I HAVE A SURGERY DATE!!!!

Well, I FINALLY have a surgery date. After many calls back and forth between the ortho and the OS, I finally got them to set a date. Unfortunately the surgeon wants to see a little more movement before the surgery, so it's not until October 8th. The original date that he set was September 24th, 2 days after my birthday. But I will be coming home from Nashville. Going on a girls weekend with 3 of my friends. At least I will be able to party while I'm there now! So the next available date was October 8th. As the coordinator at the surgeon's office said, this is a "tentative" date, with the hopes of moving it forward if my teeth move quickly. I'm just hoping that it doesn't get moved BACK, since I have SLOW moving teeth.

For those of you that are post surgery, how did you feel 18 days after surgery? My husband's best friend is getting married out of state from us on October 27th, so we will have to go to PA on the 26th for the rehearsal and stuff. I'm just hoping that the bruising is gone by then. Luckily the reception is at the same place that we are staying, so if I feel tired or too sore to last all night, I can just leave and hopefully Bob won't feel bad and he will just stay at the reception and have fun. Or else I will feel like I have to stay so that he doesn't miss anything.

But anyway, I am just happy to finally have a date. It's MUCH later than I was originally told. I was suppose to have this surgery LAST November, so it's only 11 months over. Oh well. My teeth better be PERFECT after all of this waiting.

Here are the surgical hooks

Well, these aren't the best pictures, but I took them myself. I was looking in the bathroom mirror so that I could see what was on the view of the camera! I'm such a dork.




Here are the hooks in all there glory! All FIFTEEN of them! And I will have them on until the surgery in October. Next time I go to the ortho, I am going to ask him to take them off. I was thinking that since I am now use to them, that I would just leave them on, but it's just that much harder to brush and floss with them. They suck.

Here's a front picture of me. Not a great one, as I took this myself too! I really need to remember to ask my husband to take some close up shots of me. They never just happen because he knows that I HATE pictures of myself.

I am NEVER going to have this surgery

Ok, at least it feels like I am NEVER going to have this surgery. Lets see, they originally told me 6 – 9 months after the braces went on, I would be having the surgery. Well, it’s already been 15 months, and now they are thinking that I won’t be able to have it until OCTOBER!!! Are you KIDDING me???? (remember my last post saying that I’m not a patient person, well, here it is showing it’s ugly head again). Where do I start...

I went to the ortho 5 weeks ago and he took models and said that he thought I was ready. He would send those models to my OS and one of them would get back to me, and we made my next appointment for 5 weeks. So I give the OS 3 weeks to get the models shipped to him and take a look. So I call the ortho 2 weeks ago and ask if they have heard from the OS. They told me that when the models got to the OS, some of the teeth got chipped in shipping, so they had to recast the models and resend them. So I give the OS a call to see if he has looked at them yet. Of course he was on vacation for 2 weeks, and he wouldn’t be back until the following week (last week). So I gave him until last Thursday to get around to looking at my models. They tell me that he still hasn’t had a chance. I ask them if they thought it was possible for him to look at them before the following Wednesday (June 27th) because that was when I was going back to the ortho, and that way the ortho would know if something had to be adjusted before the surgery. So... I go to the ortho on Wednesday, and they STILL haven’t heard from the surgeon. They call his office to see when he is going to look at the models. They told us that he would look at them and get back to the ortho that day. Well, he did!!!! Amazingly enough. But of course now my ortho is out of town for a week or so. So I called up my ortho yesterday to see if they had talked to the OS. They did and they were going to try to book me for October! WHY SO FAR OUT??? Last time I visited the OS, he said that they book 2 months out, NOT 4! So by the time that October comes around, I will have had these braces on for 19 months, a little longer then the 6 – 9 that they originally told me. I know, my teeth move slowly, but man... So I decided to call my OS to see if there was any way that they could get me in sooner. They said that she would talk to the OS and call me back. But that was yesterday and I still haven’t heard from them. I just hate this waiting and putting my life on hold. Yes, two months isn’t that big of a deal. But I was originally supposed to have this LAST November, so we’re really talking about a year here. And my husband and I REALLY want to start having kids, but we can’t do so until I have this stupid surgery. I am going to be 28 this year, and he is going to be 30 the beginning of next year. Our original plan was to be done having kids when I was 30, but at this rate we won’t even have our first by that time.

