Whoa! Has it really been 6 months?!

I am so profoundly sorry it has taken me this long to updated. Life has taken its hold on me and snapped me back to reality. But guess what?! I got my braces off yesterday!

See:

It's been a long road, but I couldn't possibly be any happier with the results. And for your viewing pleasure....a profile shot.

3 Weeks and 1 Day Post-Op

As you can see, the swelling has gone down considerably. But, my right cheek is still a little puffy. Hardly noticeable, unless you're me. Things are coming along nicely, though. I go to see Dr. A on Tuesday and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he tells me I can start only wearing my rubber bands at night. That will be a HUGE relief because not only does it mean that my teeth won't be clamped together anymore causing me indescribable amounts of discomfort and aggravation, but also that I might just be able to start eating soft foods. A small progression towards being able to eat normal food again....just in time for my trip to Las Vegas for my best friend, Sonja's wedding.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is when they start therapy on my jaw. So far, I've only been able to open it wide enough to barely stick my tooth brush in. I can feel my jaw lock on my left side and I'm afraid to force it open any wider. I know at some point I'm gonna have to bite the proverbial bullet and just c

rack it open. Hopefully, therapy will offer a less barbaric resolution. Dr. L is on Wednesday, he'll give it a quick look and maybe start therapy then. Time will tell.

I still haven't regained feeling in my lip and chin

on the left side. But, I do feel some tingling and

tickling sensations that drive me absolutely batty! It's almost like I can feel a hair on my chin or an itch but when I go to wipe it away or scratch it, there's nothing there and no matter what I do the itch won't go away. Very, VERY frustrating. It's far better than what I was experiencing last week. The slightest puff of air on my chin would send it into a frenzy. It was difficult to concentrate when this was going on. I couldn't do any of my work and it was agonizing to attempt falling asleep. I even wondered how people live with this sort of thing on an extended basis. It was enough to drive me to jump from the nearest cliff...not that one of those would be easy to come by here in Florida, but you get my point. Anyhoo. That's my progress and I'm sticking to it.

Ciao!

Donna

My, my....Time does fly...

It's been a week and a half since my surgery and my doctor is impressed with how fast I'm healing and of course he's patting himself on the back abit about how good of a job he did. I certainly can't begrudge him that. I'd hope for nothing less. This is me the day I got out of the hospital and into my own bed.

P

roblems I'm having though are from the rubber bands that are to keep my mouth shut. Apparently they are so tough that they've broken loose three of my brackets. Any more break loose and I'm not gonna have any teeth left to hook them on! I hesitate in calling Dr. A because he'll want me to go see Dr. L (which I am doing next wednesday anyway) to get them rebonded. The problem is...I can still only open my mouth a teeny tiny bit. My lower jaw isn't giving much yet, so they won't be able to stick that plastic thing that's supposed to keep my mouth open so they can work on my teeth with out saliva getting all over everything. So...I know it's a moot point to even go. There's nothing they can do at this point. So, lets just hope that the rest of the brackets hold until the time that I can actually open my mouth without being in excruciating pain!

This picture, to the left, is from today. The swelling is hard to notice, but my cheeks are fuller than they normally are. My doctor's were quite impressed with how quickly my swelling had gone down. I've lost about 8lbs so far. Doesn't really feel like it, but the scale doesn't lie! (yeah right!) The food thing hasn't been too bad. Once I finished the antibiotic and was feeling relatively normal, I started venturing out of the ensure/cream-o-potato soup/apple juice realm that they had me on in the hospital and started experimenting.

Pureed peaches...yuck!

Pureed homemade vegetable soup....yum!

Ravioli & Spagetti & Meatballs in a blender....Yum! (If you liked it in the first place, of course)

Cream of Wheat...Mmmm, mmm good.

I've been told that a big mac in a blender...with the assistance of beef broth taste pretty good, but I'm not willing to try it. I'll just stick to soups, apple sauce, and C.o.W. Those seem to be working out pretty well for me. Oh, and V8 Fusion is pretty darn good, too! For some odd reason, I don't really like the V8 Splash.

Here are two pictures from before & after the surgery, just to give you an idea.

Four Days Out...

My surgery was on Wednesday morning, and it is now Saturday afternoon. I was discharged from the hospital about this time yesterday. Overall, I feel pretty good. Mostly, I feel tired and the occasional spasm or tickle in my chin that even when I scratch it doesn't seem to go away.

My biggest fear, the pain, hasn't been that bad. I was not as dependent on the morphine pump as most people expected and the doctors were all surprised at how well I was doing. Dr. A and Lynn both said that I might have been one of their best patients ever. ;-) It really wasn't as bad of an experience as I was expecting.

