Made it!

Made it! Everything is done and I am officially post op :) it's amazing how much things have changed alteady. I took a photo but I can't get it on here on my phone.Having a lot of problems with sickness (been sick 8 times!) But that's the only nad thing so far. Went into theatre at 8:30 am and came out 11:30am. Woke up in recovery at 12 and was on the ward by 3. That's it for now, gonna catch some sleep (I'm knackered!)

B x

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Tomorrow = Surgery Day!

SURGERY DAY TOMORROW! NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT TO THINK!

It's been quite a nice run up to the day, as I met up with all my friends and hosted a 'Cheese Feast' (essentially a cheese and wine party) so I could stuff my face in good company. It was an evening filled with food, fun and friends and felt like a celebration that the day was very nearly here (after so long!)

One of the good luck cards I received! 
I've been quite nervous this morning but now I'm feeling relatively calm. I've got everything packed and ready to go, as I have to get up 5am to get to the hospital at 7am. 

Hospital bag! The orange tiger things are slippers...
I've packed quite a lot of things that you guys on here have suggested, thank you so much for all those suggestions! I feel much more prepared at this stage. I also had my 'last supper', which was a yummy homemade spaghetti bolognese (my absolute favourite). 

The Last Supper

I also have my 'official' pre-op photos! My photography skills aren't amazing, but hopefully it gives people an idea of my bite (: 






That's pretty much it for now. Thank you all for your helpful comments of advice and support. 

See you on the other side! 

B x




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2 weeks to go! Update following final surgeon appointment and pre-operative assessment.

I cannot believe it. 13 long years ago I was introduced to Clinic J and the possibility of needing jaw surgery, and now it is exactly TWO WEEKS until I go into theatre. I just cannot get my head around that!

And of course a (what I hope is) dramatic opening to this post has to be accompanied by a dramatic(?) photograph embracing the glory that is an underbite.  

Ahoy there! (South Wales)
Since my last post I got to see my boyfriend for the first time in six months (he was living in Australia) as he is now back home in Wales! Although the shot of this photo isn't very close, I think the angle really emphasises my bite and how much it has changed over the last couple of years. I'll be sure to post 'official' photos just before my surgery, which will be much clearer.

Yesterday saw the entire day spent at two different hospitals. The morning was dedicated to my appointment with my surgeon, where he tried the wafers that had been made to make sure they fitted well. And it was a perfect fit! It amazes me what different tools are needed for surgery, and how the lab technicians must make them. I also got to put my surgeon in the hot seat and ask him LOTS of questions. This was the last time I would see him before surgery day, so I put my thinking cap on and compiled this list -


  • Will my lips look different? (I currently have a huge bottom lip and hardly any top lip) 
  • How long will my jaws be wired? 
  • Will I be able to take tablets in hospital?
  • Are there any essentials/products you'd recommend to help aid recovery/comfort? 
  • *Silly question alert* Will the surgery have an impact on how my tongue fits in my mouth? 
  • How long will I be in hospital for? 
  • How long is the surgery? 
  • What will happen if I vomit and my jaws are wired? 
  • Do I need to put weight on before surgery? 
  • How will I clean my teeth?   
All of my questions were answered, albeit a sarcastic manner (my surgeon is pretty funny). Interestingly, he also mentioned passport photos. With the introduction of electronic passports, the machines might not be able to recognise me post op, so he advised I ring up the passport office after treatment is finished.  

After this appointment I was due to travel to the hospital where I'd be having the surgery. But I had some time to kill, so enjoy this photo of where I had my lunch (this is unusually very scenic for Stevenage)

Fairlands Valley Park 

The hospital I visited in the afternoon was very new to me, so I ended up getting lost finding the pre-operative unit! Nothing too exciting happened when I eventually found it. The appointment consisted of taking swabs for MRSA, taking my blood pressure, oxygen levels, heart rate, height and weight, a blood test and being asked a LOT of questions about my medical history. I also got to sign the consent form (moment of excitement for me!) I have to go back for another blood test close to my admission date (incase I need a blood transfusion, boo). 

Consider yourselves updated! Next up will be my final appointment with my ortho to change elastics so everything's nice and clean for surgery. 

If anyone has ANY advice on useful products for comfort following surgery - please let me know! 

Thanks for reading, 

B x

 



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Some appealing post.

Exciting news - my admissions letter came through today! 


Seeing the surgery date in black and white makes it seem very real. My surgeon had put the date in his diary, which is why I knew it beforehand. But to me, this seems to make it super official. 