Oh, a question to all of you who have gone through surgery already. When did you get your surgical hooks put on? When I was at the ortho on Wednesday, he put them on already!!! I think that he just wanted to do SOMETHING, and since he didn’t know if any teeth had to be moved per the OS, he decided to do that. So at this rate, I will have them on for 4 months BEFORE the surgery!!!! As if food doesn’t get stuck in the braces enough, lets add some more metal. And how many hooks did you have? I just re-read Brandy's, and he only had 9 hooks. I have 8 on top, and 7 on the bottom. That's right, 15 of those lovely hooks are digging into my lips and cheeks right now!

One more question, how long were you in braces before the surgery? I just feel like I am never going to get to the point where I will be ready and I think that I am just going to have these on FOREVER. The first time I had braces as a kid, I was told 1.5 – 2 years. I ended up having them on for 4 years, 3 months, 13 days, and 5 hours (but who’s counting?). So I guess I should have expected this.

Ok, enough of my ranting for now. I will try to remember to take some lovely pics of my surgical hooks and post those up.

I am SO not a patient person

Ok, so it's been a week now since I went to the ortho and he said that he thinks I am ready for surgery and he would talk to the surgeon. I know that it takes time for him to mail the models out and for the surgeon to review them. But I just can't stand it!!! I want to know if my teeth are ready and when this surgery will FINALLY happen. I keep checking Brandy's blog everyday to see how she is doing. And she seems to be recovering AMAZINGLY so far. And she seems to have the right attitude about it too. I just really hope that I heal that nicely and that I'm not a complete WUSS when it comes to the pain. I just want this over with already.

Oh, and last night while I was brushing and flossing I had to ask my husband if this one tooth looked crooked. He said no, but I think it does. My ortho is going to HATE me by the time that these braces come off. I will be inspecting each tooth so closely to make sure that they are all PERFECT. I am not going through all of this to have a tooth be slightly crooked when they come off. I can feel the anxiety already!

Thursday Adjustment

Well, I had an adjustment this past Thursday. The ortho did another set of models to see how my upper k-9 teeth had moved in relation to my lowers. He said that he was pleased with how they were. He did some minor tweeking to my right upper k-9 to torque it out just a little bit more. He is sending the new models to the surgeon to see what he thinks. I am REALLY hopping that these teeth of mine are FINALLY ready for surgery. I have another appointment with my ortho in 5 weeks, but he said that I should hear from either him or the surgeon before then. So right now it's all just a waiting game. Gotta wait for the two Drs to cordinate and decide what to do with me. But in the mean time, I am keeping track of all of my blog buddies! I really don't know what I would do without you all out there. Thanks!

First Surgery Dream

Well, Thursday night I had my first surgery dream. Well, sort of. I didn't actually have the surgery in the dream. I went to meet with my surgeon, and he looks at my latest models and says that my upper K-9's are now TOO far out. They can't move them back in and they can't do the surgery with my teeth that way. So the only thing for me to do is to live with the way my teeth are now, not meeting up AT ALL! I was crushed. I was SO glad to wake up and realize it was just a dream. I wonder if this was all happening because my origianl surgery date was today :( I should be in the hospital right now recovering from my surgery, but my teeth STILL aren't ready. I do go back to to ortho on Thursday for more models, so hopefully that will bring good news.

Speaking of good new and surgeries, Brandy's surgery is on Thursday! I can't believe it's here already for her! I am so excited. I can't wait to see how great she will look (as if she didn't already look GREAT!!!). You'll be in my prayers and thoughts for a speedy recovery!

Latest Adjustment

So I went to my OD today to get adjusted to move my K-9s out a little bit more so that they won’t have to be shaved off a little bit for the surgery. I was there for about an hour, just for a little adjustment. Oh well. It got me out of work for a little bit, so I won’t complain! They put a new wire on top, I think a 21 something. All I know is that it’s THICK! The tube on my upper left either isn’t as large as the one on my right, or it collapsed somehow. But whenever they have to put a thick wire in, they all get a good workout, and my tooth gets to hurt for a little bit. Usually it takes the hygienist and the doctor to both push on it to get it in. At least this time they shaved a little off so that it didn’t hurt AS bad, but it still took some muscling it in to get it. The OD put a few little bends in the wire to torque the two teeth out a little bit, and then under laced 3 to 3 so that they don’t separate at all. I get to go back in 6 weeks and have MORE check models taken. Hopefully I will be ready for surgery soon. Other than that, there really isn’t anything new with my teeth/jaw right now. I may take some pictures, but I don’t really think that this adjustment will show much of a noticeable change to the eye, but it will show in the models.