Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! I really hope that 2009 is a much better year than 2008 was. 2008 was a really crappy year for me and my family. I'm looking forward to a clean slate in 2009 and hope it will be a happy, healthy, productive, and prosperous New Year! By this time next year I should be done with my surgery and have my braces off. Speaking of braces, I had an adjustment the other day. The ortho repositioned 3 brackets and put on lighter wires. I didn't have much pain until today. He said that since my surgery is so far away in July, he will do as much as he can to my teeth before surgery so that I can get my braces off as soon as possible after surgery. The surgeon's office called me last week and asked me if I could have the surgery on February 7th. I wish I could, but I can't. School. Happy New Year!

Christmas in braces, Part Deux

Happy Holidays! I thought I'd put up some recent pictures that my friend Stephanie took. I chose a picture with my mouth closed for our Christmas picture. Next year I'll be able to smile ~ with no braces on!!

A Totally Unexciting Post

I went to the ortho today and got the upper front bracket put back on. The tech was supposed to change my bottom wire, but as he was taking it off, he popped off a bracket on my back molar. I guess he didn't want to irritate the doctor, so he said we would put it on at my next appointment in 4 weeks. They leave at 12:30 on Fridays, so everyone was in a tizzy to get out of there and start their weekend.
I talked to the surgery coordinator and told her the details of my appointment with the surgeon. She said if it were her, she would rather have the surgery in April instead of going back to school. I've decided it would be a waste of time not to finish a semester of school and will go ahead and plan to have the surgery in July.

Decisions, decisions...

I had an appointment with my surgeon yesterday. It was rather awkward.
I'm wondering how the doctor would have reacted if I had arrived for my appointment an hour late. I'm sure he would have said that I need to reschedule, right? Well, I waited for him for over an hour because he was behind schedule. I am always on time for any appointments I have, so this really rubs me the wrong way. So after having to wait an extra hour, I was stuck in work traffic -- an hour and fifteen minutes to get home. I wasn't in the best mood.
So when I was finally called in to see the doctor, we exchanged the "Hi, how are you's?" "Fine." "Good." I gave him my molds that my orthodontist had given me and he proceeded to scrape away at them and try to get them to fit together in the way a normal bite would fit together. I sat there thinking he might explain what he was doing. But no, he continued picking away and marking on the molds with his marker. He then asked me to show him my bite as he looked at me from both sides and examined my profile. He was talking aloud to himself, saying that maybe my top jaw didn't need to be operated on. (We already went through this before when I saw him the first time and then he decided to do both jaws) So here we were doing this again. I was getting irritated. I know that my top jaw is too far back and bringing it forward would look better. Though I was thinking this, I didn't say anything. He then says to himself, "Well, the top jaw is deficient." Um, okay. So he walks out of the room, comes back and puts my molds and a letter in a box to give back to my orthodontist. He says, "Okay, you can go to the front and schedule a surgery date." So I ask him if he is going to be doing both jaws. He says "Oh yes, didn't I say that? I guess I should have thought that out loud." That's it. That's all the information I got from him. No specifics. No nothing.
I go to the front desk and tell the girl that I need to schedule a surgery date. He's booked until April. Well, I should be starting back to school in February, so I have to make a decision.Do I go back to school in February, finish my semester and then have the surgery on July 15th (his soonest "summer" appointment). Or do I have the surgery in April, waste months May, June, July and August and go back to school in the fall? Any advice? I'm not good at making decisions. If I go to school in February, that would be one more semester of nursing school under my belt. I am dying to have the surgery asap, but I feel like it's wasted time to have it in April. If my orthodontist had PLANNED accordingly, I could have had it this month. He knew that patients were booking months and months in advance. Ugh.
I'm waiting to hear back from my school to see if they can tell me with any certainty that I will be invited back for spring semester or if I will have to wait until fall. That will change everything. Then, of course, I will schedule the surgery for April. I also asked the girl to put me on the wait list in case someone cancels. Fat chance. There are 30 people ahead of me.
I took some pictures of myself yesterday. They are a bit grainy ~ taken from the camera thing on my computer. Nothing exciting, but you can see what I look like "before" in different angles. I really should have my friend Steph retouch them :) but here they are. Some are frightening.

P.S. The bracket on my front left tooth came off, so I'll be going to the orthodontist on Friday. I'll get it put back on and give him the molds and letter from the surgeon. I'm wondering if the marks he made on the molds are tweaks that need to be done to my teeth. Probably.





I really don't like this angle. At all.