Unexpected suprise....

Well I went in on April 13th for my latest ortho appt and my ortho informed me that if I was happy with my alignment then she does not think that I need my double jaw surgery. She said in the future if I decide that I want it we can do the surgery in the future.
I am so flippen excited. Braces should be off within the next 6 months. I know that proceding with the surgery would probably give me even better results then what I have right now, but honestly I am very pleased with the progress I have made and between work, school and taking care of my daughter I am not sure the surgery is worth it. I have straight teeth now and good alignment. I am happy with the decision to not do the last surgery.

Taking a stand against a pre-surgical splint

So I had another adjustment with my ortho last week and again brought up when we might be looking at surgery. Spring? Summer? anytime soon?
She says that lets push for summer since she wants me in a splint for a while before surgery., Ummm NO! I made it clear awhile ago I was not wearing a splint before surgery. I would not be able to do my job with a piece of plastic wedged between my teeth. She kinda brushed it off and said oh you will get use to it....
So I came home from my appt and sent my ortho an email stating that I was in fact not going to wear the splint before surgery. No one has ever given me any good reason why I needed this splint and I am not going to jeopardize my job for it, I am already taking off enough time for recovery after surgery.
So my ortho calls me back and says no problem we will discuss other options at your next adjustment. Thank God! So now I wait till April 13th to hear what her plan for surgery is. I should be about ready for surgery. I started this whole process about 2 1/2 years ago, when I first met with the ortho she had predicted that the whole process would take 2 to 3 years. I am at 2 1/2 and have not even had the 2nd surgery yet. I am getting inpatient for this to be over.....

Not much to report....

I am starting to realize what a long, slow process this is.... Months seems to drag buy with no change. September 28th I go in and they finally start to close the gap from when they removed the 4 bicuspids back in February..... UGH!!!
We had been talking about possibly being ready for surgery by December but I do not see that happening....
On the up side I got a new job working in a local Hospital and switched my major from Nursing to a Bach in Health Service Administration. Ive been trying to get into a hospital for a couple years now and am so happy that I found a good position in a hospital right in my own town. No travel to work and I am meeting so many People, which is nice since I moved here 3 years ago. This town is finally starting to feel like home.
On another good note. My Beautiful, smart daughter starts Kindergarten in less than 1 week. She is so excited. She got to see her classroom yesterday and she already knows her teacher from the summer reading program she took. She also has some friends in her class this year so she should adjust really easily :)
I will be back in a week to post pics from her first day!

Progress...

Well not the best after pic. You can click on it to make it bigger. I need to get a close up. The pic on top is present, the one on bottem is before anything was started.

Sadistic orthodontists....

Orthos must be sadistic to ask someone to have 4 perfectly good teeth ripped out of your head. But that is what I did in hopes of someday having a nice smile. So it seems that once these 4 huge gaps that once were my bicuspids are closed we should be looking at My double jaw surgery. Ortho is guessing somewhere around Christmas. Right before the christmas before last is when I had my SARPE done, that made for a festive holiday :p Oh well, I'm getting closer to the end of this trip and I guess that is what matters....

feels like I am going nowhere....

Well I have not updated for awhile cause there is not much to tell. I did manage to miss my November adjustment and they could not get me in for another full month do to my lack of availability....ugh.
The ortho wants to talk to me about pulling the 4 bicuspids to make room for my teeth to move cause it seems the are having to tip them out to much. The only problem I have with this is I cannot possibly afford to have those teeth pulled. I just had a wisdom tooth pulled and they charged me $300 to do it and that was with no sedation.... I cannot afford to pay to have 4 taken out not to mention when they remove 4 they like to sedate. Not sure what to do about this. Oral surgeon says if they are not pulled I could relapse after surgery.....
Other then that not much is happening with my teeth other than the fact that it is becoming evident that my coffee drinking habit will be noticeable when the braces come off. Any coffee drinkers out there that had braces? Is there anything you did to help the staining while you had braces?
I guess that is it for now.... This is a long frusterating process....

