so my new oral surgeon smokes crack... (15 weeks, 3 1/2 months)

went in for a consult yesterday early morning with new oral surgeon, dr. keane. he was very nice, i liked him alot, he answered all of my questions (and seemed impressed by some of them), was a good time. towards the end of my questions i asked him (with the uncertainty from dr. hobday's statement of, 'WAY ahead' ringing in my ears...). 'so, how close would you say i am to being ready?' i wasn't expecting much for an answer and i got what i expected. he laughed and said, 'well, i'm not the orthodontist, i can't really tell you that one. but, things do look aligned and leveled.' eh. oh well. asked some more questions and then i asked, 'so... i know you can't give me a real answer but, i have approved for surgery, dr. rahimi's office sent in a pre-auth and it was approved, so i know i am approved for surgery. i would like to get this done with by the end of the year so i don't have to worry about my husband's insurance changing or the company changing providers all together and suddenly i'm not covered. is there ANY chance we can get this done this year, or is this DEFINITELY next year?' and he said, 'oh, totally this year. yeah, no problem with that. how does october sound? then you would be healed up for the holidays.'

WHAT?!?

he took a panoramic x-ray and a profile of my skull x-ray and i was off on my way to work.

but then i spent all day in a fog. OCTOBER?!? how? wow! that would be AMAZING!

i don't even go in to the ortho until sept. 22nd... how is that possible??? so this morning i called dr. hobday's office and said, 'hi! so i've changed oral surgeons and dr. keane seems to think that i could be ready in october?!? but i don't even see dr. hobday again until sept 22nd... so...' the ortho chick was beyond nice, she took my message and offered to fax my chart over to dr. hobday (he's in the champlin office for the morning) although he'll be in the MG office this afternoon. i told her that this afternoon is fine. so he'll look things over and either he will give me a call, or an assistant will give me a call to let me know what is up.

i don't know how i could be ready in october unless dr. hobday gets on board and i start going in more frequently. and i thought that you had to stabilize in your braces for some time before you could do surgery... ???

UPDATE - the ortho lady called back. apparently dr. hobday does think that this is slightly agressive and i will not be ready by october. she did say that i MAY be able to do it this year, and that the fact that i do want it done this year is in my chart (because that means what???). so that is where we are at right now...

i'll keep you updated.

whoohoo! (3 monthsish, or 14 weeks exactly, but who's counting anyway...)

a little late but oh well...

so, it's been just over 3 months now and i think things are going well, but i've never had braces so i was wondering where i was in the scheme of things. so far i've been in thermo flexible wires for a month and a half, and then they put me in a stronger thermo flexible wire. my teeth are pretty much lined up now (although because of the flexible wire my bottom teeth are a little wavy...) and my upper is already MUCH wider than it was before. i never realized how narrow my upper palate was, i do have the crossbite on one side, but since comparing pics from before, you now see MANY more teeth on top. it's like they have flattened the front of my upper jaw some, which is good because i think my overjet is much reduced.

so, i was at the ortho last Friday and i managed to snatch a minute of dr. hobday's time while he was checking out my mouth after the retie. i asked him how it was going, was i on track, ahead of the game, behind? he looked into my mouth, looked at my chart, looked at me again and said, 'yeah, things look great.' he kinda looked puzzled, checked out my mouth again, then my chart in depth, then my mouth again and said, 'it's been three months? yeah, you look great, on schedule. ahead of schedule actually, MUCH ahead. we'll change your wires next time and start working on your arches, some detail work, (something else i don't remember) and then get you ready for surgery.' then he started highlighting things in my chart and told the assistant to set me up for steel 19s next time.i was too surprised by all this to ask just HOW FAR ahead i am and what it all means. :) of course i'll ask when i go back in mid sept for the wire change...
but still! WOW! WHOOOHOO! MUCH AHEAD!

i swear i'll have surgery this year. :) i hope anyway.

so that's amazingly awesome news!

PLUS! i have new surgery friends in MN! found them on the yahoo board, a bunch of us MN girlies who have either just had surgery or are having it in the future. yea! it's nice to think that there are others in this area going through this as well. plus kristin has dr. hobday as a surgeon as well! how cool! HI GUYS!

how to gross out your huband and your family, CORN! (3 months)

my wonderful little sister had her birthday yesterday, yea! happy birthday kristi! we were up at my parent's for dinner and a little party. what did we have to eat? well, we had chicken and potatoes and stuff, but mostly CORN ON THE COB!

and i had two pieces.

with no damage to the braces (although it was NOT south beach friendly...)

it was damn yummy. and the cleanup really wasn't that bad. although i smiled at my husband and my mom and they both said, wow, have fun cleaning that! oh well, gotta use the waterpik for something!

how to save $2100 - $10K+ in just a few minutes (3 months...)

so... due to other factors jolting our brains, ron and i started looking into in-network oral surgeons. i didn't before because dr. rahimi was referred to me, i've heard he was awesome, etc. good times. but he's out of network. and our max out of pocket for surgery would be $3600 PLUS whatever insurance deems is more than what they think is 'reasonable and customary'. which could add up to ALOT.

so i looked into in-network oral surgeons. and instantly saw dr. keane's name on the list. dr. keane is the oral surgeon who has done jaw replacement surgery on my local surgury guru (ex boyfriend's mom with advanced TMJ, over 30 surgeries so far...), as well as the wisdom teeth of her son (the ex). well... that changes things as i remember that she REALLY liked him.

i called her to find out her feelings on it. i know she is now going to the mayo clinic but i didn't think that she had some falling out with dr. keane or anything, i just thought she had to move on. and i was right. i was telling her of my situation and when i mentioned dr. keane's name she could not stop raving about him. she's known others who had him for surgery and loved him, she had surgery with him and loved him, etc. she thinks he's amazing, his staff is amazing, etc.

yea!

so i called dr. keane's office to check into it. they would love to assist me. they will be a provider of our insurance for at least the next 5 years (good news!). all i have to do is call them for a pre-op appt once i get closer, and then schedule surgery when ready.

bam! got the surgery down to $1500. yippee!!! (ONLY $1500... ha! it's still alot, but much better than before!)