2 weeks!!!

Monday was 2 weeks since my surgery, but I haven't found the time to update till now!

Not a whole lot has changed.  I'm still swollen in my upper lip and cheeks under my eyes.  I have been "eating" things like yogurt, pudding, and pastina (really tiny pasta), basically anything that I can take from a spoon and swallow without chewing.   That's why I'm using the term eating loosely here.  I feel like it's not eating if you're not chewing.  It really is a weird thing.  I can't fully taste or enjoy food. It's just sad, lol.  I really took the ability to chew for granted.  Now I know.

I'm going for my 3rd post op check up tomorrow am, so I may have more to report after that.

I've been feeling decent.  Not ready to run a marathon, but able to get out and about and function.  I keep trips to only a few hours because I'm not able to eat in public (easily or comfortably), so I just skip out between meals.

Here's how I look:

Here's a comparison of day 1 to 2 weeks: 

Definitely an improvement.  Here's a comparison of 1 week and 2 weeks post op:

Big improvement, even though I still am swollen and not looking like myself.  

Day 10 - 2nd post op visit

Yesterday was day 10 post op.  I'm still a little swollen and numb/tingly mostly on my left cheek/upper lip.  I'm seriously missing food as well. Protein shakes and soup are old news.

I went for my second post op visit.  Doc says things are healing nicely.  I told him I was concerned about the way I look (I don't look quite like myself and don't wanna look this way forever). He assured me it's from the swelling, and told me to give it at least 6-8 weeks before I freak out.

He gave me the "ok" to remove my rubber bands to talk, eat, brush, etc.  I just have to keep them on most of the time.  He said next week, I'll probably switch to having them off for 12 hours then on for 12.

Stitches are healing nicely and my X-rays look good.  They look wayyyy different than my before X-rays, so I'm very anxious to see how that translates to my face.

He told me to sip drinks from a regular cup and try to eat soup from a spoon.  He also told me to try yogurt, pudding, ice cream, etc.  my diet is basically sugar, carbs, and dairy :/. Good news is I can say so long to that stupid syringe and hello to spilling soup all over myself lol.

Here's a pic:

Day 6 Post Surgery - 6/7/15

I never did an update for day 5, but it aS mostly same old.

Today was a big day. I got up, showered, dressed, put on some make up!  I took the girls to the park for a little while.  

Later on we went to a family party to celebrate St. Anthony's feast day.  Nothing like a party with a bunch of delicious italian food and desserts that I can't eat 😩.  It was nice to get out of the house, but it was hard trying to communicate.  I don't look great, but I felt ok so I figured why not go.

I ended up bringing home a meatball and lots of extra sauce which I put in the vitamix and ate via oral syringe.  Almost as good as the real thing.

As far as meds, I've been taking only the antibiotic and some Tylenol and sudafed. I'm not in pain.  I do have a lot of sinus pressure/headaches, so I'm trying to just treat that.  My face is still swollen and yellow bruised.  The pins and needles tingly feeling is driving me nuts.  I have to lay a cloth or my hand on my face to make the feeling go away!  I'm mostly ready to just get back to normal, so I hope my swelling goes down a lot this week and the tingly feeling goes away.

Here's a photo from today:

Here's a photo of how I eat (if you can call it that):

Day 4 Post Surgery 6/5/15

Friday was day 4 post op.  I woke up feeling pretty good.  I went downstairs and tim made me some cream of wheat. I hung out with my 2 year old for an hour or so, then felt like I wanted to rest.  Still, I had no pain meds.  The swelling seemed like it has gone down, bruising is not too bad (just yellowish on my cheeks).

My appetite is definitely back.  I was so hungry, all I could think about is food.  I definitely want a cheeseburger and fries as my first meal in 6 weeks lol.  I'm making a list! Last week I wasn't in the mood for anything, but now that I'm starving, I want EVERYTHING! 

I spent a decent part of day 4 out of bed.  I was feeling pretty good.  The numbness is going away, so my face is very tingly.  It's kind of driving me crazy.  Swelling seems about the same.

According to my scale, I've lost about 8 pounds since Monday.  

Here's a photo from day 4:

My nose has been looking crooked and I hope that is because one side of my face is more swollen.  Also, I can close my lips!

Day 3 Post Surgery - 6/4/15

 On this day I woke around 8:30, and felt that I wanted to get out of bed.  I decided to take a bath because we have an amazing bath tub that I had never used.  Also, I was afraid to stand in the shower for fear of being dizzy/lightheaded.  So, I drew a bath and laid in there for a while. It felt really good. Once I was finished, I brushed my teeth (mouth was still rubber banded shut) so only the outside teeth, the best I could with a baby toothbrush.  That was my first time brushing after surgery. Until that point I was only using the prescription mouthwash.  I felt tired so I laid down in my towel and ended up falling back asleep for an hour or so.  

