times since then) you could have everyday coursing through my body.
Those antibiotics scourged my immune system. My already compromised
KS Immune System.
‘
Once I had healed I began having IBS and Crohn’s like symptoms. I also started blacking out and waking up in weird places in the house. I headed
back to work and had been back only a week. It was at this time that I was
bit by something at work higher up on the same leg. This bite reacted
differently. This bite started to tear through my leg tissue in a downward
motion all the way to the thigh muscle. It looked as if I had been shot in the
leg. The area became hard and rock like. I went back into the Hospital for 5
weeks. They had no idea what was happening but put me back on
Vancomycin and Zosyn. They tried to use the Ultrasound machine to see if
there were pockets of fluid inside. Eventually they drained it and packed it
everyday for 3 weeks until it closed. The wound went all the way past the leg
muscle. My Doctor Kay Hoosimand , kept asking me if I felt anything, because I should be screaming and climbing the walls. I felt nothing. To give you an idea, she
was using those really long tweezers to pack the wound. Those tweezers
were entering all the way into the wound up to her fingers to apply the
ribbon packing. Now I have a dent in the leg where the hole was.
When I finally returned to work back in May. I went back to the dentist and
found out that all the antibiotics I had been on supposedly sped up the
decay in my mouth. That now all 27 remaining teeth had decay and my
jawline had extreme bacteria and decay in the bone. The overall fear was
that if I didn’t do something soon, my whole jaw could collapse and slide.
It was decided that all teeth needed to be removed and I would undergo
extensive reconstructive jaw surgery. This would entail, teeth removal, jaw
breaking, jaw webbing, jaw bridges on the upper and lower plates, Bone
grafting, Bone fissures being scraped down and eventual dentures. A lot of
people ask me why I didn’t have implants done . One, That would be pretty
expensive. Two, even now with KS my bones are too weak and would not
support the implants. When I found out initially what needed to be done I
became depressed. How on earth would I be able to afford any of this.? I also was a requested tour guide on the Queen Mary and already had employees covering for me when i needed to run to a bathroom but now my Teeth were going to be falling out!!
When the Orthodontist heard my story, He ended up covering everything.
He would often say during the process , that he understood Klinefelters and
I will possibly have more issues going forward. Great, that made my day so
much better! Talk about being blessed by God. He ended up covering the
whole bill to the tune of $36,000.00 The whole Jaw process took 5 months of
going every week. I was even working at the time just to pay bills and rent. I
found out during this time Just how strong I really was. Although I loved
living in California, I had decided that I would move closer to my family in
the South. Going through what I had already gone through was hard
enough without having my Mom and Dad close by.
In January of 2015 I moved to Atlanta. Even though I was going on a
trip of a lifetime, I thought that Atlanta would be a good place to be with
work and acting. Before I left on the Trip I played a Dr. on a popular show about Vampires! I had NEW Teeth and then Got To have pointy Ones too…Life seemed to be shaping Up
This was going to be a great fit for me.