One Week Update

Hi! Sorry I couldn't update sooner, the surgery went perfect but I had a lot of issues after leaving the hospital that I will get to later in this post. But I'm all good now!

They only did my upper jaw, or a Lefort I, so I'm only in bands and not wires. My surgeon moved my jaw forward and 4 mm up. I'm not sure how much he moved it forward but I'll ask at my next appointment. My "un-banding" appointment is set for May 30. I've been eating a lot of protein drinks. My favorites have been:

• Myloplex
• Special K
• Ensure

They all taster really great and highly recommend them. If you want to add more "healthy" calories, I've been putting in one tablespoon of Flax Seed oil into my drinks. Flax Seed oil is a very nutrient dense omega 3 fatty acid. One tablespoon alone has 120 calories! Unlike fish oil, flax seed is derived from plants so it won't leave your drink a nasty fish taste which would be pretty gross. lol

Anyways back to my story, so I left the hospital all fine and dandy. But for some reason I started to get rashes all over my arms and I started to vomit everything I was drinking. (it sucks vomiting when ur mouth is banded shut!) I felt really nauseous, it was really bad. I couldn't get ahold of my doctor since I think he was calling my cellphone but my cell has been dead. I think I might've gotten food poisoning. My mom was making me some pretty weird asian soups... So I had to go back to the hospital get an iv and they gave me some anti nausea pills. Right before surgery I weighted 124 lb. I left the hospital at 113 lb.! I look like a skeleton :(

I'm feeling great now though and have been trying to drink something every 3 hours to make sure I don't lose anymore weight and also adding flax seed oil now. I don't mean to scare people but it happens :/

Here are some photos

Front:

 Side, note the slight bruising:

I'm pretty swollen! But people don't stare at me weird or anything...until i smile

My face is thin so so the swelling just makes me look normal now lol. 

Today is the day!!

Hey everyone! It's midnight and I'm officially done with finals!! Summer break has officially started. AND I got the call and my surgery appointment is set for this afternoon at noon but I got to be at the hospital by 9:30 am. I'm starting to now ACTUALLY really think about what they are doing and i really want to see some surgery photos but that's probably not a good idea..

So I had my preop. appointment with my surgeon and also a mandatory jaw surgery educational class I had to go to last week. Since you'r not allowed to have any metal piercing during surgery, I had to take my collarbone microdermals out for the surgery, that was painful. But I was done with them, they were a pita to clean and snagged onto things.

Also I learned I might get DOUBLE jaw surgery because I guess I have a very slight cross bite now that my teeth straightened out. But according to my models it should disappear once my teeth are aligned so he'll decide during surgery whether he needs to fix it or not. If he does fix it, I'll be wired shut for 2-3 weeks..He gave me the options for bands but told me that nerve endings in the lower jaw are more likely to get nerve damaged and takes longer to regain back feeling when they do that method (due to different cuts to the bone). He said patients choose 50/50 on band or wire. I went with wire.He also told me my gums show a little bit when I smile and he can fix that if I wanted to, so I agreed.

At the jaw class I met other kiddos with jaw issues lol. The videos were extremely outdated from the 90s but informative. I'm glad Kaiser does that they also gave me a bag full of goodies. I also did my blood work the other day and picked up my drugs. It's definitely gotten real to me now! I have to stay overnight at the hospital but don't worry kids, I'll post on my phone or something just to let you guys know how it goes!

9 more days till Surgery

So a friend asked me the other day, "When are you getting your jaw broken?"
So I told him may 17th. And then I really though about it and realized, wow that is coming up! My surgery date is literally my last day of school which is very excellent timing because I can get my surgery done and wires removed right before summer semester begins. I'm going to have to go shopping for some type of meal replacement powder over at gnc pretty soon. I've also gained about 5 lb. so hopefully that should be enough.  

I've never had any type of surgery requiring general anesthesia so I'm a little bit nervous about that. Anyways I'll keep you guys posted! ciao

2 more months till surgery!

Hello. Sorry about not updating. I'm still getting used to blogging it doesn't come natural for me. Heck, I don't even have a facebook! So I thought about deleting this blog...but LUCKY FOR YOU GUYS! I decided not to. YEA!!