We had a doctor appointment with my surgeon at 12:15, so my mom offered to wash my sheets while I was gone.  So I got up, dressed (yoga pants and tshirt, if that counts), and actually went downstairs for the first time since I had been home.  I was feeling better than I had been, so I decided not to take any pain meds.  I'm not a fan of feeling loopy, so I really only wanted to take them is I absolutely had to.  

I was feeling super weak and lightheaded, but I'm pretty sure they was due to the lack of eating food lol.  Tim took me to the surgeon's office, and they took some different X-rays.  The nurse there showed me the new X-rays versus my old X-rays, and wow what a difference. 

Then the doc came in and showed me how to take off and put on my rubber bands.  He told me to brush and rinse 5 times a day.  He also told me to eat 5-6 times a day.  He encouraged ensure protein type drinks with lots of protein and calories, so we got some.

When we got home,  I was feeling tired so I went upstairs and laid down.  I slept for maybe an hour and then woke up STARVING!  I sent tim out to the grocery store to get me some soup, and he came home with 10 different varieties (good thing since I can't eat much else).  Heput the soup in the vitamix, and it was the perfect consistency to use the oral syringe.  It tasted SO good.  I've been having cream of wheat, puréed soup, and smoothies to eat.  I tried the ensure things, but they are pretty gross.  Plus I'm not a sweet eater, so smoothies and yogurt and cream of wheat are already boring to me.

I ended up taking another bath before bed because I felt like I had spilled so much food on myself that day.  I took only 1/2 a percoset before bed, and that was my only pain medication at all for day 3.

Here's a photo from day 3: 

Day 2 Post Op - 6/3/15

Day 2 was my first day waking at home.  I was pretty swollen.  I spent the majority of the day in bed.  Actually, besides walking a few steps to my bathroom to pee, I was in bed the entire day.  Not much to report.  I took my meds on schedule (including percoset every 6 hours).  I sipped water and maybe some juice.  My mom was here taking care of the kids, and she made mashed potatoes for dinner, so I ate puréed mashed potatoes with chicken broth so it was pretty liquid.  So far meds have all been crushed, mixed with water and taken via oral syringe.  All food/drinks have been via oral syringe or just me sipping from a cup.  I had to use a towel on my chest because otherwise it would be a total mess.  Eating was tiring and frustrating, but I didn't have much of an appetite, so I would have a few sips and give up.  

Here's a photo from day 2:

Day 1 Post Surgery - 6/2/2015

Day 1 Post Op started out in the hospital.  I didn't get a ton of sleep because I had to pee every hour and the nurses had to give me meds and check vitals.  I decided to "wake up" for the day around 7:30.  At 7:45 I rang my call bell to ask for pain meds, but the nurse just turned it off and ignored me. My nurse totally sucked, and I couldn't wait to leave.  Tim finally went and got her around 8 am, so I took 1 vicodin at that point.  I had to leave right after to get wheeled down to the oral surgery office in the hospital to get some X-rays done.  Nothing like sitting in a dentist office one day after surgery in a wheelchair while everyone stares at you. The doctors and assistant were nice, and luckily I was in and out in only about 30 minutes.  

I got back to my eoom and peed again, even though the nurse had actually DCed  my IV fluids at like 5 am.  I still had a lot of fluids in me I guess.  My breakfast tray was there with orange juice and cream of wheat.  They told me to stick with clear liquids since I vomited so much on surgery day, but I felt fine.  So, I had the OJ via a syringe, then a few small bites of cream of wheat via oral syringe.  It was nice to finally (sort of) eat something.

The doctor (resident) showed up shortly after and told me he send the X-rays to my surgeon.  He said they were waiting to hear back from him, but that once they got the "ok," I would be ok to leave.

We didn't hear anything for another two hours, so I was getting anxious.  Tim asked the front desk clerk and they must have called my surgeon because about 15 minutes later the nurse came in with my prescriptions and paperwork.  She took out my IVs (I had two but she didn't realize because they were near each other so she pretty much ripped the second one out and I bled. She sucked.

They wheeled me to the front door while Tim got the car, and we drove straight home.  He dropped me off, and I went up to bed while he went to the pharmacy.    I got home around 1:00.  He was back by 2:30ish? and he filled everything except they gave me Percocet instead of vicodin.  It's a little stronger so I was wanting vicodin, but at that point I was in pain so I didn't care.  I took one and it knocked me out.  I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping or just laying in bed.  I had some chicken broth and some water and juice I think.  

Here's a photo from day 1:

Here's tim trying to sleep in the hospital with me:

Day 0 - Surgery Day - 6/1/2015

I'm finally feeling up to blogging, so I'll start with surgery day.

