6 days til surgery!

A whole lot happened today but I don't have a lot of time to sit down and write everything down. Just wanted to be consistent with the food porn haha lol.

I will write out a more comprehensive accounting of what happened today at my pre-op appointment tomorrow sometime.

For now, here's the food I enjoyed today! Nachos, slutty pumpkin (for those unawares, it's a shipyard pumpkin head with a shot of vanilla stoli, soooo good!), and cannoli from Mike's pastry in the north end. I also had pulled pork Mac and cheese but I forgot to take a photo, whoops. We went to trivia and had a great time with some friends. 

7 days til surgery - butterflies have begun

Well, we are down to the one week mark. I'm trying to make plans with as many people as possible this week and my schedule is so packed! So much things going on, it's crazy.
Dinner tonight wasnt exciting, just grilled chicken and rice pilaf. But I did have a falafel wrap at work for lunch and it wasn't terrible. The hummus spread they used was quite good. Falafel could have been better but it wasn't bad.
Due to some schedule changes at work my work schedule is now different. And I was originally supposed to have my final dental cleaning in Wednesday. Well, now I have to work in the morning. I called today on the off chance they could fit me in somewhere this week and they had a cancellation for today at 3pm! I couldn't believe how lucky I was. I must have called at just the right time. But now my teeth are clean and its one less thing I have to worry about! Score!
Tomorrow is my pre op and trivia for the first time in awhile. Can't wait!

8 days til surgery - more food

Well, more food was eaten today. Notable foods were the chicken parmesan panini and French fries, cupcakes, tortilla chips and salsa, gummy worms and a whole lot of peanut butter cups. Yea... no shits were given today in terms of diet.

I went and did more food shopping and food prep for myself. Bought more chicken broth, carnation instant breakfast, oatmeal and Gatorade. Also bought pumpkin puree, might attempt to make some kind of meal with that. Or maybe just mix it into pudding or something. I'll probably never want to eat pumpkin ever again after this surgery.

My mother in law gave me coupons for baby food. Not looking forward to eating that but it's better than the alternative which is cook a chicken breast and blend the crap out of it until it is a puree. Thanks but no thanks. The baby food is much better. So that's the next thing to buy.

We also have plans for my last meal which will be Sunday. I'm very excited because it's looking like it'll be an all day thing (breakfast lunch and dinner are all planned). Look for my post on the 25th!

And the food porn begins - 9 days till surgery

So I've decided that there are no rules this week when it comes to food. If I want something, I'm going to eat it. And to make this a little fun, I'm going to post some of my meals here.

Countdown to surgery starts off with Saturday food porn. Had pizza and Fritos for lunch at the hospital since I was working. The pizza was pretty awful but crunchy so at least my jaw was put to work.
After work, I joined two friends from school and we got mani-pedis at my favorite nail spa (aria in Wakefield, ma). Omg so good, they massage you and put parafin wax on your hands and feet. It was so awesome. Very relaxing and just what I wanted. Then we went it to dinner at chili's. I got a tostada, quesadilla and enchilada plate along with a margarita. And finally finished it off with a cookie skillet with ice cream on top. Sooooo good!

The Countdown is on! 10 days to go...

I can't believe that I have less than 10 days to go until my surgery! Still doesn't feel very real to me. I have been doing a lot of cleaning and reorganizing things before the big day. I worked on the pantry a few days ago and took a quick inventory to figure out what I need to buy at the grocery store. If no one knew how old I was, they would think my grocery list was for a 75 year old grandma.

I made some sweet potatoes and blended them down to a puree. Our freezer is starting to look pretty sad filled with all the soft food. Tons of applesauce, butternut squash soup, sweet potatoes, ice cream, and frozen fruit to make smoothies. I am also planning to freeze a puree carrot soup. Probably do that Sunday evening.

My freezer! And it's not done yet. So sad!

My final pre-op appointment is on Tuesday which I have off. I will ask all the questions I have left and hopefully get answers. Then Wednesday morning I have my last dental cleaning. Hopefully they'll be able to clean around all the hooks and wires I have. But anything is better than nothing I suppose.

I asked a bunch of coworkers what last meal they would choose if they had to have jaw surgery and most of them said either steak or ribs. Another person said buffalo chicken. If anyone has any suggestions for things I should eat before my surgery, please comment below! I'd love to hear everything!

Work Up! Physical! Pre-op Admissions! 26 days to go!

I had my first HUGE pre-op appointment on Monday. The appointment went from 8am-around 1:30ish. It was a super long day and I'm glad it's over and done with.

