So long 2015... see you next year!

Since my last post, things have turned around. The swelling in my lip has vanished and I'm pretty much back to normal. I finished my last round of antibiotics on Saturday. I still feel kinda 'blah' which I think accounts to the antibiotics coming out of my system. Since I wasn't feeling my best on my birthday we decided to post-pone part of my birthday celebration until this weekend. I really wanted to go ice skating so we are hopefully going to go sometime this weekend.

This infection, thankfully, didn't set me back at all. I was practically almost finished healing anyway. And since I caught it so quickly, I don't have to delay or reschedule any of my future appointments which is a relief.

I've been wearing the elastics constantly. They are a pain in the butt so I'm ready to stop wearing them. It's such a nuisance since I take them out and put them back in at least 6 times a day. Also, since I've been wearing them in my current configuration, I've felt like my upper jaw has moved very far forward. Almost to the point where I may have a slight overbite. I'm going to mention it to Dr. Klein when I see her in a few weeks but I'm not nervous. I've discovered that sometimes things get worse before they get better.

Other than the infection, things are going well! I finally ate a piece of pizza! And today, I ate my first sandwich. It was a chicken salad sandwich so it was pretty soft but I did have to do a lot of chewing.

Christmas was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve with Don's family and did our family tradition of going to the movies. We typically always go on Christmas day but Don's parents wanted to go back home to western mass early and we had already promised to spend Christmas morning with my family up on the north shore. I made a great brunch Christmas day. We had a ham, onion, and pepper quiche and a cinnamon bun french toast bake. Everything was to die for. I wish I had made 2 quiches because it went fast!

My next major braces appointment is with Dr. Klein on January 15th so I probably won't post again until after that. See you all in 2016!

Nothing to report, small life update

Well, it's been a very long time since I've posted anything. Almost 2 months to be exact!

I really don't have much to report dental-wise. Still in that weird holding pattern. I do have a check up next week on Halloween. Maybe having my braces tightened will deter me from eating a boat load of candy. My teeth are still a little sensitive but not as bad as before. And I also have another dental cleaning in November. Here's to hoping that the 'almost drowned' tag won't be used again!

These last couple of weeks have been super hectic and relaxing at the same time! We just spent the last 10+ days on vacation! We try to relax but there's so much that we want to do that we end up doing everything and then we are exhausted by the end of the week. We went to PA to celebrate a wedding with some of our friends and their families. It's probably one of the last weddings we'll have to go to in awhile before we start getting invitations for (gulp) baby showers! After the wedding, we decided to drive the extra 2 hours down to D.C. and spend the week with one of my close college friends. She put us up in her house and we roamed around DC for 4 days. After that, we drove back up to New England and went to the Berkshires to the in-laws. Lots of fun. Along the way we made another short detour to Troy, NY and ate dinner at Dinosaur BBQ. OMG, it's my favorite bbq place and it's SO good. We went there to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. Nothing says romance like brisket and spicy barbecue sauce. 

After that, we came back to Boston and we were in the area for 4 days. Then we left again and flew to Tampa, Florida to spend time with my aunt and her family. My cousin got married and it allowed me to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a long time including my two cousins. We flew back on Tuesday and now we are seriously back to reality. 

Surprisingly, I only gained 2 pounds while on vacation! I'll call that a success since I drank like a fish the whole time. :P

In other news, I have accepted a new position at the hospital. I now work full time in the main OR at my hospital. I haven't really said a whole lot about it because I've been so busy, but it's official! It'll be a great opportunity and I like the fast paced environment. I'm very excited to learn a lot more clinical-wise. My hours are now 10am-6:30pm which is really nice. This schedule allows me to actually spend time with my family and it even gives me the flexibility to go to all dental/medical appointments in the morning before my shift starts. This was more of a lateral move so unfortunately, no pay raise. But I should be getting one in January when my yearly review comes up. 

Ok, that was probably boring and pointless but whatever. :D Next week I will definitely post about my Halloween dental appointment!

Another one bites the dust

Things have been very hectic! We've been going with the flow and preparing for my surgery when BAM, life kicked us where it hurts.

Last Monday night (roughly two hours after my spacer part II dilemma), my husband was playing soccer with some friends when he got hurt. He ended up tearing his achilles tendon in his right leg. We had to rush to the hospital and suddenly our lives got a whole lot more complicated. We made an appointment to see an orthopedic specialist (the next day) and he confirmed our worst fears. His achilles was torn and pretty badly. He recommended surgery and soon. They were able to fit him in for surgery the following Friday.
I've been preparing for my surgery for months, I can't imagine being told, "Yea, you need surgery. Lets do it on Friday." Unreal. My hubby is a trooper cause I would have been a hot mess.
Friday comes and we go in for surgery. Luckily, I didn't have to miss work because he came to my hospital and had his surgery. By the time he got out of the OR, my shift was over. The best part? My husband is one of those people who is VERY HILARIOUS when coming off anesthesia. Since I work there, I was able to check up on him in the PACU (which the nurses don't typically allow in PACU cause their patients can turn critical very quickly if something goes wrong). After I checked in and said hi, I left to let him fully wake up.
The next time I saw him, he was sitting up at the day surgery recovery. He saw me and his face lit up. After I sat down next to him, he started humming and then busted out some awesome rap lyrics. I knew I should have come in with my phone on record. Would have made for an awesome youtube video. Now he is recovering and being a typical pain in the ass patient, haha! He came out of surgery in a splint because of swelling. But last Thursday, they took that off, checked his stitches and put him in a hard cast.
I was amazed because the incision is much larger than I thought it would be. I figured 2 maybe 2 1/2 inches max but he's got a good 4 inches of stitches. He didn't just tear his achilles, he also shredded it as well. The shredding carried very far up his leg. The doctor said that it's the worst shredding of a tendon that he's ever seen (great, should have known that don wouldn't do anything half-assed! haha). So now, he's in the hard cast until June 12th when he'll be fitted for a walking boot. He'll be stuck in the walking boot for a minimum of 6 weeks.

Don's bright orange cast to match his bright orange hair!

Now, since it was his right foot, he hasn't been able to drive. His coworker lives nearby and has to drive by our house in order to get to work so he's been picking Don up and driving him in when his schedule works out. Unfortunately, we aren't sure when Don will be able to drive again. And he was supposed to be my "reliable person" to drive me to and from the hospital on my own surgery day. Hopefully, he'll be able to drive by June 19th but if he can't, we have a few other people who could potentially drive us into Mass General.

In other news, tomorrow is the big day where I get my appliance placed. I'm hoping that it's smaller than it was when I was a kid. I'm sure this will now increase my 15 minute brushing and flossing ritual to closer to 20 minutes now, haha. Although I do have to say that I will be very happy to be able to floss my upper teeth again. Not flossing because of the spacers makes me feel like my mouth is never fully clean.

Well, tomorrow is just another chapter in this journey. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Kinda stupid but that's how I'm trying to look at it. :D
More to come (hopefully) tomorrow. I make no promises that I won't be a giant whiny baby though!