I was pretty nervous.  I kept myself so busy with the kids that it didn't sink in until Sunday night.  I was just nervous about the recovery and how shitty I was going to feel when I woke up.

My mom spent the night here to take care of the kids, and Tim took me to the hospital at 6 am.  My surgery time was 8 am, but I had to get all prepped so 6 am was arrival time.  We walked to the surgical suite and checked in.  After about 10 minutes they called me back to prep and holding.  The nurse checked my weight, vital signs, pregnancy test, hemoglobin, etc.  everything checked out.  A friend of mine who is an OR nurse at the hospital came to see me and o told her how nervous I was. She gave me a hug and told me everything would be fine!  It made me feel better that I knew someone who was looking out for me :)

The anesthesiologist came and talked me to and started my IV, then the surgeon and his resident both came and talked to me.  A lot of the same questions over and over. Finally the nurse anesthetist (my BFF) showed up and gave me what she called a "martini" in my IV.  That really took the edge off.  I remember feeling a little tingly and telling the nurses that I felt it working.  They took me to the OR, I saw the lights and all the techs and everything.  They asked me to scoot over from the stretcher to the surgery bed which I was able to do.  Once I had my head positioned they strapped my arms and legs down.  I felt fine and wasn't panicking at all, must have been the martini.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the PACU.  I felt my mouth was SO dry.  I said, "mouth is dry."  I asked for a wet sponge or something for my mouth, bs they did give me something.  I was still a little out of it.  After about 10-15 minutes I was feeling awake, so they wheeled me to my room and brought my husband in.

I think he was a little sad when he first saw me because I just looked awful lol.  Dried blood in my nostrils and my mouth.  I felt ok though.  Not a ton of pain because I was numb.

Over the next few hours they gave me tons of IV fluids and tried to get me to drink.  I had some water and ginger ale.  I had so many IV fluids that I had to pee every hour! So I had plenty of practice   out of bed.

I did have three episodes of nausea bs vomiting.  The second was the worst.  I vomited blood from my stomach and then my nose started bleeding.  The nurse called the doctor, then 5 oral surgery residents showed up.  I had gauze taped to my face to catch the blood and just looked like shit overall.

They offered me Zofran IV, so I took it, but it didn't help.  At that point I still hasn't had any pain meds.  They were offering me Dilaudid, which I did not want.  The doc told me he would write in for vicodin and I could just crush it and drink it through the syringe.

I ended up taking the vicodin and like 10 pm, but has to pee every hour from the IV fluids so I couldn't sleep anyways lol.  

Here's a few pics from day 0:

Bite Before:

Bite After:

I'll save the rest for day 1 post op 

Tomorrow is surgery day

well... Long story short.... I did not get my jaw surgery in November.  I am having my surgery tomorrow, June 1, 2015.  I will update later about what has happened between November and now.  Just wanted to start blogging about my recovery that starts tomorrow, I guess.

I'm a tad nervous.  It didn't really hit me until tonight when my bag was packed and the kids were in bed and my mom was here to take care of them (while hubby takes care of me).  I am definitely ready to get this over with, so that has helped me keep the nerves at bay for the most part.


I ate pizza and ice cream tonight.  Last night my husband took me out for drinks and I had a giant platter of nachos.  I seriously love nachos and will miss them dearly as I can't have crunchy foods for several months. :(  I honestly didn't binge as much as I had planned to because I was just not really in the mood for anything. Go figure. My husband said I'm going to be in the mood for a lot of things over the next 6 weeks, lol.

Anywho, I'm off to bed to try to sleep one last night before I sleep horribly in the weeks to come.  I have to arrive at the hospital at 6 am tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

I have a surgery date!!!!

Well, I have a surgery date.  I'm not thrilled that the date is FIVE MONTHS after the date I got cleared for surgery, but at least I have a date.  This is how it all went down....

June 23- Ortho cleared me for surgery.  I made an appointment for 8 weeks out, and the ortho told me that I would probably be calling back to cancel that appointment because I would probably have surgery before that.  I immediately called my surgeon to schedule an appointment for him to clear me.  First available appointment (I told them first available, any date any time I would make it work) was July 17.

July 17- Oral Surgeon clears me for surgery.  He tells me to go to the front desk and get my surgery date.  The ladies at the desk tell me that they have to call my insurance to get the surgery pre-certified or authorized or whatever.  I know this whole process because I'm a nurse, and I used to work in a doctor's office.  They say they will call me.

July 21-September 19- I call the surgeon's office every few days to bug them and ask them when my date is.  They refuse to give me a date and tell me to stop calling pretty much.

