As most of you know I was scheduled to get my jaws unwired after almost 8 weeks on February 1st and it did indeed happen!!
and they managed to remove the EVIL WIRE (EW) from the jaw as well. It was an odd sensation but except for a little hurt from the novicane all went well AND VERY FAST! From start to finish the whole thing was 20 minutes.The removal of the splint was wonderful and the slimy stuff on the roof of the mouth most disgusting, although they quickly suctioned that up so I only had a brief moment of UCKINESS.
Brushing the teeth for the first time was a truly religious experience. I managed to open just enough to get my baby toothbrush in there and brush three times. It was a good thing that I had brought my own baby brush as I would never have managed it with the brush they offered. There was a little blood which was to be expected, but what shocked me was that some old stitches finally came out. I could not believe those things were still hanging in there.
Then the OS did a horrible thing....he tightly banded me so that I was effectively wired again. My bite had become a little crossed and uneve and he said that it was something for the Ortho to handle. Unfortunately i did not have an appointment with the ortho scheduled until a week later. I was not a happy camper about this, but at least I could take them off to eat and clean.
So, I happily left the OS and started for home. About 100 feet into the road I said to Mom that the Ortho's office seemed to be open and I wondered if they would get me in to put on the elastic configuration that I actually needed. We through a U-turn and went back.
The ortho fit me right. After doing a lot of looking at the bite he decided I only needed 4 elastics (2 squares in front and 2 trapazoids on the sides). This was so much better and I was a very happy camper when I left.
All went pretty well over the weekend (I had another LDM on Saturday that was just wonderful) but the right side of the face swelled up again from the removal of the Evil Wire. By Monday it had moved into the ear canal again and the world was spinning so bad that work was not possible. Actually walking was darn near impossible.
Things gott better as the week progressed and by Thursday the swelling decreased dramatically; so much so that two people at work commented on it.
I went back to see the Ortho on Thursday as well (it was what was to be my first post op visit) and he said that the slight cross bite was gone (it was just mucles pulling funny) and that the midline was PERFECT!!!. He then started on the final ortho work and put a power chain on part of the bottom teeth to start closing the tiny gaps that remain. He also changed the elastics to only two triangles on each side.
Then I went to OS who was thrilled at my progress and said that the bones on the right should eventually fuse completely and reshape themselves. It is wierd because you can actually feel there the bones at the bottom of that piece of jaw are separate still, but eventually they will be pulled back together. I guess this heals from the top down.
He was happy enough with my ROM, but to help me out he gave me a stack of tongue depressors to use to increase the ROM. You place a stack between your teeth at the back molars, then you start inserting additional depressors into the middle of the stack and it slowly opens the mouth wider. Then you repeat on the other side. He said to do this while I'm watching TV.
Right now my ROM is slightly more than one finger's width. He wants it to be 3 finger's width by the 21st.
Next week will be the first week since Mid November that I will not have a doctor visit.
Now, on to the most important part....THE MAC AND CHEESE!!!
It was amazing. It was made with gorgonzola, fontina and something else. I could only manage one noodle at a time and had to eat it with my fingers as I could not get the fork in the mouth but I didn't care.
Since then I've expanded my eating menu, but it is still slow going....but oh so much fun. Chewing is still a challenge because my teeth feel like they are in the wrong place. I end up biting myself quite often as my muscles appear to have a really good memory and are trying to chew like I used to with my otld construction. It is also soo odd to bite down and have my uupper teeth in front of my lower teeth. Never thought I'd see that. I don't see a steak in my future anytime soon, but the seafood risotto I had last night was pleanty wonderful.
Next week should be fun as I have two hearing before the poor Judge who had to put up with me while I was wired. This will be the first time she will see me unwired. It sould be easier on all of us.
I finally feel like I'm in the final stretch here. The pain, while still there is only in that one place and is bearable unless I'm an idiot and hit it or press on it. My next goal is to have the swelling down enough so that my braces don't leave indentations on the inside of my cheeks.
Seems like it took forever to get here, but I still don't regret having done it.
Sometimes I wonder why I became a lawyer because there are some people who don't want help or their problems solved, they just want to punish someone else. YUCK
