Day 36: Look Ma, No Hooks!

This morning I went to the orthodontist. Another office where we might pay more than others but all the staff is so nice and genuinely concerned with my well-being. Anyway, Dr. Voorhees (oral surgeon) had given Dr. Ramsay (orthodontist) the go-ahead to start the orthodontics, but because of this stupid opening on the left side of my mouth (where my incision has opened to reveal my swanky new titanium jaw), he doesn't want to "push it". He said if he starts moving things around, it may affect the way I hold my jaw, etc., which could compromise the healing of that incision. I appreciate the style, and know it's the best thing to do, but I was hoping to get started sooner rather than later, because I'd really really really really really love to have my braces off by my 25th birthday (April 3). Even though I know that's probably not realistic.

But it's not his fault the stupid plate isn't cooperating. Or rather, the tissue around the plate. So, no new wire or bands today.

The exciting thing that did happen, however, was the removal of my surgery hooks! Now, you may say to yourself, braces are pretty bad, and it sucks to have all that metal all up in your mouth business. I agree, but you know what's worse than that? Wired hooks on top of the braces. They serve a function in surgery, for placing and holding, and then right after, for the bands, but it feels soooo good to have them off. Almost as good as when Dr. Voorhees took out the splint.

I really have had a very blessed recovery, though, current predicament aside. I was reading some other peoples' blogs, and some people had to keep their splints in for months instead of weeks. Or do the surgery more than once, or deal with all sorts of myriad problems that are too gross to recant. Makes it a lot easier to justify going with the expensive surgeon and orthodontist. :)

Day 35: Administrative Details

Good news! I now have to go to a "date calculator" website to find out how many days its been since my surgery. It seems like it was so long ago,  but really it's just almost 5 weeks.

The incision site is still open, and after some (careful) further inspection last night involving a chopstick and a flashlight, it is really open. Like, I can definitely see the plate with my inexperienced eye. Then it made me a little sick to my stomach, so I stopped looking, but it's good to know what I'm dealing with. I want to hope for the best, especially with my (heretofore) miraculous powers of healing, but practically, I can feel the plate in my jaw constantly on the left and I can't feel it at all on the right, so I'm thinking it's going to have to come out.

The good news is that I had previously believed that my health insurance plan, which is through a school district, ran September-September, and since my surgery was in August, I maxed out my deductible for that year, but then I started over in September. Imagine my surprise when my insurance copayment (usually around $40-$50 - I have a HDHP) was 0$! I emailed the BCBSTX people to make sure, and the year is January-January! Yay! So if Dr. Voorhees does have to go back in and fix something, hopefully a lot of it will be covered.

I've started receiving EOBs (explanations of benefits for those not in the very fortunate crowd of having to deal with health insurance on a sometimes daily basis...) for all the surgery stuff. At first, when they told me they'd be paying for only 1.7% of the surgeon's fees, I kind of threw a fit and said "I don't care, I'm sick of dealing with it, I'm not going to do it, I'm not. I'm just not." Jared, in his infinite patience, responded "You don't have to deal with it now, give yourself a week or two, but then you need to call, you know that, right?" Me: "Hmph"

So, I wrote it in my planner for today last week, and actually followed through, so today I called & got everything as fixed up as it can be, so now they're paying 11% of the fees, and he still has to correct the assistant surgeon's fees, which he'll do Wednesday (apparently, there's a 5 day waiting period), so there might even be a little bit more coming my way. Like I said, once everything is nice and settled in my banking account, I'll post a full disclosure of the fees, and a little commentary to go with, which I know everyone always loves. Right now, not including the braces, it's about half and half what the insurance paid and what we're paying. I'm pretty happy with that, considering we decided to go out of network.

No pics from 9/16, here's one from 9/29

I guess I'll go ahead and clear that up now, too. It's costing a significant amount more to go out of network with Dr. Voorhees (even though we got an in-network exception, we still have to pay the difference between the "allowable amount" from BCBS and what Dr. Voorhees charges), but Jared & I talked about it and we both came to the conclusion that we liked Dr. Voorhees and his staff so much that we would continue with him. When somebody is cutting open your face, it's important that you not only trust them, but that you are comfortable being around them. Especially for me. For sure there are different doctor styles, and these fit different patients differently, and Dr. Voorhees is just an excellent fit for me. Plus, he's been practicing at this office since Jared was born, so that's some good experience! And even the surgery techs and medical assistants are all super friendly and helpful, and even nice about helping to calm me down if I start to get a little freaked out.

Normally, Jared & I don't "upgrade" because we're usually fine with the bare bones option. We even have pay by the minute/text phone plans (old school). But, we decided to do go all out on this, and we did the same thing with Jared's LASIK - what could be important than your health and comfort?

So, moving right along with the progress. I see my orthodontist tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll have a small update after that.

1 month marker: Fun, fun, fun!