Sept 22 9:30 am- I go back to my orthodontist.  I actually cancelled my 8 week appt and rescheduled it for 12 weeks out.  So at this point it's been 12 weeks since he has seen me.  He thought I would have had my surgery about 4-6 weeks after the last time he saw me.  He asks me what the heck is going on and why I don't have a date.  I tell him all about the surgeon's office, and he is pretty annoyed.  He takes their phone number down and tells me he will call the surgeon himself.  I made an appointment for 6 weeks out, but he told me that I would probably have to cancel because my surgery would probably be in 2-4 weeks.  Sweet!

Sept 22 11:00 am- I get a call from my ortho telling me that he spoke to the surgeon.  He says the surgeon had no idea this was going on, and he was upset about how his staff was handling the situation.  He tells me to expect a call from them with a surgery date within a day or two.

Sept 22 11:15am- Surgeon's office calls and magically has a date for me!  The b*tch lady I always spoke to tells me that she has my date!  She acts like it's just a coincidence that she has a date the same day that I know my orthodontist called her boss.  Funny how that works out.  Anyways, she tells me my surgery date is Monday, Nov. 10th.

So, SEVEN weeks away!  Not 2.  Not 4.  SEVEN.  Still, I was happy to at least have a date. I made my appt. for my physical with my primary care doc, my appt. with the surgeon for my pre-op visit, and my appt. with my ortho to get my surgical hooks put on.  My mom requests 3 days off work to watch my kids so my husband can take care of me.

Oct 3- My surgeon's office calls again.  It's b*tch lady.  She tells me there was a "scheduling conflict" and they had to move my surgery date.  Yup.  As if this couldn't get any more annoying.  My new date is Nov. 17th.  I reschedule the rest of my doctor and ortho appointments to coordinate with my new surgery date.  My mom cancels her request off from work and changes it to the new dates.

So,  the good news is I have a date.  Hopefully it won't change again.  The bad news is, the absolute earliest that I will be able to eat solid food is December 29th.  So Thanksgiving and Christmas are really going to suck this year.  Another silver lining?  Wine is not solid food.

The Waiting Game.......

I haven't posted in a while because I have been pretty annoyed about this whole process.....

In March, I developed a gap between my lower front two teeth as a result of them widening my arch.  The main reason I needed the braces before the surgery was to widen my arch so that my bottom teeth and top teeth will fit together once my jaw is cut and pinned into place.

The ortho said that he would like to just remove my arch wire on the bottom to close the gap quickly because I was on track and progressing rather quickly. He made a comment about us just moving this along as quickly as possible.  He removed the wire, and I went back a week later with my gap closed.

At that appointment he told me that he thought I would be ready by summer for surgery.  He made a few adjustments to my wires and told me to come back in 6 weeks.

My appointment 6 weeks later was at the end of April.  At that appointment, my ortho told me that I was almost ready, and that he thought I would be cleared for surgery in June or July.  I was excited because I really want to get this over with obviously.  I tried not to get my hopes up, but I was sort of hoping for end of June early July to get this done.  He told me to come back for my next adjustment in 8 weeks.

My appointment 8 weeks later was on June 23, 2014. On that date, my orthodontist cleared me for surgery.  I was so excited to hear that I was ready.  He said the next step was to call the surgeon and schedule an appointment for the surgeon to clear me.  I called the surgeon as soon as I got to my car and took the first available appointment they had, which wasn't until July 17th.  My hopes of a late June early July surgery were gone........

At the July 17th appointment, my surgeon checked everything and agreed that I was indeed ready for surgery.  He cleared me for surgery and then took me up to the front desk.  The girls there said that they couldn't schedule anything until they had the surgery pre-certified by my insurance company.  I'm a nurse and I used to work for a doctor's office, so I'm pretty familiar with the pre-cert process.  I was thinking within a few weeks I would have an answer........

BUT as of today, I still have nothing.  In late July I got a letter from my insurance company that the surgery was denied because they needed a lot more information, like photos, X-rays, molds of my teeth, etc.  The surgeon's office told me that was normal and that insurance always denies the first time.  What annoyed me was that 2 weeks later when I called to check on things, they still had not gathered all of the information needed to submit to the insurance.  Today when I spoke to them the told me they had submitted everything, but are still waiting for a response.

It's so frustrating to me that I have been cleared for surgery for over 2 months now and still don't have a date.  I have a husband, kids, a small business to run, and it's really difficult to plan the next few months of my life without having an idea of when I will be in surgery, recovery, etc.  

I feel better now that I've bitched about this all.  I'll keep you posted when I get my date.  I'm hoping for the first week of October since I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding on Sept. 26th.

Wisdom Teeth are OUT!

Yesterday morning I had my two wisdom teeth removed.  The oral surgeon told me in November 2013 that he would need to remove the teeth because he wouldn't be able to operate on my jaw if they were in place.  I had one impacted on my lower left side and one that grew in on my upper right side.  I was so nervous about having the sedation, that was biggest fear.  And it was nothing to even worry about!

