Wow, it's been a long time since I updated my story. A few things have happened in that time. I had hubby take some progress pics on July 21. My orthodontist does not do pics when he does adjustments unfortunately so I'll have to do them myself.
On August 2nd I ended up in the hospital with a bowel obstruction. The pain had been going on for 3 years, but the docs could not figure out what was wrong. They tested for gallbladder, H.Pylori (ulcer) and basically chalked it up to IBS. This last time, the pain was unbearable and not going away. I was also throwing up everything I tried to eat/drink. X-rays were inconclusive so they did a CT and discovered a complete obstruction. At midnight on August 3rd they did surgery to remove the obstruction. It was caused by scar tissue in the abdomen from surgery 12 years ago. My intestine kinked up like a garden hose and stuck to itself. Not fun at all. I was in hospital for 10 days and was pretty darn sick. I didn't eat for 9 of those days and lost 12 pounds in 1 week. Just a preview of what jaw surgery will be like in a way. I'm glad I had the ball rolling on the braces/surgery because I forgot how hard surgery can be. Of course, now that I'm feeling better and stronger, I no longer have doubts that I'm doing the right thing, but when you are down and out and feel awful, you sure don't look forward to having to go through something similar.
I had my consult with the oral surgeon on August 19th. He was nice and I think he'll be really good. He is very adamant that his patients are aware that this surgery is elective and not to be taken lightly. He stresses that his patients be a "good fit" in that they have to have good reasons for wanting it and they actually do have to want it. He showed me on a model skull what he had in mind (probably a Lefort 1 only unless my underbite gets a lot worse before surgery). He said he felt I would be a good patient.
I had my first adjustment on September 8th and got a new wire. The first wire was a 0.14 round wire and this one is a 0.18. I will be getting a rectangular wire on my next adjustment November 3rd, but I can't remember what size the assistant said it would be. The surgeon mentioned waits for surgery can be long once it's determined you are ready for surgery. I asked the ortho's assistant about this and she said what usually happens is that the Ortho will determine how things are progressing and let the surgeon know ahead of time to schedule surgery. Then when I'm ready, it will be a shorter waiting period.
So, here are some new pics. I will try to post side by side pics of the consultation, July 21 and Sep 21 so you can see the difference. I'm quite impressed with how quickly they have moved. It's amazing.
First, I'll start with the occlusal view of the top arch. I figured out this time how to use a mirror so there are only two pics - consult and Sep 21. I know one faces up and the other faces down, but they are both top arch.
Consult
![Image](http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/40/toprg2.th.jpg)
Sep 21
Next is the bottom occlusal view. Again I just figured out how to do it with a mirror so there are a few different shots. The last one is with the mirror so note the missing tooth looks like it's on the wrong side!
Consult
![Image](http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9159/bottomxi8.th.jpg)
July 21
![Image](http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/640/21jul08bottomux0.th.jpg)
Sep 21
![Image](http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/9134/21sepbottombqz9.th.jpg)
Sep 21 again
And now for a front view. Not the big gap between my top front teeth.
Consult
![Image](http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/4804/fronttq8.th.jpg)
July 7 brace day
![Image](http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/1346/bracesfrontcp9.th.jpg)
Jul 21
Sep 21
I don't know how much the ortho wants my arches to expand. I feel my teeth are really moving well and are moving into alignment nicely.
Anyone on here abel to enlighten me as to how they think I'm progressing with regards to being ready for surgery???
Thanks to those who read this.