Tuesday, March 27, 2012

pre-op...check!

15 days til surgery!  I seriously can't believe that it is so soon.  I'm excited to get everything over with already!

I had my pre-op appointment today with two residents and my oral surgeon.  They were great! "A-team" lol.  We did all of the typical stuff- pictures, x-rays, measurements, facebow, and impressions (not so fun with all those surgical hooks for the alginate to get stuck in).  The residents did everything and answered all of my questions.

these were some of my most important questions:
diet?: anything you can get through a blender and in your mouth
splint?: yes, 2 weeks at least.
medications?: liquid
how long banded shut?: 2 weeks at least, up to 6 wks.

The oral surgeon came in after, did a few measurements for herself and discussed the cephalometric analysis with the residents to come up with a tentative plan about movements they will do in the surgery.  It was kind of funny because we (3rd year students) just had our final oral surgery exam yesterday which had questions from her lectures on craniofacial deformities on it!  lol, talk about the educated patient!  I already new that I will definitely require double jaw surgery because if they were to just move my lower jaw back I would not have enough space left for my airway.  They have a tentative plan of how much to move each jaw but need to confirm it after they do the mock surgery on the models.

They said they'd probably want to have another appointment closer to the surgery (which is only 2 weeks away!!!!!!) to confirm everything after they do the model surgery.  One of the other things my Mom was concerned about was what she needs to do while she's taking care of me in terms of when to give meds, what signs to watch out for, etc. My oral surgeon was so nice, she said we can just set up another quick appointment with the her for when my Mom is in town right beforehand so she can meet the oral surgeon and ask herself.

The rest of the day wasn't so fun.  I had a meeting with anesthesia to have blood drawn and meet with the nurse about anesthesia stuff.  Then I had to go donate blood to myself :(.  I've volunteer donated blood many times in the past and this was not one of the best times.  ouchy.  Let's just leave it at that.

Anyhooo, that's all in the past now.  I have my last appointment with my orthodontist on Thursday.


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

check out my new GRILL

I had my second to last pre-surgical ortho appointment last week.  We put on 20 or so surgical hooks.  These are the hooks that the oral surgeon will use to wire my mouth shut when they do the surgery.  The orthodontist says the more hooks the better because they can break and the surgeons are always asking for more.  The orthodontist wants to have one more appointment before surgery just to check on the hooks and change the ties?

any votes on what color I should get before the surgery?  I was thinking just plain silver so they wont show stains- silver is just so boring though!!

35 days til surgery.  I can't wait.  I'm so excited to be 6 or so months down the road and be able to BITE into things and actually bite through them.  Like sandwiches, pizza, cookies- any and everything you bite into with your front teeth?  I'm so excited to be able to incise correctly and not tear, rip, or pull food to be able to get it in my mouth and eat!!

I'm officially on a no restrictions diet to try and gain some weight before the surgery- any pointers?  Ive just been trying to up the calories with every meal.  

Pre-op appointments are set for the end of this month, I'll be sure to update the blog afterwards.

Here are some pics-
My new grill! lol this is me slightly opened
luckily, it doesn't look too different from normal braces with my regular smile

right profile, jaw relaxed?
left profile













I wish my teeth were cleaner for these pics- sorry!
I've got so many sweet surgical hooks now!

there was only one area the hook wouldn't fit onto the wire because it has a bend
so class III!
Profile, biting down. I can't wait to have cheekbones!