My first appointment with the oral surgeon was this past Thursday, 11/21/13. He was a nice guy, and the office staff was super friendly and accommodating. I had to bring the baby with me because they had to reschedule my original appointment (11/20) and I had no babysitter (aka: husband) home at the time of the new appointment. Anywho, they were all really friendly with the baby and talked about how good and cute she was and didn't make me feel like a total idiot for bringing an infant to an oral surgeon's office.
At the appointment, he went over what the orthodontist had already told me, except he added in that he *might* also have to do something with my lower jaw. He said I am such a fine line between upper and lower jaw that he won't know for sure until the end. Most likely it will just be the upper though. I hope it's just the upper. He said it could be an outpatient surgery where I would leave the same day, or it will be a "23 hour stay" so I stay the night after surgery and go home the next morning. Honestly, I'm not sure which I prefer. At first I was all for the outpatient so I could be home with my kids. But from what I'm gathering from other folks who have had this surgery, I'll be pretty out of it. I sort of think I may feel more at ease under a nurse's supervision for the night. I guess whatever he decides will be for the best in the end.
The worst news of the whole appointment is that he wants to remove my two wisdom teeth in 4 months. He said he needs them out at least 6 months prior to surgery, so I set up my appointment for 3/11/14. I know this is not a big deal to most people, but I know it's going to affect breastfeeding. My baby will only be 11-months-old. I am hoping that I will be able to just go one day without feeding her. I know I'm getting IV sedation, but I'm not sure how long that stays in my system and in my milk. Also, I'm hoping I can get away with just taking a little ibuprofen during the recovery. I'll just pump and dump for the day to keep my supply up. That means I really, really need to make sure that the baby is super comfortable taking bottles, because it is going to break my heart to hear her hungry and know that I can't feed her. I kept asking him what kind of medications I would be getting and I told him the reason for my concern was that I'm still nursing the baby. He said, "Well this will be in 4 months, how old is she now?" Silly Doc! I've sort of made peace with the fact that it's happening and I'm just planning for March. I have plenty of pumped milk, plus Cora will be eating a lot of food by then, I assume. I guess only time will tell. If you know me, you know that I'm a big planner and organizer and I stress about stuff like this, so it sucks. I have one upper right wisdom tooth and one lower left tooth. He said he absolutely needs to remove the upper since he's operating on the upper jaw. He said he wants to remove the lower too in case he decides to operate on the lower jaw. He'd rather do them both at once, and I agree with that.
The rest of the appointment he explained my bite problems and told me that I'm compensating for the jaw malformation by doing something with my lower jaw. I don't know exactly what, he just kept manipulating my lower jaw into the position it should be in. It hurt a lot in my TMJ area when he did that. I don't know what that means???
Now that I'm home I've thought of a million other questions and I have been super duper nervous. But that's a post for another day.
Monday is B day. Braces day. Ugh. I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend eating popcorn and chewing gum. If I can, I'll get some copies of X-rays and photos on Monday to help explain my situation and so you can follow my progress.
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