Almost time to say goodbye to my bling...

Had another appointment, this time with Dr. Klein.

I just realized that all of my doctors have last names that begin with the letter 'K.' What's weird is that I just noticed it after 2 years..... 

My appointment was at 10:50am. It was my day off from work and since the weather was supposed to be semi-crappy (not snow-crappy, just general rain-crappy), I gambled and took my chances on the T. Thankfully, the D line on the green line is fairly reliable so I had no issues. Since I was taking the T, I made sure I left with plenty of time. If I take the train into the city, it normally takes me just under an hour. I grabbed something to eat and then got to my appointment a little early.

Normally, I just drive in because I usually book my appointments to be before my shift at work. I don't really have much time to take the train when I have to be at work right after. And rush hour traffic into Boston, isn't always fun so I normally arrive for my appointment right on time. In the past, when I've gone to the office in Boston, I usually have to wait 10-15 minutes after when my appointment is supposed to start.

This appointment was so different! I walked in about 10 minutes early and was taken into the office IMMEDIATELY. This has never happened to me before! Anyway, I walked in and had a great appointment. Dr, Klein looked at my teeth and told me that my teeth are almost ready to be free from the braces! Like, within 2-3 appointments ready. It's so strange trying to imagine what things will be like without them on. They are part of who I am at this point.

There are a few tweeks that she'd like me to do before she'll take them off and so I'm back into wearing elastics all the time again. These elastics aren't as tight as the ones before, thank god. They are a lot more manageable. She also placed power chains on the upper teeth and double power chains on my lower teeth. When I went home that night, my teeth were so sore, I could barely eat anything. I'm glad I took ibuprofen cause I was very uncomfortable. When I woke up the next day though, almost all of the spaces in between my teeth were gone. They were gone in under 24 hours which is totally amazing! The top teeth aren't as bad but the bottom teeth had large gaps. I went back to a normal diet on Friday, so I was only uncomfortable for a few days.

We talked about my teeth a little bit. I'll need to get a deep cleaning done after the braces come off. One tooth is sorta funky and she's said that she wants to shape it so that it's a little more natural. I chipped my front tooth when I was a kid on my aunt's pool. When they fixed it, they built it up a little bit because my other tooth hadn't grown in all the way and they weren't sure how big it was going to be. Thankfully, since it's not real, they just have to file it down a bit to make it even. Dr. Klein said that I've invested so much time and money into my smile that I deserve to have a "smokin' smile." I laughed and gave her permission to go full perfectionist with my teeth.


I did tell Dr. Klein about the deviated septum thing and after really considering my options, I've just decided to get it over with sooner rather than later. My husband and I talked about the pros and cons and we both agreed that getting it done now would save us headaches down the road. Since this winter has been fairly mild, I haven't gotten sick which is such a blessing. However, I'm not sure I'm comfortable hoping that I won't get sick between now and when I decide to have the surgery. Knowing my luck, I'd get sick and then have to suffer with a cold until I scheduled the surgery.

I've tentatively scheduled my surgery for April 21st. Dr. Kieff only performs surgery on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month. However, he occassionally does surgery on his off weeks if Mass Eye and Ear has the operating room space for him. I'll see Dr. Kieff tomorrow for a hearing test and a follow-up and hopefully he'll tell me about my chances for getting that 3rd Thursday. If not, my surgery will be scheduled for April 28th. At my follow-up, he'll give me more details regarding dos and don'ts for surgery (although, at this point, I'm pretty sure I know what they are) and what I need to have done beforehand. I'm actually excited and interested for the hearing test appointment since I've always had issues with my ears.

My next appointment with Dr. Klein is in 3 weeks so I'll go back and see her at the Danvers office. I forgot to ask her about surgery since it's a possibility that I'll get my braces off before my surgery. Not sure how my retainer will work with surgery but I have a feeling I won't be able to wear it when I'm under general anesthesia. I'll have to ask her about that when I go back for my next appointment.

I'll post an update tomorrow after my appointments with Dr. Kieff. Hopefully, he'll be able to shed some light onto my ENT issues!

And it goes on....

I finally had another post-op appointment with Dr. Keith on Tuesday. The appointment was pretty standard, we talked for a bit, he measured my range of motion and took a peak inside my mouth to look at my teeth and jaws. He was very happy with my progress and said that my range of motion is back to normal levels! He laughed when I told him I ate steak for the first time at my mother's birthday dinner at the end of January.

I did point out that my nose was still bothering me. Since my surgery, I can really only breath out of one side and my sense of smell is pretty bad. If you look at me straight on, my nose looks normal. But if you look at me from an angle, it's very obvious that one nostril is larger than the other. Dr Keith said that he wanted me to see an ENT specialist since he's an oral surgeon, not a nose guy, haha. He gave me a reference for an ENT specialist affiliated at Newton-Wellesley hospital and I called him and made an appointment. I might have a slight complex because this doctor has almost the exact same name as my oral surgeon. Oral Surgeon - Dr. David A. Keith. ENT Doctor - Dr. David A. Kieff. Too funny and only a little bit confusing, hahahaha.