I did throw up the first night out of surgery because of the blood, but that was it. All-in-all, I'm just trying to find the energy to keep up with my class work and figure out a way to wash my hair without getting my bandages wet.

Wish me luck. I'll post pictures later.

Kiss this face goodbye!

I honestly thought this day would never come. Now, a little less than twelve hours from now, I will be getting OUT of surgery, to be wheeled back to the ICU by the indians while the chiefs give themselves a few pats on the backs and maybe even a high-five for a job well done.

It hardly seems possible that it has been eight years since Dr. L first suggested that I have this surgery. Eight years, it took, to convince me that this was necessary. Eight years, to finally have good enough insurance to cover all but $200 of this almost 11k surgery. Whew! Thank god for good insurance. Either way, I'm sitting here on the day bed that will be my home for the next few weeks while I recover. Luckily, it's comfortable and one side incline's so I can lay comfortably and watch TV. Right about now, I wish I had a DVR so I could have been stockpiling it with my favorite shows and wouldn't have to suffer through reruns of Jerry Springer or, god help me, The View!!!!

So, I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am and my surgery is at 8 am. For anyone who knows me (well), you'll know how much agony I'll be in having to wait 2-1/2 hours for the surgery. I hate waiting. I just want to walk through the door, get knocked out and then rolled into the OR. I don't want to sit around and wait, thinking about what they're going to be doing to my face.

Honestly, though, that part doesn't scare me. Although, last night I was watching some mediaeval torture show and they were sawing a skeleton in half and I couldn't help but cringe. But, I digress. The part that scares me is how much pain I'll feel. I've read other blogs and none have really commented too much on the pain aspect of it, only to say that it wasn't that bad. That is (and isn't) comforting. It reminds me of what everyone always says about childbirth. It hurts like hell, but afterwards you don't remember it. Is that what this is going to be like. I'm gonna hurt like hell for a while, but then once I'm healed, I'll say, "Oh it wasn't that bad!"

Just like when I was getting my belly button pierced for the first time. Every one said, "It didn't hurt me at all." "Oh no, it's just a little pinch, you won't fell a thing."

Oh yes I did! THAT HURT LIKE HELL...and I wasn't about to go around telling people it didn't. To this day, if people ask if it hurt, I say, "HELL YES IT DID!" Hurt just as bad the second time around, too.

But, like my momma said, "don't dwell on it because the things we dwell on tend to expand."

Ain't that the truth!

Night all. I'll keep you posted.

Bad, Blogger! Bad!

I've been a bad, bad blogger. It's been a while since I've posted last and I know I promised to keep this thing up to date. But, alas, here we are. My surgery is in two days. I'm not as nervous as I think I should be, but I owe a lot of that to the Surgical Coordinator at Dr. A's office an the rest of Dr. A's team. They really answered all of my questions without me having to ask them and made me feel well prepared for this adventure.

There is one minor change though. Dr. A has decided to do a genoplasty while he's in there. That, in case you are wondering is a chin advancement. They didn't really explain to me why they wanted to do it other than I'd still be too short with out it, but medically I'm sure it has some significance. I would think that if I saw my profile and saw that I was still too short I'd try posturing forward which is what started this whole mess in the first place. So...maybe that's why. I'll see a perfect jawline and not feel the need to push it forward to compensate. Hmm.... Okay. Works for me!

I've talked to a lot of people and read a lot of stories. One of the most comforting things I've heard is the pain isn't that bad. Out of all the people I've heard from, none have really complained about the pain. The one thing that did make me a little nervous was the blood in the stomach and vomiting. OH! How I hate to throw up. But, thanks to Dr. A, I don't think I'll have that problem. They use a g-tube that will suck it all out of my stomach! YAY!

So, were in the final stretch of on part of my adventure and I have to say that it came up alot quicker that I expected it to. Back in April when I first got my braces back on, I thought September would never get here. But, lo! and behold! Two days and counting...

Wish me luck!

I'll be out of work for about two weeks so I'll have plenty of time to update you with my progress and pictures.

Look for one last before picture probably tomorrow. :-D

Time flies when you're having fun...

Uhm....right. Fun. That's what this is. Whooohooo! *lets out a giddy whoop at the thought of visiting the orthodontist next week.*

I don't know if it is simply the nature of what they're doing to my mouth that makes this time worse than the first time I wore braces, but this time SUCKS! Every time I have an adjustment I can't chew properly for about two weeks, brackets pop off and bands come loose. I have to visit the orthodontist at least once to replace brackets in between adjustments. I'm waiting for them to start charging me. Ugh!

But, it's been three months and it's been going by rather fast. Before long, it'll be time for the surgery. Exciting, right? Eh...