Today/tomorrow will be my 1-monthiversary from the surgery. I had a follow up appointment today with Dr. Voorhees. And to start off what would prove to be a pretty bad day, I showed up for my appointment at 8am, only to find out that my appointment was for 4:30. Whoops. All the appointments have made me a little lazy with actually checking my planner. But he was able to see me in the morning anyway. Everything looking good. A little adjustment of the bands, and the go-ahead to start back with the orthodontics. So that's exciting.

Then I had a bad day, and then around 2, I noticed hey, there's a cut in the crease of my left gum/cheek area, and it's dark red, and the area around it is a little inflammed, and the part of my jaw feels a little stiff in the same area. Crap.

So, I called Dr. Voorhees's office and asked if I could come in this afternoon to have him check on it, and in the meantime, worked myself into kind of a nice stress-frenzy about it. Well, thankfully I only had about an hour to do that, then I headed out for my appointment.

As it turns out, the incision was Dr. Voorhees's, so that's good, no new wounds, but the bad is that the titanium plate they put in my jaw is visible through the incision, and is the reason it's not closing up. The doctor has to "stretch" the tissues over the plate, and they don't always close up like they should. He re-prescribed the peridex rinse, to keep it from getting infected while it's still open. It should close. My question - "What if it doesn't?" Well, he would have to go in and remove the plate (as soon as the bone healed, of course) so the incision could close up. My face: ! How bad would that be? It's an out-patient procedure that they do in his office, nothing near as bad as the surgery.

*sigh* I'm just ready for it all to be over.

But, I did take another X-Ray at the appointment, and the nice medical assistant printed me out a copy. Here it is, compared to my one from January of this year. I can't see much of a difference from the front, except it does seem to be rotated up a little. I need to get copies of the profile x-rays...

Day 30: Moving Right Along

Day 30... sorry for the lack of updateness lately. Work has been really busy, and I've had like, at least 3 mouth appointments a week. I had my first appointment with my orthodontist on Tuesday. He sympathized about the front of my mouth (when they closed up the back the front got kinda janky), but said that it's way way easier to close up the front with orthodontics than the back, so that was comforting. And it's nice to be able to complain a little about the way I look to someone who understands! I mean, he fixes bites, yes, but part of what he does as well is make people pretty.

I'm still wearing the retainer and 2 bands during the day and one in the middle at night. (see diagram - it's pretty accurate, except I don't have 4/8 of my canine teeth, but you get the picture). It's nothing compared to the splint, but I definitely talk with a lisp while my retainer is in, and even a little with it out. Parts of my cheeks and a little of the left side of my lip are numb, so I'm sure that's effecting it a little. Hopefully once ALL the swelling goes away and I've regained feeling everywhere, I'll be able to talk normally again. It makes sense, though, because one of the biggest reason for my messed up bite was that the inside of my bite was too small for my tongue, so it pressed up against all the teeth and messed everything up. And the tongue has a lot to do with speech, so...

And, in theory, I will be able to start to "up" my diet in just 2 short weeks. Start phasing in some semi-solid foods. That will definitely be nice.

And we re-looked over the finances, and I think everything should work out a-okay, despite the fact that the insurance is (initially) saying it's going to pay for just a little bit over 1.5% of the surgeon's fees (which are not small). After everything's settled with that, I'll give a full breakdown of the costs, etc., for those who are curious. On the flip side, I'm only having to pay for 7% of the hospital costs, although St. David's gives a 60% discount if you don' t have insurance, so really we're paying for 17%, but still. Much better than 100%. But with the 18 months no-interest with the surgeon, we're making minimum payments to prevent interest, then we'll just have a really big 18th payment, but that's in 18 months, and hopefully I'll have received at least a couple raises by then. It's a solid plan, as far as plans go.

Hmmm... if TV is any indication, my mood has shifted greatly since the surgery. At first after the surgery, I watched The Office pretty much 24/7 - I think Jared was about to start wearing earplugs around the house - but now, I've shifted into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Still funny, but a little more quippy and a little less L-O-L. Plus, it contains my doppelganger, Alyson Hannigan, who is tempting me to get a haircut...

I'll try to update when important stuff happens, but a lot of the important stuff is over now, and I know I said I wanted to update every day, but apparently it is not my destiny to become an orthognathic surgery bible blog...

Day 25: Jaw cramps

This process is turning out to be quite a long one. Especially at first, time moved at a snail's pace. Not only that, but it was very difficult and moving at a snail's pace. During the first few days, mainly Thursday-Sunday, I just kept thinking "Why did I do this? Why did I do this? This was so stupid." And really, at that point, it's not really a productive thing to be thinking. I had been watching a lot of the Office. Like, a lot a lot, and this one quote from season 5 kept me sane during this time. It's right after Pam and Michael left Dunder Mifflin to start the Michael Scott Paper Company, and Pam is upset and regretting her decision to leave the established company for Michael's. And Michael responds as such:  

Michael: I want you to listen to me. Because I want to tell you the situation that we are both in right now, 'kay? You quit your job. I quit my job. We both quit. Those are the facts. That's what happened. Now, what are our choices right now? Because you know, kiddo, you quit.
Pam: Yeah.
Michael: So what are our options? Well, we can start this paper company. We can try. Or... that's it. That's our only option. Because we quit.