Pics of the progress

Before any work on the bottom and after Sarpe and braces started on the top

Expander free for a week and counting

I cannot even begin to explain how wonderful it feels to be expander free. The first couple days were absolutly amazing. My first meal without the torture device went so quickly and easily that when I was done eating I thought to my self that can't be it... It required almost no work to eat that meal. I forgot how easy it use to be to eat.
I am getting to the point now that life without the expander is beginning to feel normal, tho I still have those moments where suddenly out if nowhere I remember that I am expander free and I relish for a moment in the fact that I can touch the roof of my mouth, read a book to my daughter with out feeling like I just gave my mouth a huge workout, and can properly pronounce every letter of the alphabet without even trying....
Life is good

I have a removal date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My RPE comes out July 22nd at 8am!!!!!!!!!! I am so freakin excited. On a less than positive note the ortho thinks the reason my front few teeth are still loose after surgery is because there is not enough room and she think I may have to have my bicuspids removed to make room. no fun! but that has barely fazed me now that i know I have a date to remove this horrible tourture device!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7.5 months with this damn thing!!!! only 10 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So tell the truth.. those of you that have had an expander....How bad is the removal? quick and painless... slow tourture????? tell it like it is.... prepare me...

waiting for progress

Well there has been little progress lately. I still do not have a wire on my top teeth and resenting the fact that they put the brackets on so soon after surgery. My surgery was in mid-december and I stopped expanding in mid January. It is almost July and my top front four teeth are still loose, so I still have my expander cemented in and still have no wire on the top.
I am beginning to worry that these front teeth are never going to stabalize, I am still getting a vibration when I talk sometimes in my top front teeth and sometimes my nose, but the nose is getting better. I am starting to think that my teeth might not ever completly stabalize and where exactly does that leave me?
So that is where I am... I have my next ortho appt on July 10th and that is when this damn expander is suppose to come out... But that does not look likely as my teeth are no more stabalized then they were at my last appt or the one before that....

4 months post SARPE

I am 4 months past SARPE and 3 months past expanding and my top 4 front teeth are still all loose.... WTH? Is this normal? I have an ortho appt thursday and I will see what she says, but at my last ortho appt 6 weeks ago she said she would not worry YET about the loose teeth, but here it is 6 weeks later and my front teeth are not any less loose than they were at my last appt..... I am scared she is gonna tell my that I am going to lose my 4 front teeth......
I want to get my wire on my top teeth but that won't happen till my teeth stabalize....... My front teeth would probably fall out if she tried to put wire in the brackets right now.
UGH... someone tell me it is normal for your teeth to still be loose 4 months after SARPE!!!

Before and now Pic comparison

guess I should update

I got braced on January 29th. Just brackets on the top and fully wired on the bottom. She does not want to wire the top till the bone is good and healed. I am guessing that this will be at my 2nd adjustment. My first adjustment will be March 12th. There has been definite changes to my smile somethings are an improvement like a wider smile, others bug the crap out of me like the top half of my face still looks swollen, yet it is not, that is just my face now. My gap closed on its own for the most part, except a triangle at the top by the gums, it looks like one tooth moved straight and the othe tooth seemed to tilt as it moved. Hopefully when my top teeth are wired the braces will fix that. But overall I am just thankfull that my gap is for the most part gone!!!
So on with the pics here is me now.














A little different than my original pics I posted so we are making progress... Top wire should be on before the end of April and expander should be out before July... baby steps.... I just can't wait to have the double jaw surgery behind me!

Thought I would put up a pic of my gap at its largest. That is just freakin scary. I cannot stress enough how self concious I am of this. I feel the need to make sure that everyone knows that..No I did not lose my front tooth, REALLY! and it will close up eventually, and Yes I did do this on purpose and will be happy I did eventually!!!! did I say how self concious I am right now. and I HATE talking on the phone... I sound like I am lacking in the intelligence department... UGH!!! I hate this!

