Or maybe not? (also known as, UPPER ONLY!!!)

After trying unsuccessfully to set up a CT scan of my lower jaw to see where the main nerve is located to aid my surgeon (they didn’t have my referral from my OS), my OS’s office called (also known as Lisa, my favorite employee there!). She said that dr. keane had been able to get more into my molds and did surgery on them and he has decided that my surgery will be for upper only. Apparently before he had only played around with them and was thinking that it would be both upper and lower, but then after having time to actually do the surgery on them he had decided upper only.

WHOOOHOOO!!!

This relieves me so much. I am VERY much not into lower, I don’t know why it creeps me out so much more than upper. I have no idea. Maybe because I’ve had a year and a half to get used to upper? Anyway, I am very excited about this. YEA!

More details after my appt on Friday with dr. keane.

sushi party baby!!!

JULY 20!!!

a date! finally! it's for real!!!

BUT, it’s upper and LOWER. Suckidy suck. I didn’t want lower. But if he thinks it will be better for my bite/my appearance/for whatever reason, he’s the one to make the call. But still. Suck.

wow.

so is this when I start freaking out about this???

THAT'S THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY!

so then, sushi party for me. who's in???

la la la... um... oral surgeon's office? hello?

So… no call. I called dr. keane’s this morning to check in and to make sure that they got the records and, guess what? They didn’t.

Ugh.

Thanks to the wonderful lisa at dr. keane’s, my records were hand delivered to them from the ortho today. She’s waiting for a call from the assistant surgeon to verify that he’s open the 13th and the 20th and then I should get a call tomorrow regarding my surgery date. FINALLY. I’ll believe it when it happens. I’m starting to feel like this surgery might not happen until NEXT july. Grrr…

hooks are for pirates!

Presurgery appt with dr. hobday - ortho. Goodness. That was an appt and a half. Took out my wires and then it all began. Starting with xrays, they have a new machine so I got to do two of the panographic ones, the first one wasn’t saved. And the one where they do the side of your head and you have the things in your ears. That one always creeps me out and I was particularly disgusted because I swear I saw some ear gunk on the ear thing BEFORE she put it in my ear. Ewww. Then onto the molds. Two sets. I chose grape flavored mold which has been great in the past. Not this time, it just tasted like ewww. Then dr. hobday came in and we did the soft wax mold fun where you bite down into soft wax. First with your front teeth, then with your molars, the whole time he’s guiding my jaw into a position that feels very unnatural. Finally the assistant wired tied EVERY tooth, and put hooks onto my 4 front teeth on both the top and the bottom. (but I’m not being wired shut??? Why are we doing this?). finally I have my powerchains put back on. Dr. hobday says, ‘see you 2 weeks after surgery.’. I say, ‘huh? Dr. keane says 6 weeks after surgery.’ He says, ‘nope, two weeks later for a retie.’. um, my upper teeth will have a splint on them for SIX WEEKS. How will they be retied with a splint WIRED to them??? Whatever. I wasn’t about to fight him with mold crap all in my teeth and all over my face. I’m on dr. keane’s side, we’re not doing anything to my teeth until that splint is off.

I called dr. keane’s after my appt to let them know that the records are on their way. They told me that I should get a call Friday or Monday to set up my surgery. Yea!!!

oh, and p.s. these hooks, on the bottom, suck!!! it's like I just got braces again! where's that wax???

and she huffed, and she puffed....

So I called and called and called and finally got in earlier for my pre-surgery appt at the ortho. yea!!! I called Lisa at the OS to tell her and she said, yea! Now I should get a call about my surgery friday or monday after that, and we'll be in door county! I'll have my cell on me at all times I guess.

did some one call for an oral surgeon?

Appt with oral surgeon, dr. keane. Many good things at this appt. #1 – I’m not going to be wired/banded shut, AT ALL! So even though I can’t chew for 6 weeks, I won’t have any issues with meds or food, no being shut for me. Yea! I’m so happy! Dr. keane still can’t tell me if I’m doing just upper or both at this point. Apparently the mold they got from dr. hobday just tells him that things look good, he needs an articulator mold to do surgery on and this will tell him what he needs to know. He kinda laughed and said, ‘you seem to be chomping at the bit and want this done soon.’. um, are you sure???? If I have a ‘pre-surgery’ appt with my ortho june 29th… no, I want to wait until September for my surgery. Yes I want it done soon! I’ve been waiting on this for a freaking year! I want to go on with my life! I want to be able to think about having kids, stuff like that. Get this behind me and over with! But of course I didn’t say that, I said, ‘um, a little. I just want it done soon.’ He says surgery should be the 13th or 20th of july, he will call as soon as he gets the info from dr. hobday’s records appt to set things up. The 4th of july is in there screwing things up, not sure about the timing.

getting somewhere?

Things look good, dr. hobday thinks I’m ready to go! Did progress molds and setup an appt for june 29th for my pre-surgery records appt. yea!

are we there yet??? (55 weeks/12 months)

the gap is BIG, at least as big as it was last time I was at the ortho. It is just at/slightly larger than 1 mm (it’s hard to accurately measure a gap in your teeth on your own…). I better be ready for surgery. Appt for molds is in two days, pre-surgery consult with dr. keane is next Friday. Hopefully we can schedule the surgery at that time, whoohoo!!! I want this over with asap! It is getting quite annoying to not be able to schedule ANYTHING for July and August. I’m hoping that my surgery is in July. When I talked to dr. keane’s office they told me that his surgeries are on Wednesdays, and they usually schedule 30-45 days out. I’m hoping for July 13th, it would work best for me. If I can get in, July 6th would be awesome too. I’m thinking the 13th is a little early though, I would have a lot of dr. appts between now and then! But that’s fine, it doesn’t matter when it is, I’ll have a lot of pre-op stuff to do. If it was the 13th then I should hopefully be able to eat sushi for my birthday in September! That’s my goal anyway.

I’m getting more nervous/unhappy about the food situation. I can’t remember how long dr. keane said I would be banded shut. I know I have the splint in for 6 weeks and that whole time I’m on a no chew diet. That’s fine. Well it sucks but it’s ok. My question is, how long am I banded tightly shut? I have been talking to peeps who have had the surgery (a buyer at work that I have been talking with, she had surgery last may, and a girl on my new team who had upper and lower 3 years ago) and they both say that while you are banded/wired shut that you can’t eat anything. Even applesauce is too thick. Great…. I can’t imagine subsiding on vanilla and chocolate boosts/ensures and juice. Blah.