Okee Dokee

I kinda have a date?
Wednesday July 30.
There's this stupid thing with my insurance, and they won't cover the surgery if it's held at the hospital my surgery was originally scheduled at?? Even though it was on their approved list of hospitals... I don't even understand... but anyway, we're trying to get my surgery scheduled at another hospital for the same date.

I had my million-measurements-and-models appointment with the surgeon on Thursday. It went fine, except for the models. The surgeon ladies doing my models weren't exactly as efficient as the orthodontist ladies. I guess they weren't used to doing them with braces, so they put wax over my brackets! Dr. Jenkins wanted two top models and two bottom models, and they probably ended up doing about 6 total? And then I still had to come in the next day, because the ones they got still weren't what they were looking for!



Here be my x-rays

And here be my face after models. Look at all that rubber gunk stuck to my lips! Dang.

Gross.

In other news, Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Christiansen consulted and apparently it was determined that my face also as a little bit of asymmetry so Dr. Jenkins will be moving my jaws in every way possible!  Up, forward, to the side, and rotating. Why is my face so messed up? He said the most precise way to perform this surgery is CT guided, so I had to go get a CT scan too.

The countdown is on!

Also,

Oh also,

This picture has helped me in an infinite amount of ways. It's been encouraging me to do everything, including jaw surgery!

No News

I don't really have any big news,
but I had an orthodontist appointment this last week where I had one final adjustment and my ortho told me that he was going to consult with my surgeon and talk 'bout stuff.
And my ortho also said this would probably be my last appointment before surgery, unless I need to get surgical hooks on, which I don't know about yet.
I STILL DON'T HAVE A DATE. I find this very weird, because most people get their dates MONTHS in advance. My surgery is about two weeks away and I don't have an exact date!
But I have my pre-op appointment with Dr. Jenkins this Thursday, so I'm thinking it's safe to assume I'll get a date then?
Really though, surgery's 13-15 days away.
Yikes.

I'm Ready I'm Ready I'm Ready

This post is a tad late, but I had my appointment with Dr. Jenkins last Friday, and he said my mouth looks ready for surgery! *YAY*

He has to coordinate with his assistant surgeon to schedule the actual surgery, and wasn't able to get a hold of him during my appointment, but as of right now I have three possible dates: July 28th, 29th, or 30th! It would've/could've/should've been sooner, but I'm goin' campin' the 22-26!
So I still don't have an exact date, but we're getting closer. It's within my grasp.
My next appointment with Dr. Jenkins is the 17th of July, and I'm guessing they're taking all kinds of measurements and stuff.
I didn't really have any questions for Dr. Jenkins (because I've spent countless hours looking at jaw-blogs, and they've answered most of my questions), but I did ask him when I could start running again-- I'm on the cross country team at school, and my surgery is kind of in the middle of the season (but I'd rather have this surgery as soon as possible). He said I could start training again after two weeks, but given that I'd still be on a liquid diet it'd probably be hard to muster up the energy to train very hard, so I'd probably be able to REALLY start training again after a month. We'll see how that goes... heh.

Other than that, there's not much to report, except I'm kind of actually getting a little scared for the surgery. I've never really been afraid to get this surgery but all of the sudden my mind has gone into worst-scenario mode, like what if I wake up and the world is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse? (see: The Walking Dead) I probably wouldn't last a day... this is a legitimate fear!

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS

SO.
I had an orthodontist appointment today and...
I went in there fully expecting them to tell me that I'd have to wait until this fall to have my surgery, BUT.
Dr. C said I could have it tomorrow if it were absolutely necessary, and then he told me I could schedule a surgery date, as long as it was after the 15th of July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM SO EXCITED. I was seriously prepared to wait until Christmas break to have my surgery, so this is just the best news of my life.

Dr. C said I just have a bit of a cross bite, because my top molars are behind my bottom molars. To try to fix that I got some 'bite blocks' put back there:

They're the blue things in the back of my mouth

They feel super weird. And my teeth only touch in two places when I bite now (which isn't a whole lot worse than before...)

*open bite intensifies*

This is me biting down with my bite blocks in place. I can basically stick my whole tongue through that opening... sigh. 

I have another appointment in two weeks!

After we got home, my mom called my surgeon, Dr. Jenkins, and we set up an appointment for this Friday to talk 'bout stuff. And we need to get my insurance stuffs re-approved, because it was only good for 90 days, and it's been longer than 90 days, but that should go smoothly.