I also have my pre op confirmed. That is going to be one hospital themed day. I'll have my last surgeons appointment at my local hospital in the morning, and then the pre op appointment at the hospital where I'll have my surgery in the afternoon. 

As far as admissions letters go, mine is probably pretty typical. But I'm still ridiculously proud of this letter full of dates and instructions, probably because this has been a long time coming. And that, my friends, is the reason I'm putting up a picture of the letter in all of it's conclusiveness. 

Admissions letter!




That's really all I've got to say, I'll update again when I've had these next few appointments! 


B x

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Exciting news - I have a surgery date!

Hi everyone!

It's been a while. Everything has taken a long time to get to this stage, and in the meantime I have definitely neglected this blog. My last update was in summer 2012, and I can say a lot has changed in the past two years! I've achieved my 2:1 Bachelor of Music degree, I've done a bit of travelling and I am in a happy relationship. I also have my plans set for the future to become a music teacher from this September. But one thing has still remained the same - my bite.

Graduation
Skydiving in New Zealand

Ben and I


I've looked through my followers blogs and seen so many amazing results! It has always given me more confidence reading all your stories and a valuable insight on what to expect.. And now it's my turn, which will be on 22nd July.

The only thing that remains between now and then is to try on the wafers with the surgeon, one last ortho visit (to change elastics) and a pre-op appointment. I honestly cannot believe I am at this stage now, after 13 years of hospital appointments, 8 extractions and 3 years of braces!

My X Rays really showcase the progress that has been made.
July 2010
January 2014
July 2010
January 2014
At my last appointment with the surgeon he was discussing the proposed movement of my jaws, and it looks like my upper jaw will be moving 6mm forward, whilst my lower jaw will be moving 4 mm back. So a total movement of 1cm!
One thing I'd like to ask anyone that's been through this before, is there anything you'd want to have known/any questions you wanted to ask your surgeon in hindsight? I've got one more opportunity to ask my surgeon questions beore my operation and (worryingly) don't seem to be coming up with any! 
From now on I consider this blog to really be up and running. I feel bad that I neglected it and missed out on everyone's news! 

Hope you're all keeping well. 

B x

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'We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Successful Surgery'

This is going to be one positive post I'll tell everyone that now!

I had a hospital appointment last week, and my orthodontist is so pleased with how everything is looking. It's always amusing going to the orthodontist and being able to listen to their conversations with the nurse/assistant, but not being able to actually contribute to said conversation while they're doing their work. (I've just realised how incredibly nosey that makes me sound). But anyway, they were talking about art for some reason, and it got me thinking that orthodontics is essentially art. A very scientific, complex one at that, which has much to do with physics. But still an art. I could even tell at the end of the appointment that she was 'admiring' her work from a distance, like you'd imagine a painter or sculptor would do the same.

I honestly never thought I'd ever perceive someone to be 'admiring' braces, most people probably do quite to opposite, haha.

They were also speaking about how the patients that were scheduled to see them that afternoon were all orthognathic. Which in turn led them to discuss which stage I was at in comparison to the other patients, and they think that I'm the second current patient of theirs that will be ready for surgery! It seems so weird thinking about it like that, all that waiting and it still feels like I shouldn't be this ready, almost like I've gotten used to the 11 years I've been visiting this clinic.

And this, finally leads me to a prediction! I haven't been keeping track of how many months I've had braces, I've just been looking onwards to the next appointment instead of tallying it all up. And it totals up to 8 months! That just seems crazy, it only feels like I've had them for 2-3 months or something. This means that by Christmas time, I will have had my braces for 1 year and 2 months, and a  possibility of surgery in the holidays! I think as a norm orthodontists tell their patients 18 months in braces before surgery, but from what I've seen people seem to be getting surgery earlier than that. And given the speed that my teeth are moving and my bite worsening, it could be a fair prediction. I didn't want to ask my ortho when I would be ready quite yet as I didn't want to seem impatient, nor did I want to have my ortho's professional prediction as to when I would be ready, adding even more time to this waiting game.

Just to balance this out with a small bit of negativity (haha) I have noticed how impractical my bite is becoming in terms of function, and it is certainly affecting me. Before it started to get worse I was only expecting it from an aesthetic point of view, never a practical one. I mentioned speech and pronunciation in my last post, but this time it's eating that's starting to get to me. On my way home for my appointment, I grabbed a burger from Kings Cross station inbetween trains, probably the most embarrassing burger I've ever had the misfortune to buy. I just can't bite into things like I used to, and attempting to do this in public was a pretty bad idea. Some old woman was staring at me the whole time I was eating, like I was someone with learning difficulties who couldn't feed themselves. It was pretty messy to be fair. But it's something I'm willing to put up with to get a functioning bite.

