Recovery Day 36

This past week has been a bit of a blur for me. The holidays were good! Since I was told to take it easy and focus on recovery, Don took a few days off work and we were able to spend the whole week of Thanksgiving with his family out in the Berkshires. It was very nice and relaxing. On Thanksgiving, I was able to eat the whole Thanksgiving meal! It was wonderful not having to "fend for myself" or make something that I actually could eat. I was very thankful for that and for not having to cook much on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for us is pretty traditional/tame. We had turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce (had to do the can since I couldn't chew the real stuff), squash, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing and dinner rolls. We came home Friday evening since we didn't want to have to deal with any traffic and I think we timed it perfectly. We didn't go out for any black Friday shopping, we were lucky enough to find plenty of good deals online. 

Today marks 5 weeks since surgery which is crazy! I returned to work today which is also crazy. I didn't work a full day due to an issue with my return to work letter. They called me after it was clarified and I went in right after that. I only worked about 6 hours but it felt good. I'm very tired mostly from talking to everyone. Everyone at work was super sweet because they all wanted to check in on me which was nice. I'll be working full time but I'll be on light duty for awhile. I'm not scheduled to work in the OR until January so I've got a month to really transition back to my schedule again.

Nothing much has happened with the braces except... I'm pretty sure that I broke one of my brackets. Not sure when it happened but I noticed it tonight when I was brushing my teeth. I'm going to shoot Dr Klein an email tomorrow and find out if I need to get it looked at before my appointment next week. Don't want to ruin my progress so hopefully I'll find out tomorrow if it needs to be fixed immediately.

Week 5 Progress Photo

Week 5 Progress Photo

I took these photos last night since I'm pretty tired today. I can now smile without it looking super fake or looking super painful (smiling hasn't really hurt so much since I couldn't feel my face much but the stretching felt VERY weird). I still have stitches inside my gums which is a pain. But it looks like I only have about 3 left which is pretty awesome.

I've been kinda lame with not posting as often and I think I'll blame the holidays. Hopefully should get a little better from now on.

This winter can suck it.

I am so done with this winter, it's not even funny. Seriously mother nature, we get it. We are very sorry for whatever it is that we did. We apologize.

So for those of you reading this blog NOT from New England, we've been getting crazy amounts of snow this year. So crazy that public transit has been forced to shut down multiple times. In total, I believe we have collectively gotten 6 ft of snow so far this winter with 4 ft the past 2 weeks alone. And we have another BLIZZARD bringing another 2 feet of snow tomorrow night. What a joke!

Because of all this weather, it's really screwed around with my dental appointments. I was supposed to have another appointment this past Wednesday. I didn't want to drive in because I thought parking would be terrible. There are snow banks everywhere in Boston, especially around the Mass General Hospital area (just my luck, the worst place for traffic and snow just so happens to be where I need to go. Figures.). I decided to take my chances with the T and was just about halfway there when I get a phone call from the dentist telling me that my appointment has been cancelled due to the Doctor being unable to make it into the office. GREAT. Thankfully, it was my day off so I didn't need to rush into work or anything but now I had to reschedule my appointment to a different day and that day I would be working. Even better. I was a little irritated because the dental office tried to reschedule my appointment to 3 weeks after this one. I don't want to be a bitch or anything but, in my opinion, it is unacceptable. I'm not a patient getting a routine dental cleaning and I'm not going into the office just for shits and giggles. I'm going into the office to prepare for a major surgery. Even minor delays can really impact my timeline. And the sooner I have surgery, the sooner I won't be coming into their office every 4-6 weeks. They just need to get their shit together. I also maybe threatened the secretary with tooth decay and my teeth falling out (because of the spacers) so maybe that's why I got a better appointment. I guess going into psycho-bitch mode really does work!