And that was really helpful to me. Because I had the surgery. I can't take that back. I can't get off the roller coaster. I can only do what I can do now. I've been feeling that way a little recently, too, as the process unfolds and shows itself to be a long and difficult one. I often feel like I want to stay in a safe little comfort bubble where all my decisions are safe and reversible. But that's really not the way life works. So I just have to tell myself "You know what kiddo, you quit. So what are your options?" And usually, there's at least one thing I can do to make my situation a little more bearable, if I concentrate my energy on that instead of lamenting "Why me?"

Sorry to get all philosophical, I guess I just wanted to say, if you ever are in a difficult situation, which I consider this to me for me, sometimes it's helpful to have a mantra or a focus thought so you can remember where it's good to put your energy at that moment, and where it's really just not that helpful. Even if it is just a stupid quote from the Office.

I had enough energy today to ride my bike to Mike and Charles's (about 10 minutes each way), so I was encouraged by that. I think besides my face (obviously),and the eating stuff, which obviously leads to a limited caloric intake, my body is almost back to normal. The only other side effect I've been feeling is a little bit more trouble controlling my emotions, which I think is just a byproduct of being out of my comfort zone.

Also, the part of my cheeks right by my nose, the bottom left and upper right corners of my mouth, and a large part of the left side of my chin is still numb. Dr. Voorhees said not to worry, it sometimes takes 3 months for full feeling to come back, and the law of averages is on my side when it comes to all my feeling coming back.

And the reason for my blog title is that these stupid rubber bands are really making my jaws cramp, but I've been using the heating pad my mom got me and relaxing them as much as possible to allow them to shift over. I hope all this pays off!

p.s. Hook 'Em!

Days 23 & 24: Bands, retainers, and appointments, oh my!

Today (Friday), day 24, was my third appointment in a row with Dr. Voorhees. Wednesday to take off splint (yay!), Thursday to put in retainer & bands (boo!), and then Friday to check on progress. Here's a picture of my nifty new palate retainer. It's pretty much like a normal retainer except without the wire, because I already have braces.

I have another appointment Monday. It's nice that Dr. Voorhees is really keeping on top of my bite. The muscles are  being a little bit obstinate. We're having to keep pulling my bite right because it keeps wanting to pull left. Too bad you can't reason with specific body parts. Just gotta suck it up and wear my bands.

I've started sleeping a little better now that I've resumed more of my "regular activities". I'm still not allowed to chew, though, which leaves me grumpy about my diet. Jared and Dr. Voorhees were making fun of me today for being a baby about my diet. The only good way to get vegetables right now is in smoothie form, but I'm grumpy about putting them in there, because otherwise, it's not a sweet fun dessert, it's just a meal. BUT I know sooner or later I need to start eating better... probably later.

Days 21 & 22: The Last Day of the Splint & First Day of Freedom

Day 21 was pretty uneventful. Although, it was the 3rd week marker, so I treated myself to a slushie... and some tater tots... and a chocolate bar.

Day 22 was a bigger day. At 8am, Jared and I went to Dr. Voorhees's office to have my splint removed. I was actually really nervous because even though it was good, and I wasn't going to be as uncomfortable, and I was going to be able to talk better. But it was still a change. And also, after my appointment I went back to the office for the first time in 3 weeks. So, lots of changing and lots of commotion, after 3 weeks of basically sitting in a chair with my laptop.

But, the appointment went really well, I got all my questions answered, and I can brush my teeth again! With toothpaste! Yay! And then I headed into work, which also went well. Although, I had a lot lot lot to do. And after talking & working in the office (which is actually more tiring than working at home) I was pretty tired by 3, so I headed home, and then worked from home a couple of hours... that's going to be hard to wean myself off of.

And I haven't really been sleeping well lately either. At first, I slept well, because I was on pain pills all the time, but now, I'm not doing anything, and I'm not really taking any pain meds stronger than ibuprofen and tylenol, so I haven't been able to sleep more than like, 5-6 hours a night. SO, tonight, Jared & I decided to go to Bull Creek Greenbelt (a.k.a. the Wedding Waterfall) to hang out. The sad part is, there's no water there anymore! The good news? This turns the water swing into just a swing. So we did that for awhile. It was actually a really good workout, then we went and took a picture together of where we got married (awwww....)

Enjoy these pictures which have nothing to do with my surgery and are in no way gross!