nothing much

Thanks are quiet in my braces-covered world.  Or, mainly, I’ve just gotten whiny and haven’t wanted to fill a blog with complaints.  I’m ready for this to be over!  I know its just a few months more, but man, it’s dragging.  What’d’ya do, though, right?  Just wait…

 

Chin and lower lip are still pretty numb.  Occasional tingles and I do notice when I managed to bite my lip instead of my sandwich, but otherwise, nothing. 

 

Sigh…OK, I’m logging off before I get too Debbie Downer about this again!  Hope everyone is having a great week!

Closer!

The unofficial word from Dr. Weber was 3 to 3 1/2 more months.  I go back in 8 weeks for my "finishing bands" (which the girl warned me are horrible!  Anyone have any tips?).  Ooh, and I got most of my hooks off.  And got to floss sans wires while she took them off.  Yea!

So, not before my birthday, but at least before Christmas! :)

update from my surgeon

Totally forgot to mention that I saw Dr. Desa last week - he was extremely enthusiastic about how I am healing and thought that I should be very close to done with the braces (oh, how I wish it was his decision!). 

I told him that a lot of my friends here were having similar experiences, so I wasn't so nervous that my progress was anything but normal.  He was highly intrigued about the whole world of braces/surgery blogging....

Anyways, appointment with the ortho on Tuesday, at which I'm supposed to get some of these surgical posts off - hurray! 

Ooh, and I won a limbo contest last night...after I cleared the last bar, someone told me to try even lower...I did, and smack my tooth on the bar. Ow.  That's what I get for showing off!

for-e-ver

Ugh, these things are never coming off, are they?  I had my first trip back to the orthodontist since my surgery.  Dr. Weber said I looked pretty good, then slapped some thicker rubber bands on my teeth and sent me on my way.  I have one on the left that is to stay on all the time, and one on  the right to wear at night.  I didn’t even ask if he could estimate my “release date”.  I am so ready for this to be over.    It’ll be 18 months this week.  I don’t want to be 30 With Braces, but the chances of getting them off within the next two months before my birthday aren’t looking so promising.  Grrr…

 

My top lip is mostly back, but my bottom is still numb.  For the most part, I’m eating pretty good, but a lot of food is upsetting my stomach – I much eat TOO well on Fridays because the last two Saturdays I’ve felt like ripping my stomach out.  I missed the whole holiday on Saturday – my husband grilled 16 hamburgers and 12 brats for our family, and I didn’t get even one, I was so sick.  But on the plus side, I’m still losing weight…it’s just not much fun! J

 

I’m changing the name of this blog to “My Adventures in WHINING About Adult Braces.”  Sorry. 

 

 

chewing, kind of

At my appointment on Friday with Dr. Desa, he encouraged me to ramp up the chewing and work on my range of motion, so Friday night I had pizza and Saturday I had steak.  OK, it was teeny tiny pieces of steak but nonetheless.  Ah, progress.  Unfortunately my poor tummy wasn’t prepared for the pizza…  if you’re not there yet, please proceed with caution when you add things back into your diet!

 

weird

OK, so I've emailed a couple of posts here, and they didn't ever show up. Just in case anyone thinks I've totally gone MIA; I haven't, I just apparently wasn't getting through. That's annoying.
Mouth is still mostly numb. Also annoying. Eating better, but still not back to normal. Lots of pasta...
I need to catch up on everyone's progress, but I also need to sleep, so I'll be back...soon!

mmm...food

I had my 4 week checkup with Dr. Engel (Dr. Desa’s partner) on Wednesday and he told me to start leaving my rubber bands off during the day and to start incorporating soft foods in to my diet.  I wasn’t sure, so I thought I’d better wait…about 15 minutes or however long it took my to drive to the grocery store and order a slice of meatloaf and two big scoops of mashed potatoes and mac’ n’ cheese from the deli.  I ate it in my car in the parking lot, covering myself with towels and using the mirror on the visor for aim.  This was not because I was super starving, but because I didn’t have time to go home and eat before driving back across town for dance practice…  Got about half the meal down and thought it was best to stop so I didn’t hurt myself during rehearsal…but even though I wasn’t super-full, I also forgot what a number a drastic diet change can do on your digestive system…from 4 weeks of completely liquid diet to a big meal of meat and starches…the rumblings began!  Eek.  So, if you find yourself in this position, take my advice, and go slow! 

 

The nice thing was that eating only half the meal, I had leftover for work the next day.  Mmm… 

 

The bills have started rolling in.  My insurance has picked up 90% of the hospital bills, but have yet to approve the surgeon’s charges…hopefully we can get that resolved soon and without too much grief – I just don’t have that kind of change laying around.