Moving swiftly on (I will stop soon I promise) the broken brace was fixed pronto without a telling off, and it hasn't done any damage or slowed down my progress. I loyally promised my orthodontist, no more icecubes for me.

Just one more point of positivity, and an unrelated one at that! University.

For those who don't know, I'm a music student and a principle study violinist. I got my recital marks back today and I got a 2:1! This year I've achieved 1st's and 2:1's, and even though I'm expecting one small piece of work back, it means that I've averaged a good 2:1 for my second year, which I am so happy with. Also the examiners who marked my recital said 'your potential is such that, if you were to make left hand technique a priority over the coming year, you are capable of a 1st class mark'. This makes me ridiculously happy.

Chuffed! If there are any music geeks out there, I'm listening to Brahms Violin Sonata No. 1, and am seriously considering performing the whole work for my third year recital.

Me and my housemate Lucy made orange/lemon drizzle cake to celebrate our recital results and decorated them appropriately.

We named the left cake 'C Major' (even though neither of us had the easiest key signature in our recitals, we just wanted to be alliterative with cake) and the right cake was named 'Caspar'
Oh god I've just realised how insensitive I've been, there are a good number of people recovering from their surgeries at this point of time. I grant any of you permission to taunt me with cake as you see fit when I am at that same stage, or Christmas dinner if my prediction is right.

I honestly don't understand how I write so much, someone needs to limit me and suggest a word count to stick to, haha. Sending lots and lots of healing vibes out to all the post-ops, and a speedy progress for all.

B x

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Ice cubes are my enemy, as is pronunciation.

Just a quick post to put into context how much everything is changing considering both a worsening bite and how quickly my teeth still seem to be moving! It's hard to believe that I used to put up with that really wierd plastic brace just because my bite collided, all to blame because my teeth thought they were ahead of the game and tried to fix things themselves by making my bite appear better than it actually was. My true bite seems to have really taken form now, like it's appeared all of a sudden. I'd noticed it getting worse with my progression from my first fixed brace, to the second and more conventional 'train track' brace, but now there's such a noticeable gap between both jaws. I've also started noticing that my housemates and people at uni are quite often mishearing me when I speak to them. It seems to take alot more time to form sounds such as p's and f's, as if my lower jaw is literally getting in the way, and it feels as if my brain is too far ahead in comparison to the act of physically forming the shapes and sounds of words. Has anyone else noticed this as their orthodontic work has taken effect?

I thought I'd put up an okish photo to hopefully balance to more awful ones to follow. A fairly significant gap can still be seen even from a headshot.
Horrible photo! But does justice to the worsening bite. Note the gap as evidence for some speedy orthodontic work!
Profile shot ):
A funny part of waiting for the braces to do their stuff is all the gaps that appear as the teeth are straigtening, only to be replaced by a tooth as it has more room, creating another gap. It reminds me of those sliding puzzles that you get online or something, before you can create the final picture you have to slide all those pieces in a logical order. Also that hefty gap that can be seen in the middle photo appeared after a mere two days after my appointment! That seemed pretty crazy to me. I also keep on forgetting that I'm now minus 8 teeth, which probably plays a huge part in how fast the orthodontics are working.

While all of this progress is good news (even the worsening bite), I've also had my first ever brace accident, concerning an icecube. I feel so incredibly stupid about the whole thing, said icecube was pretty melted down at the end of this drink, then swig and crunch. I can't get seen in Canterbury as I'm a patient at my hopsital at home, and I don't know any NHS people who would be able to fix it for me. Also my ortho is a locum and is only in my hospital one day of the week, so she's pretty booked up. I don't think the damage is too serious though, the wire right at the end has popped out the bracket, I guess the easiest way to describe it is excess wire that the ortho must have screwed into the bracket somehow. The rest of the wire is very intact so I'm hoping it's not slowing down anything, and if it is, it's my theory that most of the orthodontic work takes effect in the first couple of weeks after an appointment, and the six week period is a pretty good way to give patients a relief from the pain you get after having braces tightened. Saying that, I could be completely wrong.

It would be ridiculous to try and take a photo of this, so have an example. Result of an icecube :P

I'll stop there, I feel like I've gone on a bit. Whenever I post this always seems to happen, not entirely sure what to write then boom! Apologies for the ramblings, especially if it's boring. So to summarise, worsening bite, teeth moving and broken brace has happened since my last post. Hoping that Laura and Lindsay are recovering well and best of luck to Max, Ellie and Britany with their upcoming surgeries as well as everybody elses treatments! B x

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