When I first arrived I had some new x-rays and impressions taken.  They wanted to be able to compare the x-rays and impressions from yesterday to the ones from a few months ago to see how I'm progressing.  That took about a half hour or so, then the surgeon came in to start my IV.  I told him I was nervous about being sedated because I don't like that loopy, out-of-control feeling.  He said I'd get better sedation from drinking a bottle of wine.  I asked if I could just do that instead.  He was very nice about it all, put the IV in, and then I saw the nurse hand him a syringe.  He said, "This will take about 30 seconds to kick in."  I felt my feet start to tingle a little and then I was out.  I could hear them talking and hear noises, but I can't remember anything specific that was said or done.  I also could see colors, kind of like when your eyes are closed but you can tell when the lights are on or off.  Sometimes I would see dark, sometimes yellow, sometimes red.  Maybe it was depending on the surgeon moving the big overhead light?  Anyways, I felt like I was sort of fine the whole time hearing and seeing colors.  Then they woke me up and said, "You're done!"  It felt like it was only 5 minutes, but I think it was about 15 minutes or so.

As soon as they woke me up, someone was removing my IV from my arm and then someone else was telling me I could walk to my recovery room.  From the moment I woke up, I remember everything and didn't feel loopy at all.  I felt kind of groggy, but not drugged up or anything.  My husband came into the recovery room a minute after I got there and I told him everything that happened.  I had a bunch of gauze in my mouth so it was hard to talk.  The biggest annoyance for me was that my tongue, cheek, and chin were all numb and my mouth felt so dry.  I asked the nurse if I got a Novocain injection or something and she said yes.  Then I told her my mouth was really dry and asked for some water.  She took the gauze out, said I had already clotted, and gave me some water to drink.  The surgeon came in and told me that everything went well, and I told him I was stupid for being worried about the sedation because it was nothing!

After he came in, the nurse came back and gave me my scripts.  I had one for Vicodin, one for ibuprofen, one for penicillin, and one for a mouthwash.  I told her I didn't want to take the Vicodin since I'm breastfeeding, but they gave it to me anyway just in case.  Then she told me I could leave!  I think I was only in recovery for 15 minutes tops.  The procedure probably started around 9:30, and we were home by 11 am. 

My husband walked me to the car, and we were going to go straight to the pharmacy.  I get car sick pretty easily though, so I asked if he could just take me home first.  He brought me home where my mom was with the baby, and I laid on the couch while he went and got my scripts filled.  I ate some pudding and took 400 mg of ibuprofen, then the baby wanted to nurse.  I nursed her a little, then my mom was able to rock her to sleep while I took a little nap.  I only napped for about 20-30 minutes, but I felt so much better when I woke up because the numbness had worn off.  By that time my husband was home so he gave me the Penicillin to take, and made me some spaghetti and cut it up like I do for the baby, lol.  I had a few bites, but I felt like I wasn't comfortable eating that yet, so I ate another pudding.  I finally felt confident enough to eat some soup and pasta around 3:00 or so.


The surgeon's office did call to check on me around 2 pm, and the woman on the phone was very nice.  Since then, I've been fine with just the Motrin.  I'm a little swollen on my left side where the impacted tooth was removed, and I feel no pain whatsoever on the other side.  Today is Wednesday, and I'm hoping by Friday I'll feel pretty back to normal and have no swelling.  I guess we will see how that goes.  The worst part is that we have had two 60+ degree days here (yesterday and today), and I've been stuck inside recovering.  I'm dying to take the baby for a walk outside or to the park.

I did get a little feedback about my surgery date.  The nurse said it would have to be at least 6 months from now, because it would take that long for my bone to heal from the wisdom tooth removal.  She said they can't go back in and start cutting my jaw before my bone is totally healed.  6 months from now is September, and I was given Oct. 2014 as my estimate from my ortho.  I guess Oct. 2014 is still a possibility.  I'm not sure what else has to be done from an orthodontic standpoint, but I guess I'll know more about that after next week's appointment.  Also, the oral surgeon mentioned that he probably would only need to operate on my top jaw, and since my only top jaw wisdom tooth was the non-impacted one, I don't know if they would need to still wait 6 months.  I don't know.  This whole process is confusing.

I'll keep you posted next week after my ortho appointment!

3 Months In, Wisdom Tooth Update, & Progress Pics

I have been putting this off because I'm sort of in the slow part of the process.  I had my braces put on 11/25/13, and I had my first follow up appointment in mid January 2013 (almost 2 months ago).  At the progress appointment, I asked for a copy of my original pictures from my consultation, so I could compare my teeth from November to my teeth in January.  Here are my progress pics so far:

My bottom teeth, top is 11/13 and bottom is 1/14.



