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. 
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4 comments:
Aw bless you.. sounds like the same awful decision-making as me. I opted for April surgery despite only having a 2-week break followed by exams, and the school will have to make concessions. Though to be fair, I don't have a long summer vacation (2 weeks followed by even bigger exams) so I think I may have waited until then if I had say 6 weeks off.
Tough call hun, but you have to do what fits better with your life... the 3-month difference between April and July will fly by - I was hoping for Christmas but when you look at 6-weekly appointments it's not long at all really, but I understand just wanting it out the way!
As for surgeons - they're not very good at talking to patients anyway, so don't take it personally!! You should be bolshy and just ask him questions if you need to know anything though! Can see why he thinks long and hard about your top jaw, it's not quite as pronounced as mine but the longer he has to think about it the better the results will ultimately be I'm sure!
Hang on in there hun.. It'll all be happening before you know it!! *hugs* xxx
I think you should go back to School and have it in July...just my two cents. LIke V said, that 3 months will fly by. Love you!
Hi Aimee! I can't remember if I'd left you a comment recently or not. I thought I had, but perhaps I dreamed it. LOL Thanks for my comment...you are always so sweet and I always look forward to hearing from you. I hope that you are doing well and that things are going good for you. Make sure to keep in touch! :)
XOXOXOX
I made a big response to this, and then blogger just deleted it for no reason as I was signing in! So, let me try and remember..
Oh gosh! I hate waiting on the doctors forever! Especially post surgery, because they just take one look at you, throw in an "everything looks good!" And your out the door. but waiting an hour for a 5 minute appointment totally wears on my nerves.
Also, when I first saw the OS, they told me "to make everything look even, we move both jaws"
So, much to my surprise when they told me they were only going to move my upper jaw 6mm, rather than 4mm forward upper jaw, 2mm back lover jaw. I don't mind more recovery if it means a more natural look.. It made me feel like hey were being lazy, but I had to trust em. I still wonder a little if I'd look better if both were moved.
Tough call for the surgery, and you'll definitely need loads of time off for recovery. But I'd wait until summer, and finish up the semester. That way you can devote lots of your time to recovery. Good luck!!
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