166 Days Post-Op

Whoohooo!166 days post-op! Today I met with Dr.'s Chira and Mac. Dr. Mac flew up from NYC, so it was nice not to have to travel to see him! The appointment was bitter sweet. I am making great progress, and my bite is perfect, BUT I'm not quite ready to be out of all of my braces yet. The plan is that at the beginning of May I will have impressions taken, from these models Dr. Chira will make a partial banded retainer for my bottom front teeth (eye tooth to eye tooth). At the end of May I will have those brackets taken off and have the retainer banded into place so my teeth don't move. All of the bottom braces can't come off because the back brackets need to be used with rubber bands to help control my bite while the top teeth are being tweaked. Dr. Mac is going to use the models to help decide what/how my teeth need to be tweaked and adjusted via periodontics, hopefully I can see him at the beginning of June to have work done. I don't know when the top and the rest of my bottom braces will be taken off. I was really hoping they would all be off by June because I was hoping to celebrate my birthday and the rest of the summer brace-less.

This whole process is so emotionally abusive. It's difficult to keep myself together at times, but I know I am making progress....one bracket removal at a time...

Here are pictures from today (sorry about the shadow behind my head, couldn't really avoid it today). I have requested pictures from Dr. Chira's office for my teeth, so I will post them when I get them.

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@ 45 Deg. Angle

Front Face Relaxed

Smiling :)

This video is of me relaxing my lips completely. The lip twitching is still hanging on, but luckily I have most feeling back!

Numbness/Tingling/Twitching- My chin, bottom lip, and gums are still a bit numb, but do have most feeling. No real tingling anywhere, and the only twitching is in my bottom lip.

Pain/Swelling- My pain levels are under control now...and by that I mean on a bad day I still get up to a 6/7, but for the most part I am around a 3. On Saturday I woke up and my pain was at a 1, and I was pretty excited! There is a national shortage of my pain medication so I now have to have it compounded at a pharmacy. It is more expensive, but the alternative medicine just wasn't working. Swelling is still lingering, but is better on days when I chew less.

Eating- Chewing and eating in general is getting better slowly. I really gauge what I eat on how my joints feel. Because of the arthritis in my jaw joints I am careful not to overwork them. I still can't eat most uncooked vegetables, but I think it will be better once I am out of braces.

Sleep- I have been having nightmares about having a second surgery and waking up post-op unable to breathe and the nurse isn't helping me...this was the worst part of my real surgery, and when I have a bad jaw day and am overtired I tend to have these nightmares...hopefully they won't be around forever.

REAL LIFE- Ha yes, there is life outside of my jaw. Currently hoping, wishing, praying for a teaching position for the fall...It would be amazing to finally do something I love and know I am meant to do! In the mean time I am volunteering and subbing and loving every second :) Outside of this I am loving Sam, my family, friends, and all of their support. I hope I am able to pay them all back someday in someway....I am loving the Spring weather, looking forward to warmer days to come!

Smiling :)