OMIGOSHI'MSOEXCITED.
I need to go find lots of smoothie recipes, and soup recipes, and milkshake recipes, and decide what TV shows to catch up on, and read more blogs, and plan my last supper, and tell everyone I know that I really truly am getting surgery this summer. I'M SO HAPPY. YAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!

Premature Posting

Hello blogging world,
I had an orthodontist appointment today, even though I wasn't scheduled for another one til the 23rd.
I had a bracket fall off (again) (pretty sure it was the same one that fell off last time).
It fell off Sunday (I think), my mom called the office Monday, and they were able to get me in today (Wednesday. They said it would've been Tuesday, but Dr. C wasn't going to be in the office, and he had to be there to replace a bracket.)
So I walked into the office, with my mom, because she was gonna ask Dr. C about a timeline for surgery. I walked in there not quite emotionally ready for what he would say.
BUT
I got news I could deal with.
He said it all depends on if my jaws will expand.
At the latest we're looking at being ready by October, which means surgery could be during Fall Break or Christmas Break?
Or if a miracle happens I could actually maybe be ready this summer.
Dr. C said he'd let me know if a summer surgery would be attainable at my NEXT appointment.
Either way, I'm happy I got a definite answer. I mean, summer would be preferable, because I'd like to get this over with ASAP.
Still, there's a little piece of me that keeps saying, "What if he's lying? What if we'll be stuck in braces FOREVER?" But I think it just needs to be quiet.

Orthodontists are the reason I have trust issues

Dear blog,

Orthodontists are the reason I have trust issues.
I am very sad/angry/upset.

Here's what went down at my orthodontist appointment yesterday:
They took molds and readjusted my wires (like they've done at my last two appointments), but when Dr. Christiansen was fixing my wires he said something like, "Do you have an exact date for your surgery?" and I said, "Well, uh.... no" and he said, "Well good. 'Cause I have a lot of work to do."

I didn't ask him when he'd think I'd be ready for surgery, mostly because I was afraid of his answer. So I just scheduled my next appointment for the 23rd of June and left.

 Later, my mom called the office, because she was concerned about scheduling family vacations and such this summer, and wanted to get an idea of when surgery would be. She talked to the secretary who talked to Dr. Christiansen, who said he'd have to see me a few more times before I'd be ready, and to just plan the summer without worrying about surgery. My mom thinks we can plan for either late summer, or Christmas break.

So let's talk about why I'm sad/angry/upset.

When I was first consulting with Dr. Christiansen, in August, he said, "Your teeth are so straight, it'll probably only take about 6 months to get them ready for surgery. It usually takes me about 9 months. You'll be ready by early summer of 2014." So I thought, "Great! That's not too long at all! 6-9 months in braces, I can do that!"
When I was first consulting with surgeon(s) (I consulted with three), they said, "Your teeth are so straight, we may be able to do your surgery without braces!"
But when me and my ma talked to Dr. Christiansen about that, he said, "Well, it's better to have braces on so we can do some tweaking afterwards." I was fine with that. I was willing to sacrifice 6-9 months of my mouths comfortability for a perfect mouth.
And so I got my braces on in October.
Not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping that by some miracle my mouth would be ready for surgery by that Christmas break, but when that came and went, I was hoping I could get surgery on my birthday. (May 29), but appointment after appointment, that goal was looking bleaker and bleaker. However, I assumed I would at least have a surgery date by then. And at my appointment in April, Dr. Christiansen said I would probably get a date at this appointment. But do I have a date? NO. If I had a date, this post wouldn't be titled "Orthodontists are the reason I have trust issues".
It's just, it's been 7 months since I got my braces on and there's no date in sight.
I'm just super anxious to get surgery. I've been planning on having it as soon as school got out, and have told all these people who keep asking "Isabel, do you know when your surgery is yet?" and I just keep having to say "Haha not yet!" and I just really don't want to have to come back to school with the same jaw. I just can't understand why my orthodontist can't just tell me what he's doing with my mouth. Why he told me all this stuff about having a surgery and getting a date at the beginning of summer, and now that's not happening. And maybe I wouldn't mind having to wait a little longer if Dr. C would just explain what he's doing with my mouth but he hasn't really given me anything to go on except false hopes. So my mom has talked about scheduling an appointment with Dr. C between now and my next appointment just to get more of an understanding about what's going on.

All I want is to have my surgery done by the end of summer. Orthodontist, that's all I ask of you.

I just really need to rant this somewhere, and a jaw blog seemed to be the right place to do it, so sorry for all you who endured reading that.