40/50 Cranks

I'm almost done with the expansion -- yeah! At this point I look a little cartoonish -- early on I looked like SpongeBob, but now I'm thinking Goofy or Pippi Longstocking (maybe I'll dress up for Halloween this year). My gap is so large (6.5mm) that I can comfortably fit a large straw right down the middle. I asked my orthodontist about the "tipping" on the left and he agreed, but it's not a problem and will be corrected with the bracses. When I was having fluoride varnish painted on my teeth I saw all of my stitches for the first time -- I had never really realized just how many there were! I went to my last oral surgery follow-up appointment and things are going well -- nothing new at this point. My gums are still numb, but I think that this takes months to heal.

The Gap Just Keeps Getting Bigger!

I'm now at about a 6mm gap (as you can see in the pictures). Overall I feel great, but am dying for a steak and french fries. I branched out this evening and had some salmon which was VERY tasty and went down easy. Things seem to be moving, as the gap is getting wider and wider. So far I've cranked about 36/50 times (9 mm total) The left side, though, seems to be tipping out a little, so I hope that the palate is expanding and it's NOT that the teeth are just getting pushed out. I also realized that I have upper lip edema still. I was pushing up my lip in the mirror to check out the stitches, let my lip go, and a deep crease remained for several minutes -- very strange...

I also now see what Dr. Alexander (OS) was saying about my really crooked nasal septum -- it's glaringly obvious in the pictures!

Yesterday, we went to the Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair and my husband dared me to show up with my hair in pigtails... I was a great look! The horse picture above is "The World's Largest Horse"...

Ortho/Surgery Follow-ups

I can honestly say at this point that I feel mostly recovered from the jaw surgery. As with everything, time helps. My trouble with eating and talking is now the result of the expander and the ensuing gap, NOT the surgery. So if you're considering having this surgery done, I would say "Go for it"!

I had two follow-up appointments today. At Dr. Alexander's office (OS), I was again told that things seem to be going well, though the sutures still need another week or two until they're clipped. I realized yesterday that my upper gums were completely numb (they felt like rubber), but supposedly the feeling will return in time. It's probably not a bad idea to not have a whole lot of sensation at this point. The highlight of the visit, though, was looking at my CT scan -- all I can say is that technology is amazing! The scan was 3D and the OS could click a button and the skin gave way to muscle which then turned into the underlying bone. It was very cool to see the "cuts" in the bone that had been made. He could spin my head around and upside down to get visuals through the sinuses, etc. Bottom line is that I have a very weird nasal septum which explains why my nose is crooked on my face. If you read an earlier post where I was wondering what was wrong with my nasal tip (i.e., was it too pointy), alas it's just crooked. I will try to get a copy of the CT and scan it into this blog.

I went to the Orthodontist today to be "fitted" for a prosthetic tooth, but my gap isn't large enough. On measuring this morning, I've cranked 6mm, but the gap is only 3.5mm. Dr. White shaved down the left side of the expander so that my teeth would match on the other side. Due to teeth movement, my right side was suspended in air which was a little weird. I'm hopeful that this will help with eating. Dr. White intimated that the expander will probably be in for 6-7 months. Even though the palate bone will be strong enough to move teeth about 2 months after the expansion stops, he likes to keep the expander in so that he can move around the lower teeth to better positions without having the top teeth get in the way (and also to avoid a really awkward bite if teeth are in strange positions). He thinks that I may be ready for the 2nd jaw surgery in about May-June of 2009 (wow!)... Right now the prosthetic tooth will be installed on 8/18 (pictures to follow)...

I'm Starving!

Today I hit an all-time low with the food... I have not really chewed anything in over 2 weeks. My son turned 5 today, and at his party with his friends we had pizza which I love, but now can't eat. As soon as everyone left, I took a fork and scraped off the top layer of several pieces of pizza and devoured (in miniscule bites) a pile of cheese/soft crust sludge, and it was fantastic... :) Ice cream cake also goes down beautifully...

