Another Ortho visit...

I just got home from another visit with the orthodontist. It lasted a little over an hour. The girl took my wires and my power chains off to do the molds. One of my brackets came off. Got that glued back on. The ortho had to do an occlusal alignment ~ grinding a bit off 3 of my teeth so that my bite will fit together better after surgery. That wasn't that big of a deal, but now those 3 teeth are rough. I'll have to ask him to polish them the next time I see him. The girl took my molds, which was uneventful. She did a good job getting them out before they got stuck. She put my wires back on and left the power chains off. They made my wires "passive" so that my teeth won't move anymore before surgery. The ortho explained to me that since my teeth are short, he is going to "grow" them after surgery ~ meaning he is going to bring them down so they are longer. I was happy to hear that. That's about it. I'll pick up the molds on Monday and bring them over to Dr. Relle.

More molds...blah/post-surgery supplies

I just got a call from my ortho office. The orthodontist and the surgeon have spoken and decided that I need more molds. I will go to the ortho tomorrow and get them done and then pick them up first thing Monday morning and take them over to the surgeon.
The surgeon also just called me to let me know that he doesn't normally do splints, but he is going to use one on me. I didn't really understand the reason why. If I see him on Monday, I will ask him. He mentioned something about the "wearing" on my back teeth, which could mean that the splint will keep my teeth from touching and wearing down even more while I am banded shut. Not sure.

I've been picking up things here and there that I might need after surgery. I haven't bought any food yet. So far I have:

* 2 zip-n-squeezes
* 2 "cool-jaw" wraps from zip-n-squeeze
* neck pillow
* Afrin nose spray
* Saline nose spray
* Q-tips
* facial steamer
* hydrogen peroxide
* dry-erase board
* baby spoons
* sippy cup
* Emergen-C packets (lots of vitamin C and B vitamins)
* Aquaphor

I originally bought a humidifier but decided that a facial steamer would work better. So I returned the humidifier and bought a great facial steamer on Amazon. Since I am having extensive work on my upper jaw, my sinuses and nose will probably have a lot of blood in them after surgery. The nose sprays, hydrogen peroxide and steamer should help clear them out.
I'm debating if I should get a bed wedge or not.
I still need to stock up on movies, book, magazines. I may not need them right away since I'll be on pain medication and will probably want to sleep a lot.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to MARIA for answering my 101 questions. :) She had upper and lower jaw surgery recently and she looks amazing. Thank you, Maria!

P.S. The surgeon has been really great! I am thinking that during my first 2 appointments he may have just been focusing on what needs to be done and didn't come across as having a great bedside manner, but he has been really great since my last appointment.

Long Day...

Today turned into a very long day. I had an appointment with the orthodontist at 9:15. They took a set of molds. The top one dried quickly (or she didn't take it out soon enough). It hurt like heck while she was trying to get it out of my mouth. I was sure my two front teeth were going to come out with it. Thankfully they didn't, but they were throbbing for a good hour. Then I had to get 4 x-rays ~ one was a panoramic x-ray, one was a cephalometric xray, one was to show the jaw joints, and I don't know what the other one was for. After that the ortho decided to replace the power chains on both my upper and lower teeth and also change the wire on the bottom. This took a long time because the wire he wanted to put on wouldn't fit so the girl ended up having to put a smaller wire on. Anyway, I left there at 12:00.
My appointment with the surgeon was scheduled at 1:30, so I headed to Kaiser in North Hollywood. Of course there was a car accident on the way, then I went to the wrong building and ended up being 7 minutes late. They were calling me as I was running down the hall to let me know that the doctor was waiting for me. Funny how they kept me waiting over an hour last time, but my being 7 minutes late is a big deal. The good part was I didn't have to wait and went right in. The doctor got started right away making molds. They were so big and mushy; it took everything in me not to gag and throw up. The alginate was just dripping in blobs down my face. It was nothing like getting molds at the ortho office. By the time he was finished with the 3 molds (2 upper and one lower) I had alginate all over my face and neck. He had me bite down on some waxy thing. Not sure what it was. He took some measurements of my face while I had this metal contraption fitted around my head. He took some pictures. He measured the distance between my lips when I had my lips relaxed. He took a good look at my bite and told me that my top jaw was really "wonky". He seemed surprised that the top jaw is so messed up. I guess he didn't pay much attention the last two times I was there. Then he and the two student doctors went into another room and I sat there and waited for a long time. When they came back, the doctor looked at my bite some more, wrote some things down, and then said that he had to rush me off to donate blood for myself. He said that I can't take any aspirin or NSAIDS until after my surgery because they thin the blood. He said that after I donate blood he wants me to start taking an iron supplement and informed me that it is constipating.
I asked what they would be doing for me as far as surgery goes. Apparently they don't know until they sit down and do measurements and work on the molds. The student doctor told me that they will definitely do the top jaw because apparently it is really messed up ~ set too far back and tilted wrong. He said they will probably tilt the bottom jaw but not sure if they will move it back or not. This really surprised me. I trust the doctor though, so I will be comfortable with whatever he decides.
Okay, so then I rushed over to donate blood before they closed. My veins are unbelievably hard to find and I hadn't eaten or drank anything all day. They gave me some juice and cookies and searched for a vein. The lady didn't think she would be able to find one and told me that she wasn't going to poke me "for nothing." She did end up finding one and I was able to donate over a pint of blood for myself. Yay. I ended up getting home at 7:00. Long day. I'm so tired, so I'm sorry if I babbled too long. :) I'm going to bed. Goodnite.
P.S. V - you look awesome!
P.P.S I just realized I didn't get a single one of my questions answered by the surgeon. Maybe at my pre-op appointment (two days before surgery) I will get some answers. That would be nice. :)

Getting Excited!

I can't believe there's only 26 days left until surgery!! It's going by so fast. The surgery coordinator emailed me today and told me that she called the surgeon's office to see if there's anything I need to bring with me next Friday when I go see the surgeon. They want her give me a copy of my pano and ceph x-rays. I guess they don't need to take new ones? Or will the surgeon take new ones? I'm just going with the flow here. I don't know what to expect. I have a small list of questions and I hope he takes time to answer them for me.

Is It Worth It?

A fellow orthoblogger mentioned that she was taking this vitamin supplement. I've been sick for the past week, so I thought it might be a good idea to run out and get it. I also thought it would be good to start taking it before surgery and also afterwards to help in my recovery. The problem is, it's disgusting. I ran right home and took the 2 recommended tablespoons. It tasted awful. My stomach is burning, and I am experiencing some borborygmus (LOL) that I hope doesn't turn into diarrhea!! I'm thinking that maybe I should take half a dose in the morning and half a dose in the evening. I don't know. I have a sensitive stomach, so we'll see how this goes. Gurgle, gurgle...
This just might be a waste of $30 bucks.

UPDATE: Okay, I've been taking this with grape juice and it's not too bad at all. :)

Pre-op and Post-Op Dates!

The surgeon's secretary just called to let me know what my dates are. I'll be going in on April 10th for a pre-op appointment. I also have an ortho appointment earlier that same morning. Then I have an appointment on the 27th, just 2 days before my surgery. She didn't explain what we are doing at these appointments. I guess I'll find out.
She also set up my post-op appointments, which will be May 8th and May 22nd. She spoke so quickly, I hope I wrote them down right! They always seem to be in such a hurry.

P.S. I'm actually feeling a little nervous. Ugh.

Time's a-flyin'!

When I first put the countdown thing on my blog, it was at 66 days. I can't believe it's already down to 31! Time flies.

And yes, I have to use lame pictures with all my posts. :)