Me And My Tumor

Before you read this, run your tongue across the roof of your mouth. Is it a nice smooth arch, or is there a bump sticking down out of the middle? If there is a bump, congradulations, you have a tumor.

I learned this medical tidbit when I was in high school. I went to the dentist once and he freaked me out twice. First, he told me I wasn't pregnant. I don't know why he thought I would go to the dentist for a pregnancy test. Apparently your gums change color or get puffy or something when you are pregnant. Never being pregnant, I can't test that theory. Maybe Mom or Mary can comment on that.

Then he told me not to worry about that tumor in my mouth. Now that got my attention. What tumor? It turns out that with some people, when the bone that keeps your brain from falling into your mouth forms, it keeps growing a little too much and instead of ending up nice and flat you end up with a little bump on the roof of you mouth. It isn't any problem, unless it grows so big it interferes with your ability to talk or eat. I had never noticed it was even there. I mean, how many times do you check the roof of your mouth, unless you just burned it on red hot, gooey pizza cheese? And even if I had noticed a bump on the top of my mouth I wouldn't have known that was anything unusual, since I didn't have anything to compare it with. I mean, if it had been sticking out of the center of my forehead I would have noticed nobody else had anything like it, but I never looked at the roof of anybody else's mouth, so how was I to know?

Now you know.