 

 

I'm really happy with the progress.  My teeth were basically complete straight with 2 months of braces.  Now that it's been almost 4 months, they are completely straight.  My next ortho appointment is next week, so I'll update with new progress pics after that.  My bite has changed significantly.  I used to have more of an opening on my right side, then it kind of switched to my left side, and now I have a crack that's straight across.  I'll show bite pictures in my post after my next ortho appointment.

 

In January, the ortho decided I should start wearing rubber bands.  At first he was going to wait until my March appt., then he changed his mind and said I should start wearing them in January.  I wear them 12 hours per day, so I pretty much just put them in after dinner and wear them while I'm sleeping at night.  The rubber bands have changed my bite (I think).  For the first 6 weeks or so of me wearing them, they felt fine.  BUT this past week I have been having horrible TMJ pain.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in pain and take the rubber bands out.  I'm not sure if it's related to the rubber bands, but they certainly aren't helping the pain either.  I'm hoping to get an answer about this soon.  It's been hurting me almost daily at some point in the day or at night.  I've been taking Advil several times a week, and I'm not the type that likes to take meds.  I'm just not sure if the pain is being caused by the rubber bands or by my teeth moving or by what.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'm going to see the oral surgeon again.  He's going to take a look at my teeth and my bite and see how I'm progressing.  I'll probably have a better idea of when surgery will be after this appointment.  My teeth look straight to me, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll have to wait.  I don't know exactly what the orthodontist needs to achieve before I'll be ready for surgery.  I know a lot of other people who have gone through this feel that they are going to be ready for surgery much sooner than they actually are, so I'm not planning on receiving news that my surgery should be sooner than the original estimate of Oct. 2014.  I kind of have a lot going on between now and then between my kids and the 2 weddings that I'm in, so I really don't have time to get the surgery until October.

 

I'm still really nervous about the surgery.  I go back and forth on a weekly basis.  One week I feel okay about it.  The next week I tell my husband there's no way I can do it.  I guess only time will tell??

 

Tomorrow I'm also having my wisdom teeth removed.  I'm very nervous about this.  I have one impacted on my lower left side and one that already grew in on my upper right side.  I'm mostly nervous about being sedated.  I've never been sedated, so I'm nervous about feeling loopy.  I don't like feeling out of control in that way, so I'm just not looking forward to it.  I'm hoping it all just goes smoothly and my recovery is not too bad.  I'm planning on only taking ibuprofen for pain since I'm still breastfeeding.  I have some frozen milk in my freezer, but my baby is not a huge fan of bottles.  At least I know I have the milk if I need to feed it to her.  Also, she's 11-months-old, so she is eating food nowadays too.

 

 

My hubby got me some jello, pudding, and frozen yogurt today, and he's taking the day off tomorrow to come with me. My mom is going to babysit while we're gone, then hubby will take care of the baby and my 7-year-old for the rest of the day tomorrow and Wednesday.  Nice little Mommy Vacation I guess.  Ugh.  Wish me luck. At least this is like a little practice run for the jaw surgery.

Two Weeks in Braces

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I got the braces put on.  I will say, days 2 & 3 were pretty rough.  I had to take some Motrin, couldn't eat much without being in pain, etc.  Days 4 & 5 had some improvement.  I was able to eat soft foods without too much trouble, but still had a little pain.  I definitely couldn't bite into anything.  By day 6 & 7, I was about 80% back to normal feeling.  And by day 10 (and since then), I've been at about 95%.  I can bite into things like a piece of toast now.  I really don't think I'll feel 100% normal eating again until I get these things off.

Besides the pain, the other annoying thing is that I'm a full grown adult (supposedly), wife, mother, etc.  I think before this experience, I probably laughed a little inside every time I saw an adult with braces.  I remember when we were planning our wedding, the coordinator at our venue had braces.  She was probably in her 40s.  I remember sort of thinking, "That must suck to have braces at her age." I assume that's what people probably think when they talk to me now.  The good thing is that I don't really have that much face-to-face interaction with new people.  I see my family and friends a lot, but they all know the deal.  When I went back to the gym this week, I sort of felt the need to explain to everyone why I had braces.  I felt better to just kind of get it all out on the table instead of having them wonder what was going on but not feeling comfortable enough to ask me. I think I would be more annoyed if I worked a sales job or some kind of job where I was constantly meeting new people (and having to impress them).

Before I got the braces, I was a little scared that I was going to be sad about it, or cry when I looked in the mirror, or feel self-conscious.  I'm so glad that is not the case.  I look at them in the mirror all the time, and I don't feel upset at all.  I still smile in pictures, I still smile in real life.  I guess I just feel pretty comfortable in my own skin and I don't really care what anyone thinks about me.  I told my husband, if someone legitimately didn't want to be my friend because I had braces, they would be a terrible person and I wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway!  So I'm not missing out on much, the way I see it.  I actually kind of feel excited when I see my braces because I'm glad the ball is rolling and I'm on my way to having a normal jaw.