For the record, my jaw does NOT hurt from the surgery. At this point my problem is with my expander and with my teeth. Yesterday I had the sensation that the right side of my expander was a little loose. I could hook my finger on the edge if it and wiggle it a tiny bit. I didn't think much else of it at the time. This morning, though, when my husband cranked I experienced excruciating tooth pain on the right side. All three of the teeth covered by the bonding plus my incisor were very sore to the touch. I couldn't even squash a soft noodle on the right side because of the pain. The interesting thing, though, is that the expander is no longer loose. I wonder if the cranking has put strange pressure on the teeth? For now, no smushing will be happening on the right... I can't wait to get the expander out!!

I have cranked for 11 days...22 turns... 5.5mm. The gap as measured today is about 3mm (good). I'm still pretty drooly and lispy, but it's getting better every day.

2nd Oral Surgery Visit

Today's visit was quick and easy. The healing seems to be going well, the sutures are mostly intact, and my jaw is obviously expanding. It's still a strange sensation to crank, because you can feel the base of your nasal passages expanding. Luckily the outer portion of your nose doesn't appear to spread, though in some of my pictures I do feel like my nostrils are more prominent (i.e, more pig-like). At the conclusion of my visit, Dr. Alexander mentioned that he wanted to go over my CT scan from last week with me at next week's visit because my deviated septum is impressive. There's a point in my nose he said where I "move no air". Personally, I've always been a mouth-breather (which probably has led to some of my jaw problems) and haven't felt comfortable breathing solely through my nose, so maybe it's the septum which is the problem. He suggested that at the conclusion of all of my orthodontia I might consider getting it fixed, and that my "nasal tip" could be fixed at the same time. Of course, driving home, I'm looking at my nose at every stoplight thinking "What's wrong with my nasal tip?" I guess I'll find out next week...

Having jaw surgery is a not-so-great weight loss plan... In almost 2 weeks I've lost about 10 pounds. When you're drinking your calories, or smushing mushy foods (which takes awhile), I find that I'm bored and frustrated before I've actually eaten very much. I'm not a cook, but I've got to figure something out because I'm bored to tears with yogurt.

First Day Back at Work/9 Cranks

Today was my first day back at the Pediatric Center. My office was nice enough to block some of the office visits in my schedule so I could get back in the swing of things. I'm now Post-Op Day #11 and overall am doing fine. Everyone was so sweet at work and thought that I looked pretty good compared to how I looked in some of the earlier posts. At this point, the swelling is mainly in my lower cheeks and upper lip. The unfortunate part of my job is that I talk to patients ALL DAY LONG! I tried to very masterfully slurp my spit while babies were crying, so as not to gross out the parents, and worked hard to not use words that had "ir" or "er" in the middle, because I can't get those sounds out intelligibly! By the end of the day, my jaw was definitely tired and I needed some Motrin.

I've now cranked 9 times and have expanded 2.25mm -- the gap is getting larger but isn't too bad so far. I have my 2nd oral surgery follow-up tomorrow, so we'll see how things are going!

Sore Tongue/Post-Op Day #9

Overall, the swelling is better every day and my yellow cheeks are much improved. I can drink liquids comfortably (especially mango margaritas), but really can't chew yet, so it's all liquids and yogurt for now. For whatever reason, I woke up this morning with a sore tongue! I looked in the mirror and the papillae on my tongue were unusually prominent and I had 2 or 3 tiny little cuts from rubbing against the metal expander. I'm sure everyone reading this has at one time or another had a small "bump" on their tongue that ended up being excruciating every time it touched their teeth -- now multiply this by 20. Talking is very awkward when you're trying not to move your tongue. Luckily, I remember reading in Brandy's blog about a similar issue and went out and bought "Active Flex" band-aids to wrap around the expander to cushion the tongue. I put one on and it made a huge difference, though it was a little hard to maneuver. I'm hoping that tomorrow everything just calms down. I also started swishing frequently throughout the day with Peroxyl (hydrogen peroxide mouth wash) in hopes that it would help. We'll see...