I had my appointment with Dr. Kieff yesterday because they had a cancellation and were able to fit me in. I was honestly expecting to have to wait for awhile so getting such a quick appointment was a nice surprise. Dr Kieff was really nice and easy to talk to. I went in and had to have a full ENT appointment so I'm not sure what that's going to cost me. They examined my ears and cleaned them out since I had a lot of wax build up. It felt very strange but after it was done, I felt like a new person. He put lidocaine up my nose and then put a camera down there. The news? I have a deviated septum on my right side. What's interesting is that it looks so natural. You would think that it would look messed up since it's technically due to the jaw surgery I had in October but he said it's because Dr. Keith did such a great job that it looks as good as it does. It's weird saying that a deviated septum looks good but I guess what he meant was that if Dr. Keith didn't do such a good job, it would be a lot worse.

Now, here's the thing that really bummed me out. The only fix for a deviated septum is another surgery. I'm totally sick and tired and having to put my life on hold because I need to have surgery. This would put me at 4 surgeries due to my jaw. Luckily for me, this is actually a seriously minor procedure. The surgery is only about an hour long and recovery is about a week. I would have to be put under anesthesia but I would go home the same day and (hopefully) be back at work a week later.

I guess I have a decision to make. The office books out for surgery about 6 weeks in advance. If I were to go in today and make the earliest appointment, that would put me at the first week of April. Unfortunately, my hospital is getting a new computer system on April 2nd. Because the system is so different than our previous system, my department has doubled up on coverage for those weeks. Basically, it means that no one can take any time off because there's no one to cover. I'm going to be working a ton of over time during those first couple weeks as well. So, April is definitely a no-go for me, surgery-wise. So, the earliest I'm looking at for surgery would be May.

We have things that we had planned to do (begin renovating our house, for one). We are also going on vacation at the end of March which will use up a fair amount of my vacation time. Since this isn't an emergency and it doesn't bother me too much, I could wait until I'm ready. There is a certain appeal with getting it over and done with quickly but at the same time, I really just want some down time not having to prep for surgery. Plus, it'll allow me to build up some more vacation time through work if I wait. I definitely have a lot of thinking to do, that's for sure. I have a follow-up appointment on March 1st so I have about 10 days to really decide what I want to do.

I also have another appointment with Dr. Klein on Wednesday so I'll have another post next week after that appointment.

OMG Food!

Hey guys!
Things have been going merrily along. Nothing much to report except that I ate a few things for the first time since my surgery!!!!! Yesterday, I finally decided to try cereal. YES CEREAL. Is it weird that I was excited for that? Yes? WHATEVER DON'T CARE.

I've been craving that and a few other things for months now and decided that it was time. Anyway, I finally had cereal for the first time in 3 months and it was glorious. I'm not a fan of eating soggy cereal so this moment was huge for me. I don't think my husband realized just how happy I was yesterday morning. For those who are wondering, I had honey nut chex for breakfast. Looking forward to eating cheerios too!

And right now, I'm eating fritos! Love me some crunchy foods.

Haven't tried steak yet, I'll probably give that a few more months before I attempt to tackle that beast.

Hello 2016!

I had my first orthodontist appointment of 2016 today! The appointment started out with those "wonderful" impressions. They were terrible. Mostly because my jaw could only open so far and the technician didn't really know what she was doing. She was super sweet but it took her twice as long as all the other technicians to do anything. My appointment was at 7:40am and my half hour appointment ended at almost 9am. Hopefully next time, I have a different technician.

After the impressions, Dr Klein came in and took a look at my teeth. As always, she was happy with the progress. So happy that she said I could take a break on the elastics (wahoooooo!). Those elastics are such a pain. I felt like I always had my fingers in my mouth cause I had to take them out and put them back in all the time.

Unfortunately, this elastic freedom is not forever. At my next appointment, I'll probably have to go back into wearing elastics all the time again. ;_; I guess the new wire I have can put too much pressure on the teeth if worn with elastics. TRANSLATION: I get freedom until my next wire change appointment which is in 5 weeks.

She also repositioned a bunch of brackets and fixed a broken (??) band around one of my molars. Not sure if it was broken or if the glue just failed after 2 years. I had that gross glue taste in my mouth practically all day today. Thankfully, that was basically it.

I did get the good news that I will definitely be out of braces before the summer! Yay! Depending on how diligent I am with wearing the elastics next time will determine when I can hopefully get my braces off. It's looking like it could potentially be April or May which is exciting! I'm in the home stretch and I can't wait to be free of these braces permanently.

My next appointment is with Dr. Keith for another follow-up on Feb. 16th. And then I see Dr. Klein 3 days later on the 19th.

On a more personal note, I do have a some what big announcement! Since my surgery is behind me and my recovery is going well, I've decided to finally start pursuing my masters degree. I'm going to Umass Lowell for my masters in Health Informatics and management which is super exciting! My work will help to pay for part of it so I'm starting small for now. It's been awhile since I've taken any formal classes so I'm only taking 1 class. If the course work isn't bad, I can always take more classes next semester.
I do have to apply to get into the program but a few people have offered to give me a recommendation which is amazing. My director at work said he would write me one which I was not anticipating at all. If I do well enough for my first 4 courses, I can bypass taking the GRE which will save me a lot of time and money. My class starts on Tuesday so I may not be posting very much except for after appointments and for status updates.

