Well Hallo there friends,
It's been a while since I have posted. Sorry! Life is just so damn busy.
So what's been happening in my mouth....well, the braces are in there, doin' their thang. Teeth are moving and it's all pretty positive. I saw the orthodontist last week for a wire change, and after the power chain on the lowers my teeth were still really sore. He took it easy on me this month, putting only a slightly-higher tension wire in there and was understanding that I'm in pain. The first 2 days were still pretty awful, but I was able to eat solid-ish food, which is an improvement. He said that he's happy with the progress, the top is almost where he wants it, and the bottom is catching up nicely. Keep in mind that the lower braces didn't go on until a few months after the uppers.
The 45 tooth that was wildly twisted and tipped has really come around (I know, I could feel it!), enough so that my dentist would now be able to put a temporary crown on it and make me look more normal! Now I just have to actually schedule time to make the 2.5 hour drive to get it done.
My oral surgeon began trying to coordinate my jaw replacement surgery with my orthodontist, but is jumping the gun just a bit. It sounds like my teeth won't be done moving until around January, and I can't get the special CT scans done to fabricate the joints until then. The ortho knows that the more notice he can give of when he will be done his work, the better it is to schedule everything, so hopefully it will all go as planned and I will get a surgery date in January. I don't know how the oral surgeon's office manages that, but I suppose I'm not the first one he's done. It takes around 4 months to fabricate the joints, so I guess I'd be looking at surgery sometime in the spring. Maybe for my birthday in May? Woot.
In other, very exciting, very excellent news, the insurance company has reviewed my case and decided to extend my coverage for accident insurance from 12 months to 24 months. So if everything goes according to plan, we will be able to submit most claims for all this work before they close it forever. What a relief!!! I'd heard that it's very hard to get them to make exceptions to this policy, so they must have reviewed my case and understood that it's all very extensive and complicated. Never give up hope!!
On the mental/emotional side, I've definitely been struggling with a lot of things lately. I think that I'm still in the process of learning how best to manage my pain, and how it affects me day to day. I don't talk about the pain that I have for many reasons...mainly because it's not pleasant to talk about, and the more you talk about it, the bigger a "thing" it becomes in your life. Saying that, there are definitely times when just touching my head muscles can cause me to be nauseous, and times when the chronic tension headaches really affect my mood, patience, focus, etc. I definitely am learning that prescription medication is given to you for a reason, and that it helps when you take it as prescribed and not just when you feel like it, and it is not to be feared (especially when it's pretty innocuous, I'm not talking painkillers here).
I'm also accepting this whole situation for what it is. It seems so obvious to write it, but it's just my lot to deal with this. Everyone gets their challenges, and this is the one that was handed to me. It's not the best, but it's not the worst either. "Why me?" is such a pointless question to ask in this life...there's no answer, and there never will be.
And I keep on feeding that courage wolf!!