What is bugging me today...

It is Wednesday night at 7pm and I have been up for 60 straight hours now, except for a 3 hour nap from 3am Tuesday morning till 7am tuesday morning. AND... I started back to work this morning I had a two hour job and it took me three hours to do it.... I am not sure what exactly my problem is... I think some of it is the fact that I hav been weaning off using the pain killers at the same time I have restarted my ADHD med (Adderal) after a 5 day vacation off of it.
I was suppose to work tonite from 3pm till 8pm but decided that was not such a good idea. After watching my cousins twins for a couple hours this afternoon I layed down at 3:30pm and was going to take a nap to make me feel better and get me thru till bedtime. I layed there from 3:30 till 5:30pm yet not one second of sleep. Last night I had gone to bed at 10pm.. I layed there untill my alarm got me up for work at 5am. What the Hell is wrong with me?????
I need to sleep. And it is not just sleep. I was doing great with eating from Sat thru Monday I ate (or drank) often got rest and took care of my self. Tuesday started off okay, not enough sleep but okay and it all went to hell from there. I am barely eating, can't sleep. and I can't say I am in constant "pain", but the freakin pressure on my face and teeth is unreal.
I am asking those of you who have been through this SARPE surgery and expansion process to let me know that the presure I am feeling is normal. During surgery my OS cranked it a few times and got a little gap started and that has been it. It has been a week and it has not been turned since and will not be turned untill Sunday, BUT, the pressure on my teeth and face is freakin unreal and does not let up for even a second. It feels like my teeth are literally gonna pop right out of my head, and all the front top teeth are loose and wiggle. AND what is even weirder is that without cranking the expander even once since my OS did it in surgery I am almost completly positive that my gap has gotten bigger and feels like it is still growing? Is this posssible?
I know I am flipping out here, part of it is lack of sleep and nutrition and part of it is that I have an intense fear that my teeth are going to fall out during my expansion and my OS and my ortho will not say that it is not a possibility, that it is something that CAN actually happen.
PLEASE, sarpe surviviors I need reassuance or a reality check or warning to go bang on my OS's front door and beg him to save my teeth before they fall out. Someone HELP me!

Sunday will began expansion!

Had my post op appt this morning with the oral surgoeon. He said everything looks good and to see my ortho for the key to the expander and have her show me how to turn it. I will start turning sunday(12/21) two full turns a day till Friday (12/26) when I will go back to the ortho and see if I am done turning.
I asked my OS about food and he said I am on soup and smoothies for most of six weeks for stability, for some reason I thought I may be allowed soft foods this week or next at the latest. I had even tries some sprial mac and cheese last night. (oops), well it was tiring and sore after just a tiny bowl so I guess there is a reason for the soup and smoothies. Christmas diner is gonna suck tho....LOL.
I am back to work tommarow so we shall see how that goes, except for the mass tension in my face I am feeling alright so I think It will be ok, we shall see how it feels when I start cranking the expander.
I am so afraid that I am gonna start turning it and my teeth are goiong to fall out. It is bad enough that since my surgery my top fron teeth are all loose, I can only imagine that when you start pulling on them they are gonna want to fall out. I have always been a tooth grinder at night so dreams or should I say nightmares of all my teeth falling out have been commmon, now it feels like I am tempting fate, and my ortho does little to relay my fears only saying that it can happen...NICE! thank you!
I was also suprised at how many freaking stitches I have. I am stitched from back right molar to back left molar under my gums, sompletly across. then a few stitches along the center of the palate, some on my left cheeck, then bruised along the right side of the back of my throat, and I can tell he did something thru my nose also. A lot more cutting then I thought they were gonna do.
Well that is all I have for now!