Also, my husband and I have kissed plenty (since the pain went away) and done plenty of husband and wife things.  I'm happy to report that he says it doesn't feel any different.  It's not like you kiss with your teeth anyway!

First Week of Braces

Wow, I do not remember braces hurting me this much 15 years ago.  I have been in real pain.  I haven't eaten much that needs chewing.  I guess it's preparing me for my 6 week surgery recovery.

Tuesday and Wednesday were days 2-3 and I basically felt like someone kicked me in the mouth. My teeth and gums hurt, and the inside of my mouth was all torn up from the braces brushing against it.

Thursday (Day 4 of braces) was Thanksgiving.  I was starting to feel a little better.  I was still in pain, but luckily mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, & stuffing don't need much chewing!!

Today was Friday, and I definitely felt better than yesterday.  I'd say I'm about 70% there.  It really does take about a week to get used to the braces and for the pain to subside.  I was only expecting a little soreness for one day, but it was much worse than that!!

My advice to anyone getting braces would be:

1. Eat lots of crunchy good before because you won't be able to chew hard stuff for a week.

2. Stock up on yogurt, applesauce, smoothie ingredients, pasta, soup, etc.  I ate pasta with olive oil for 3 days straight because I barely had to chew it.

3. Make sure you have ibuprofen.

4. Keep cold drinks and foods like ice cream around.  The ortho told me my wires are temperature sensitive and cold things help with the pain.

5. Wax!  It's a must.  I put it on all my "hot spots."

6. Chapstick. Also a must.

7. Mouthwash helps because flossing and brushing still hurt.

I have more to post about, but I'll try to space it out some.  I've got 7 weeks until my next Ortho appointment!

Night!

Braces are on

I went through with it.  I had my braces put on this morning.

The process was so/so.  I had to lay on the dental chair with my head back for about an hour so of course that sucked.  I kept feeling like I was choking on my saliva in the back of my throat.  Also, they used this UV light thing on each tooth and I had a spit sucker in the whole time so my tongue was super dry in there.  It felt like a little fishy that jumped out of the tank!  Anyways, after about an hour the bracket part was done so I could sit up and rinse.  Then she put on the wires, ligatures, etc.  Last thing she did was explain how to care for them and had the doc check me out.

I go back in 8 weeks for my next appointment.  My goal is to have the surgery in Oct. 2014.  They gave me an estimate of 10 months of braces prior to surgery, which would put me at the end of Sept. 2014.  It seems they are always late on those things though.  I guess we'll see.

As for the braces, they feel really weird.  Eating felt weird.  I had a big lunch (they told me too) and by dinner I was starting to hurt.  The pain is even worse now.  They are just really sore and also scraping up the insides of my gums in certain spots.  I finally caved and stopped trying to be tough girl, so I put some wax on and took 2 Advil.  I hope I can sleep tonight.  He said my peak pain would be tomorrow at around noon.  So that's always nice to look forward to.

I didn't get to go to the gym today, but I'm planning to go tomorrow morning.  I just hope I'm not in too much pain.  I'm going to my 7-year-old's school tomorrow for "Special Adult Visitor Day."  She told me she's going to tell everyone I'm her older sister since I have braces.  

Without further ado, here's my braceface.

After looking at this picture, it seems I sort of have a cross bite too?!?!

You were probably wondering if I was going to get ceramic. Shit yes I did!  They waived the extra fee since I'm in two weddings next summer :)

Here's a pic of me without my tongue pressed against my teeth.  You can see my "open bite" here.

That's how my teeth look when I bite down all the way.  There's a crack between them that makes it very hard to bite food.  

Also, I did take some before pics today so I'll post them when I have a chance!  

It's B Day

I'm nervous.  My appointment is at 10:10 am, and they said it would take about 2 hours total including them explaining how to care for the braces.

I'm blogging through the iphone app.  I just wanted to record how I'm feeling today so hopefully when these suckers come off, I'll think "how silly that I was so nervous."

The good thing is that I'm married and my husband has assured me that he loves me no matter what.  He thinks I will regret it if I DON'T go through with this.  The other good thing is that I don't work outside of the home right now, so I don't have to worry about how this will affect me professionally.  Basically my kids and hubby are the ones who will have to look at me everyday.  LOL

I think it's just going to be hard to look in the mirror at first!  

Alright I'll update later today or tomorrow about how the appointment goes.

Open Bite Surgery Explanation in Pictures

I wasn't going to do a post today, but I came across a video that explained the surgery.  I was able to screen shot some images to sort of explain it here on the blog.