PS: I ate chips for the first time in 11 weeks today! They were very salty and took me forever to eat but they were so worth it!

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!

Infection pt. 2 and my birthday!

I woke up this morning and my lip was still swollen. Not as bad as Monday afternoon but still sensitive to the touch and a tad uncomfortable. I went and saw Dr, Keith and he confirmed my pcp's diagnosis. I had an infection inside along my upper jaw incision. Fortunately, it was not to bad. He said that the area is slightly open which is allowing everything to drain out. GROSS. That's good because it means that he doesn't have to drain the area manually. I didn't ask what draining it manually would entail, didn't really want to know. He said that I'll have a gross taste in my mouth until everything drains out and begins healing. It'll probably take about 7 days.

He advised me to continue taking the antibiotics until the bottle was completed, use a hot compress on the outside of the infected area, do salt water rinses every 2 hours for the next 48 hours, and use chlorhexidine mouthwash for the next 7 days. He said that I was lucky I caught it so quickly because it could have been worse. Worse meaning that the area around the implants would become infected. That's super bad so I'm glad it didn't come to that!

He thinks it might have started due to one of my stitches not falling out. Those little bastards are terrible! I hate hate hate those stupid dissolving stitches. They are the worst! Thankfully, it's only superficial so it should clear up pretty quickly.

Since I started the antibiotics last night, he said I should be good to return to work tomorrow. I really don't want to use up all my earned time so that was a bit of relief. I'm not contagious but he thought it was a good idea to sit back, relax and let the meds do their thing for the rest of today.

I was nervous about what he was going to say so I didn't eat much of anything before my appointment. Just a bottle of chocolate ensure. If I had to have something done in their office, at least I didn't have much in my stomach to cause any delays.

I was told to go home, relax and to enjoy my birthday. Don and I had originally planned to go ice skating and then out to dinner but not sure if that's happening or not. I think I'll take a nap and see how I feel when I wake up. We also have to see what the weather is like since it's been raining on and off all morning. We'll make a decision based on that. 

This post is gross. Don't read if you have a sensitive stomach.

Everything was going great. I was healing really well and felt practically normal. I was fine until Saturday. My lip got super swollen and now my  upper lip and nose are very sensitive. Almost painful to the touch. I just thought it was a cold sore since I've gotten them frequently in the past. But cold sores get better after taking medication and mine seemed to get worse. I went to work this morning and my swelling was even worse. After breakfast, I thought that some ice would help with the swelling so I went to the emergency room to grab some and ran into the charge nurse. She saw my lip and asked me what was wrong so I explained everything to her. She told me that from what I was describing, it didn't sound like a simple cold sore. She told me that my lip might be infected. I told her that I had a routine physical later this afternoon and that made her feel better.

After I had the ice on my face for a little while, it got me worried. My face hadn't been swollen like this in awhile and for it to suddenly come back made me a little nervous. I decided to call my surgeon's office to see if they thought it was in my best interests to be seen or not. I called, described my symptoms and the office secretary told me that she needed to page Dr. Keith and find out what he wanted her to do. Paging a surgeon is typically a last resort, especially when he has lots of people working under him. For her to directly page him meant that my symptoms were serious. Within 10 minutes, she had called me back and told me that I needed to be seen tomorrow. I told her that I was going to my pcp this afternoon for a routine checkup and she said to definitely keep my appointment. In the very least, my pcp could prescribe me something to help bring down my swelling to a comfortable level. 

After lunch time, my swelling became even worse. I grabbed some more ice and was sitting with the ice on my face. I soon realized that I needed to go home. I wasn't capable of working if I had ice constantly held to my face. My boss saw me and agreed that I needed to leave. So I went home for a few hours before my doctor's appointment. I went back a few hours later, saw my pcp and described my symptoms to her. After some gentle prodding, she touched the area and quickly told me that it was infected. 

What happened next was the nastiest thing that has happened to me yet. (Hint: Here's where you skip to the last paragraph since it's gross) Even worse, I think, than vomiting with the palate expander in. She touched the area and liquid puss came out. It came out and went right down my throat (since I was lying down so she could see the area better). I almost vomited on her it was that nasty. And it tasted horrible (which I'm sure isn't a surprise). I rinsed out my mouth but the memories are still there. And it's disgusting. She put me on a dose of liquid amoxicillin at least to start me on some kind of antibiotic. She didn't want me to have to wait for my appointment tomorrow. At least I can start some kind of medication to begin the healing process. Then, tomorrow, Dr. Keith can make the decision on how to continue my care. If he feels the need, he can change me to a different medication. 

So, tomorrow is my 29th birthday. And I have a puss infected lip.This ranks up there with getting kidney stones on my birthday 10 years ago. What a great birthday present to me. I'll post again tomorrow with an update after my appointment.