Gum grafting was surprisingly very easy. Recovery was so nice and I never felt any pain what-so-ever. But I don't smoke and I've heard smoking can literally make your graft fall off.... just saying. Smokings bad and if you haven't stopped now... you definitely should!

Well I should post some pictures up..but i'lll put some pics up next time and maybe i'll get some actual photos. So wow only 2 more months. It's crazy how the months have gone so quickly. My surgery date is still set for Thursday, May 16th, 2012.


My bite has definitely worsen now but my midline has remained centered and my teeth are so straight now, I mean they were "straight" but now they are perfect!! I'm definitely happy about that! (Notice: Trying to keep myself positive)

So at my last appointment they put my surgical wire and surgical hooks in and it appears I'm ahead of schedule and surgery ready! I only have one more appointment with my ortho. and then I'm off to get my jaw broken.

Until then.... Remember think happy thoughts! :)

If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

-Frank A. Clark

Overdue update

If anyone still reads this, I just wanted to keep you all updated :)

So they've been moving up my wires progressively and everything seems to be going to plan. My ortho is going to take some new models of my teeth at my next appointment to see if I'm surgery ready. I think I made my surgery date a tad too long...oh well. Better safe than sorry! Also my surgery date is two days after my last final for spring semester. So that gives me approximately two weeks to recover before the summer semester begins. The surgery date for my gum grafting surgery is Jan 9th. Apparently gum grafting is a cosmetic surgery so it's not covered by my dental insurance which is b.s. Anyways, the surgeon told me I had the healthiest gum he's seen for awhile so it should be a quick and fast recovery.

Rant:
After having a normal bite and now an underbite/no bite let me tell you. You can't chew for shi*. I've noticed just biting into anything my jaw strength is super weak now. I can't even eat noodles! My favorite staple of my diet. Braces doesn't help things at all either... I forgot how frustrating it is to floss. It used to take me 2 min. tops. to floss all my teeth. I have to waste 15 precious minutes of my life to floss! And no it hasn't gotten easier. I've used a water pick but it just don't feel as clean as flossing.

Here's a photo update my bite has shifted but nothing "noticeable" it's hard to explain like some of back molars have moved a bit:

Side profile:

Happy Holidays! And I hope everyone is thinking about some good new year resolutions. Now I'm off to the gym!

Braced and ready

So when I met with my orthodontist he wasn't kidding about getting started right away! He scheduled me a week later to get both my top and bottom braces put on. It took 40 minutes to put them all on! But it felt more like 2 hours. But he was a sweetie and gave me ceramic for the top 6 brackets :)
Photos:

Dreaded side profile:

 Closeup:

They were taken from my labtop like 5 min. ago. Hence, the poor quality. That is my bite btw. My teeth touch in exactly one place. My next ortho. appt. is in 4 weeks. 

BAD NEWS:

My lower canines have a recessed gum line from genetics. I need to get some type of gum surgery. My friend had a gum transplant and told me it was worst than childbirth. But then my ortho is telling me it's like getting a tooth extracted at worse. Lies! All lies! So now I need yet another surgery :)

P.s. those weird white dots on my collarbones are dermal implants not a whitehead 

IM BACK!

Hello fellow bloggers,

I hope everyone had an awesome summer! I certainly did! I hired a fitness trainer and made my goal of 18% body fat in one month! whoop whoop!

So once again, I met up with my surgeon this month to give me the green light on surgery/braces. He said since I'm still "growing"based on my bone scan he, as a doctor, must recommend I wait another entire year. BUT since my case is so weird, (If you guys don't remember or are new, I had a growth spurt when I was 18 and it grew just enough to create an edge-to-edge bite) and so he told me it's my choice.

Well, I'm sure as hell am not waiting another damn year! I told him just to over correct my bite if anything. And he agreed to. He also said he wants to move my upper jaw and rotate it. So that it angles up? If anyone knows what exactly that does please leave a comment! I'm still confused on that.

So I set up a surgery date for May 20, 2012, which is around 7-8 months away. They set the appointment up as a double jaw surgery just in case anything changes. But yup! Now its time to make an appt. with my orthodontist and get this show on the road.


Question:
I asked my ortho. how quick I can go back to work as a receptionist. He said at the minimum two weeks.   Is that really realistic? Or is it probably more like a month?