I took the train in, which wasn't too bad. I grabbed the T at the green-line Woodland stop and took it all the way to Charles/MGH. It took about an hour and wasn't a bad ride at all. I got off the train at MGH and thought to myself, "I could maybe do this everyday... This wouldn't be so bad if I had to work in the city..." As I exited the station, the stench of fresh piss hit my nostrils and all I could think of was "NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE." Haha, thinking back on it now it was too funny how quickly my mind changed in that instance. Also, I have a terrible poker face and I'm sure my disgust was plain to see. LOL!

The worst part of the day was the first appointment which was the work-up portion of the appointment. I had to do 12 impressions (6 uppers, 6 lowers), 4 bite impressions, x-rays, and photos. My jaw was a little sore after but not too bad. We discovered that my face isn't symmetrical. I mean, I know that no one's face is perfect but looking at pictures with me straight ahead it was so obvious. One of my eyes is way funky. And not like, lazy funky. Like, one of my eyes is physically lower than the other one. It took awhile for the tech and surgical resident to map out my face correctly. Jeez! Way to give a girl a complex.

After that, I had a pre-op physical which was pretty routine. They did it right in the same office as the work up so I didn't have to go anywhere which was nice. The appointment was super easy, just had to answer a bunch of questions. The nurse practitioner who did the appointment with me was kind of ditzy but we got through it together, haha. She did give me a packet with information about a blender-based diet (yaaaaaaay. can you hear the excitement?!). There are a few no-brainer recipes on there but a few I hadn't thought about. I bought peanut protein powder from amazon to go into shakes and stuff. Hopefully that'll help. They also recommended to give baby food a go (bleh) but maybe I can find some interesting recipes on pinterest.

After the physical, I had a meeting with a member of the anesthesia staff. She was a CRNA and super nice. Once she realized that I worked in a hospital OR, the appointment went by in a breeze. She was so fun and easy to talk to. It's obvious why she's a nurse cause she was very personable. If you have to go to pre-op admissions and get to talk to "Christina", she's the best. Super nice and very helpful! She answered a bunch of questions I had and even gave me some answers to things I hadn't thought of. I'll definitely be updating the Questions part of the blog soon (if not tonight).

Other than that, I'm good until my final pre-op with doctor keith in 3 weeks. WOW. Time sure does fly.

The Countdown is on...

Hello everyone! It feels like its been so long since I last updated! However, not a whole lot has gone on dental-wise. Don and I have really been just living life and trying to hold on for the ride. BBQs, yard sales, weekends away, work, it's all just been a little crazy. Not enough time to live this crazy busy life and update the blog constantly. I did have a post that I had prepared but I completely forgot to post it and after re-reading it, it was just whiny and annoying. That was part of why I scrapped it. While I often use this blog to vent, I was just over it so that's why it was deleted.

I did get all my paperwork squared away which was definitely a relief. There was a minor hiccup with my FMLA paperwork but it was worked out. (Hint: this is what the deleted post was about) The paperwork hiccup could have turned into a huge deal if a former insurance coordinator had to deal with it (cough : Mary : cough). I'm happy to report that Viviana stepped up to the plate and took care of me. She turned the process from something I expected to be a nightmare into a piece of cake. Dr Keith has completely gotten an upgrade in my mind. He is a great surgeon and he deserves to have a great staff to compliment him.

I also set up my short term disability which was WAY easier than I initially expected. Compared to the little issues I had with my FMLA paperwork, this seemed almost too easy. The only thing left to do is that I have to call on my last day of work and the wheels will be set in motion.

Today was an exciting day. Today was my last orthodontist appointment before my surgery. Guys, my surgery is 32 days away. The surgery hasn't really seemed real to me until today. Today, I had every bracket ligature tied and I had 6 hooks added (3 on top, 3 on bottom). Dr Klein had told me that it wasn't really that bad and she was right. These surgical hooks are pretty easy compared to the dreaded palate expander. It's just something else for me to get used to. But now that I'm all set with the orthodontist, next comes the pre-op work up, physical and anesthesia meeting. And that's only a few days away!

On a fun note, Dr. Klein asked me about what I'd been up to recently and I told her that my husband and I are doing fantasy football. I told her what my team name and avatar were and she loved them.

For those that can't see, the avatar is a picture of Joan Cusack from 16 Candles. She's the one in the head gear during the movie doing random stuff like trying to drink from a water fountain or this photo, her trying to drink a beer. I thought it was fitting. I need her sweater in my life.

Since I got stuff done for the first time since early June, I finally took some photos! Well, I didn't take them, Don helped me out. But you get the idea. Enjoy!

The 3 hooks inbetween the top teeth are the most obvious however, there are 3 additional hooks on the bottom as well.

You can see how far they stick out. 

Monday is my pre-op where I will get to drop $1500.00 on my surgical work-up. Thank god for flex spend accounts. I'll still cry when I swipe my credit card. Anyway, look for another update soon!