1 month before surgery!!!

So my surgery date is set... January 13, 2015!

I have my final surgical wires on my braces.
The Surgeon is taking all my pre-surgical  X-rays, MRI, molds, etc next week.
I have requested my time off of work.
My wonderful and very supportive husband has requested time off of work to take care of me in my invalid state.
My mother-in-law bought me the most amazing Vitamix blender to ensure I will have adequate nutrition (and my old hand-me-down blender is headed to the donation pile)
Now I just need to stock up on smoothie making materials, Ensure, Chicken Broth, and all the other recommendations from random internet blogs of people who have gone through this (why are they all in England or Canada, where are the Americans?!?)

I'm nervous, recovery sounds awful, but I'm still keeping all the positives firmly in mind (my future self had better thank me for this!) 
Including:

• Teeth that actually touch (oh the foods I'll be able to eat!!)
• No tension headaches from poorly aligned teeth (maybe I'll be smarter if my head doesn't always hurt!)
• Improved breathing (decreased risk for sleep apnea which decreases my risk for a heart attack!!!) 
• but mostly I'm just excited about the food I'll get to eat!  I could make a list longer than this post of food I've missed and will be able to eat again without grinding or rending my fool like the half-bovine creature I feel like I am now.

I'll post again right before the surgery and try to post daily here afterward in case anyone wants to follow along in my recovery with me.

Until then I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Phase III: Orthognathic surgery

09/22/2014

So it is official. I met with my orthognathic surgeon a couple weeks ago and then saw my orthodontist again today and I'm truly gearing up for some serious surgery.  There was definitely a part of me that was so hopeful that the braces might be a mini- miracle and I wouldn't need surgery after they did their part...

Braces Adjustment

February 2014

I had my braces adjusted on Monday.  The Orthodontist popped off and reapplied a couple brackets and upped the wire strength on the bottom teeth.  Not too bad actually.  I'm back to eating soft foods, but not baby food... Thank goodness!

But every time I go back to the orthodontist or tell someone new why I have braces in my 30's, I start the whole anxiety spiral over the surgery all over again.  Its not just that I have a black hole in my calendar between September and January where I can't make plans (which IS really annoying!). Its more the thought of someone cutting up my face terrifies me and that I am voluntarily letting them.  Sure its for quality life, decreasing chronic pain, and ensuring that I have good nutrition by being able to chew food in the future... however this surgery is not like an emergency appendectomy where the doctors go to work and I am not sitting around anticipating it for 2 years.  

So as a habit, after I start getting anxious I scour the web to find someone who had had this same procedure and how they survived/thrived with it.  Most of the videos on youtube.com  that I find are done by ~17 yr old girls in the UK who had a severe under-bite, which is close to what I'm expecting but not quite my problem or my recovery path.  I found this one (below) today.  

The video is designed by an Australian surgeon, but the video is of a girl who has very, very similar bite occlusion and jaw pain as I do. And the positive results she seems to of found are reassuring. It reminds me as to the reasons that I am torturing myself (and draining my bank account)!  So if anyone reading this is wondering why I am doing all this work and willing putting up with all this discomfort check out the video:

PS. It also inspires me to do a video blog.  Don't worry I won't torture you all this far out, but I'll probably record a few pre- and post- surgery videos.

Hello from snowy Virginia!

Hello from snowy Virginia!

Sorry I haven't written in a few months. My orthodontist decided not to change my wires in December which has actually lead to a wonderful 15- weeks of no changes to my mouth. Well any relative changes... I have noticed that my teeth have gotten straighter on the bottom and I am starting to get some gaps between a few teeth on the top.   Not hillbilly gaps yet, but I believe I will get there before this stage is done!

The headaches are starting to return a bit, I never thought for a minute I would miss that chunk of plastic splint, but I guess I didn't appreciate it enough until I had my first 3-day migraine in a year.  Too bad it wasn't a permanent fix!

But truly the best part in the last 15 months has been these past 3 weeks, my teeth have really dialed down on the soreness and I have been able to chew many more foods that have been challenging for the past year.  My front teeth still do not touch (and I don't expect them too until after the surgery) so there is no biting into a sandwich, but I've really been able to chew again with my back right teeth.  I've even been able to eat lettuce/salads and pizza this week!  Unfortunately its back to the orthodontist in another week, so I plan to eat everything under the sun in case the teeth sensitivity flare up again.  But I'm hopeful that maybe it was just so awful because it was the initial 6 months of braces and that the rest of this year will be a cakewalk...well that is until THE surgery.