Surgery

Well Wedneday morning at 8:45am I checked into Ingham regional for my SARPE surgery and removal of bottom Right wisdom tooth. I get changed and my IV put in and the nurse brings mu consents to sign for surgery. Specifically Leforte 1, Sagital split, and Geino. Ummm? NO! First off I am not getting geino done at all not now not 2 years from now, secondly I have not even had braces yet. That surgery is for the most part coming up in a year or two. needless to say I am 2nd guessing my surgery. Eventually Dr. Mauro comes into see me and says I am just having the expasnsion (LeForte 1). Ok you know what you are doing then lets do this.
So I wake up from surgery around 2pm and notice a short time later that he never removed my wisdom tooth, Nice!

Well They tell me that since they could not find a bed for my in the hospital that Dr. Mauro said I could go home. Umm no I think I will stay. I felt like hell and knew that I could not take care of myself. I basically slept from the time they put me out before surgery untill they released me at noon the next day with brief intermintent periods of wakefulness to ask for drugs, suction out the blood from my mouth and go to the bathroom.
I have actually been suprised how much pain I have been in I am on day 4 and I am still drained and my teeth feel like they are in a vice and going to pop out of my head, and I haven't even started expanding yet. (except what the dr did in surgery). Somebody please tell me that my teeth will not pop out of my head and that this is normal.
I tried to post on Archwired with some of my questions but it will not let me register so that is a no go, and I have tried to ask questions a couple times on the orthgnathic yahoo groups but never get answers to SARPE questions on there so I am not sure what is normal pain wise after SARPE, and when I should expect to feel a little better.
So to sum it up, I feel like crap, not sure how long i should expect to feel like crap, oh and my ortho for got to give me the key so I can turn the expander when the time comes, and of coourse they arenot open till tuesday.
Someone remind me why I did this to myself!

4 Days till my SARPE

Thursday night I got my RPE put in and it sucks just as badley as I imagined it would. I am a little over 48 hours with it in and it has only got slightly better. I have gotten a little bit better at swallowing, but other than that not much improvement. I detest speaking because I hate how I sound. Eating is not even worth the effort. I had to reheat a bowl of soup five times before I was finished with it last night. And the lovely sounds I make, the slurping and clicking ( I really hope that goes away). I guess I am done venting now...
I do have to admit that I am looking foreward to surgery on Wednesday for two reasons.
1. The sooner I start, the sooner I finish
2. I really need a break, an excuse to lay down and just relax, if only for a week.
These last few weeks have been the hardest of my life, and except for still grieving the loss of a family member and friend, everything else goes on hold for a week after my surgery. No school, finals will be over, no work, no dr appt, or ortho appts,time with my daughter, an excuse not to be doing 1001 things and not feel guilty about it.
So wednesday morning I check into the hospital at 8:45 and my surgery is at 10:45. I have no idea if I will be out of the hospital the same day or the next. Hopefully the surgery will go smoothly and my time with the expander will be short, altho I doubt it. My OS says he plans on me expanding about a 1/2 inch (12 to 13 mm) That is a freaking huge gap! It would be really nice if I could lock myself in my house till spring when I have passed the expansion part of this orthognathic journey I am on. I just try to keep reminding my self that this will all be worth it in the end!

Almost got my RPE in....

I went in on the 14th to get my RPE installed, I had one tooth that had been really sensitive the last two days and when the assstant tried to fit the rpe bands around my teeth I thought I would hit the ceiling. I was sure the tooth was being ripped out it hurt so bad. The assistant gave it a couple tries but decided to wait for Dr. Novak to give it a try.
Dr. Novak came in and gave it a go but could not get it on either. She decided to put spacers back on my teeth and wait a week or so to see if the tooth that was bothering me would stop hurting, she also added to more bands for good measure for extra space. Not sure how that will help with getting my tooth to stop hurting. I tried to get her to let me take the RPE home and put it in myself. It is easier to deal with pain when you are inflicting it upon yourself, but she said no she has a feeling that the RPE does not fit quite right, but she can not tell for sure untill my tooth stops bothering me so much. So I have a week and a half to call them back and tell them that my teeth do not hurt and we can try agian.
Well on the bright side that is at least a week or so that I do not have to wear the RPE before surgery.