Anticipation of Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a big day for me.

Tomorrow marks a day I have been looking forward to for a long time.

Tomorrow... my braces get removed!!

It's been 2 years, 7 months and 7 days. Or 135 weeks, 5 days. Or 950 days. But who's keeping track? Heh.

In September 2010 I had a full set of upper and lower braces put on. I had an underbite, and a jaw that didn't fit in my mouth because it was too wide and positioned too far forward. So, after consultation with my dentist, orthodontist and an oral surgeon, it was decided that I would have jaw surgery to correct my bite and I'd need the braces to move all the teeth into position for surgery, then to adjust them after.

The surgery, in February 2012 was... interesting. I ended up with pnuemonia which made my recovery that much harder. Coughing with your jaw wired shut is miserable. And consuming all my food (read: thin liquids) through a large syringe stuck in the corner of my cartoonishly swollen mouth was brutal.

I can eat most foods now, though my jaw gets tired fairly quickly. I've done everything my surgeon & orthodontist have told me to in an effort to make sure I get these braces of in the shortest possible time frame. I've never popped off a bracket because of eating something I shouldn't have, and I have (by all accounts) taken meticulous care of my teeth and it hasn't been easy. I actually miss flossing (yes dad, you read that right) and I look forward to not brutalizing toothbrush bristles on a regular basis!

So yeah, tomorrow. Eight AM. I feel like a kid waiting for Santa!

Here are my before and after surgery x-rays... before on the RIGHT and after on the LEFT

I'll be sure to share what I eat first... and how my mouth feels!

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Seriously, where the eff have I been?

I have so many ideas for blog posts. So many pictures I think about taking. Sadly, I'm doing any of it. But really, I'm not *just* being a slacker (but lets face it, I'm a bit of a slacker), there has been a lot on the go/on my mind.

In two days time, I am having jaw surgery. I am scared but prepared. I'm not worried about the actual surgery per se, since I trust my surgeon fully. But I am fiercely anxious about the recovery. With the surgery just a couple days away and one day of work left before I'm off recovering for 4 weeks, there have been a lot of questions. Here are answers to some of them...

- I'll have my jaws tightly bound together for 2 weeks, then looser elastics binding my jaws together for the following 2-4 weeks. The looser bands will allow me to open my jaws just slightly

- I'm not as concerned about pain as much as I am about nausea/vomiting. In the event it does happen though, I will have scissors to cut my elastics

- I will NOT be allowed to use a straw since I'll have a mouth full of stitches. At the very beginning I will be getting my nutrition through thin liquids administered through a syringe or what I can tolerate going through the spaces between my teeth

- I will be staying in the hospital for about 3 days. The pain meds they give are Dilaudid (yep, I asked on my pre-op day) at the beginning, then liquid Advil and liquid Tylenol

- I do have a stash of high protien Boost in my kitchen, but I don't plan on relying on it for my nutrition. I have many other smoothie-options I plan on trying

- Yep, I expect I will get kinda shack-wacky near the end of my recovery time, but I have a bunch of books and movies to keep my occupied and I am hopeful I have lots of visitors, and hope they are okay if I don't say very much!

So yeah, that's what's up. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them!

I am going to have my laptop in the hospital, and while I really don't know that I'll have anything really relevant to contribute to this blog, I will be updating my other blog that has chronicled my journey through braces and jaw surgery. Feel free to visit me over there if you think you might be up for it! And yes, the name is "Oral Fixation" but no, there is nothing naughty over there!

I promise to reclaim this blog and post creative and delicious ideas again soon!

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