My "diagnosis" is open bite, which means that when I bite down, my front teeth do not touch.  That's why I have trouble eating things like pizza and sandwiches.  I usually use a knife and fork for pizza and when I eat sandwiches, I pull a piece off and put it into my mouth and chew it with my molars.  Honestly, I always thought these were just weird quirks about me.  I never realized the reason I have these habits is because of my bite.  I have a lot of other symptoms that are caused by my open bite.  I have an issue where I always feel like I'm choking on my food.  I feel like I have to chew my food for 2 minutes before swallowing.  Also, I have an episode at least every other day where I feel like I've tried to swallow a piece of food that is too big, and I sort of gag and cough it up.  It's kind of embarrassing.  I've always been a really slow eater, and now I know why.  In restaurants, I take FOREVER to eat because I just don't want to gag at the table, lol.  Also, I  have trouble breathing sometimes, mostly when I'm working out.  I always thought I was just out of shape, but looking at my anatomy, I see how the open bite contributes to this also.  Both of these things have to do with the position of my lower jaw, and how it makes the opening of my throat about half the size that it should be.  When I get my x-rays, I'll be able to show you what I mean.

Anyways, here's what my bite looks like.  Mine is much more subtle than this, the opening is only a crack, not an inch like in the photo below.

 

 

During the jaw surgery, the surgeon will go in through my mouth, and cut a wedge (the blue area in the photo below) out of my jaw.

 

So this (below) will be my jaw after the wedge is removed.

 

Then the bottom half of my top jaw will be brought up to connect with the top half.  That will allow my bottom jaw to come up much farther than it does now, to form a classic bite.

 

 

The jaw will be secured with pins and screws. 

1st Oral Surgeon Appointment

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.

The Beginning

I'm a 27-year-old wife and mother, and I'm about to get braces and go through orthognathic surgery to correct an open bite jaw issue.  I'm going to share my story and show my progress on this blog.  I hope it will help someone else!


This all started several years ago when I went to see an orthodontist.  I had just gotten a "real" job and decided I wanted invisalign to straighten my teeth.  My teeth are fairly straight, but my canine teeth stick out a little.  I had braces when I was 11-12, but since then I had a wisdom tooth grow in on my top right side.  That has caused some crowding, and my right canine sticks out a little.  Other than that, my teeth looked pretty straight to me.  I figured I'd get invisalign and in a few months, I'd have a perfect smile.  Sweet! 

At the appointment they took a lot of pictures and x-rays.  Then the orthodontist sat down with me to discuss everything.  "We have a problem here," she said.  "I understand you are concerned about the aesthetics and the slight crowding, but you have a more serious issue involving your jaw."  HUH???  "Your jaw is misaligned, and you have an open bite.  This cannot be treated with invisalign.  You will need braces and surgery."  SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!  I cried.  I left the appointment in tears.  At that time I couldn't commit to the braces and surgery.  I was planning to go back to school in the fall.  I was already a single mom to my then 3-year-old daughter.  I didn't have any extra time or money to deal with it.  So, I put it off to the side at the time, and decided I'd go through with everything when I finished nursing school.

I graduated nursing school about 18 months later, but in the meantime, I'd gotten engaged!  I definitely didn't want braces at my wedding, so I put it off some more.  When we got married, we decided to wait one year before trying to have a baby.  I wouldn't have enough time to complete my treatment and get the surgery before that year was up, and I certainly couldn't have surgery while I was pregnant, so it got pushed off again.

Then, about 2 months ago, my husband and I went in for a regular dental check-up.  The dentist addressed my issues and told me that she would recommend me getting an orthodontist's opinion.  I decided that I really wanted to get a second opinion too.   A few days later I visited another orthodontist for a consultation.  They did the same work-up as the first time.  Lots of pictures.  Lots of x-rays.  Then the orthodontist came into the room, and told me the same exact thing that the previous one had said.  BUMMER.  I didn't cry this time, because I pretty much knew it was coming, but it still stung a little.  This time, he explained the timeline of how the treatment would go, as well as showing me x-rays of my jaw.  He even had a little video thing that showed which part of my jaw would have to be removed and how it would fix the problem.

After that appointment, I realized that it was kind of a now or never situation.  If I get the treatment now, my baby will be about 18-months-old at the time of surgery.  Even though I plan on breastfeeding until she's two, I know I'll be able to give her pumped milk and "pump and dump" for a few days following my surgery while I'm on any medications.  I wouldn't feel comfortable having the surgery any sooner, with her being any younger than 18 months. (The soonest I could have had the surgery would have been August when she's 16 months, and I'm in weddings in August and September, so those months were out anyways).  I also don't want to wait too much longer, because we probably will have one more baby.  I can't have the surgery while pregnant, so I need to do it before my baby gets too much older.

So, as much as this is going to suck, I have to bite the bullet (pun intended) and begin the treatment to correct my open bite.