I had my appointment today and my orthodontist was so impressed with how fast my teeth are moving. She couldn't believe how much my teeth had moved in just 2 weeks! I got the spacers removed because I was supposed to get bands put around the back 2 top molars. Unfortunately, those 2 teeth are kinda problematic. They aren't fully down all the way. Half of them are still underneath the gum (WTF teeth!). She tried putting a band around one of them and it just wouldn't fit without totally destroying my gum around it. She decided to omit the back brackets for now and thinks that 6 more weeks of straightening might give them some more room to come down so that she can put the bracket on. Why can't the gum recession happen back there?! Geez. But she was so impressed that she told me that they were going to do some impressions and then she would look at the models and give me a better idea of when I can expect to have surgery. Once they dry and she gets a chance to look at them, we'll talk about surgery. !!!!!!! She told me that I'm very "close" to almost having straightened teeth. And now I might have surgery sooner rather than later. Wahoo!

This whole roller coaster of emotions is a little exhausting. First being told Jan-Mar 2015 for surgery, then told Jan-Mar 2016 for surgery. Then the disappointment. Now it's looking like potentially August or September 2015 for surgery? Maybe? I don't know! Now my spirits are up just a little bit. It's very tiring and almost impossible to plan anything life-wise.

My next appointment is in 5 weeks and that's when we'll talk surgery. I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing until then. I ended up getting an appointment at the Danvers office next time so I refuse to go into Boston proper again until winter is over.

I know I don't say it often, but I really couldn't go through this experience without my family and friends. Their support means a lot to me, even if it's mostly me bitching and complaining. Either way, thank you to everyone who listens to me with a sympathetic ear.

I'm trying to keep my promise of posting photos along with my updates but it's hard. I always write something and then forget the pictures. Here is one new photo taken today. I've also reposted 2 other photos so people can see the difference. I've only gone back 5 weeks so check out my recent progress!

Taken 2/14/15

Taken 1/30/15 (two weeks ago)

Taken 1/7/15 (5 weeks ago)

Braces Malfunction

Holy hell. I thought spacers were terrible? Let me tell you, what happened to me over the weekend blows those spacers out of the park.
Yesterday, I went to a graduation party for a very good family friend. We were chatting and eating and generally having a good time when I bit down on something, heard a pop, crunch, and another pop. Apparently, when I bit down on something, the wire popped out, bent, and then popped back in. At first, I was ok. A little sore but not bad. But as the day wore on, my mouth pain got worse and worse. So bad that I almost burst into tears on the way home. My hubby spent the night at a friend's house (FIFA world Cup soccer is happening and he's completely hooked!) so I had the bed to myself. I'm so irritated because I woke up every 2 hours or so because of mouth pain. I couldn't enjoy having the bed to myself! What a bummer! I also had to work today and could barely function, the pain was that bad.

I'm sure some of you are wondering, why not take some pain meds and call the dentist? Well, I called the dentist on call and they said that there wasn't really anything I could do today (it is Sunday after all) and I totally understood that. I was nervous because this pain was so bad that I didn't know if I should go to the emergency room. I was worried that maybe part of my tooth broke when I bit down on something, who knows! And I was freaking out because my surgery is on Thursday! Less than 4 days away! She told me to take some tylenol and to call the office first thing in the morning but that she didn't think I'd need to go to the ER unless I got dizzy, nauseous, and started vomitting. She also told me that my wire was probably just in the wrong spot and that if I could, try and pop it back in. And the meds thing? Well, since I'm having surgery on Thursday, I can't take any kind of medication that could thin my blood or cause bleeding risks. All NSAIDs (like Ibuprofen and Naproxen) may cause bleeding risks so tell all surgery-bound patients to stop all NSAIDs a week before surgery to minimize bleeding. I feel like I can never catch a break! Something like this always happens to me.

Well, I ended up leaving work early. I went home and took some more tylenol. Then, I started to fiddle with the wire and then suddenly, I felt another pop and the wire went back in. Oh. My. God. The relief was so instant that I burst into tears. I cried for a good 10 minutes, no joke. I was so happy that I had fixed it and that I wouldn't need any additional dental work. This pain was so similar to when I had an infected tooth and needed a root canal that I wasn't sure if it was a braces thing or an actual tooth thing! I've never cried tears of happiness before today but after everything was ok and I stopped crying, I felt wonderful. I was very tired (since I practically didn't sleep last night!) but I was just too happy and relived that I didn't care.

Thankfully, I'll know what to do should this happen again. And I guess I still have to go to the dentist tomorrow because the wire might be bent and could pop out again. But at least I'm not in a crazy amount of pain anymore!