This week I spent 5 half days at work after more than 5 months at home (and one night in the hospital). I dreaded this, looked forward to it, worried about it - and then just got up and did it.
What can I say about it? I was totally unsure how I would cope physically. Sitting at a desk can actually be pretty taxing, and I haven't really spoken that much in one day in a while, at least not without being able to tell people that I couldn't anymore. I know, I know...I can always say that I'm too sore to talk, but if you think that then you don't really know me that well. I can't simply say that I can't talk anymore, especially when all my coworkers were asking me how I was, telling me that they missed me and were happy to see me back, bringing me sweets (!) and generally being as wonderfully kind as they all are naturally. It was pretty great to get up with a purpose, and not to be just wallowing in pity and/or worrying about myself was awesome. At one point my jaw was so sore that I just held it reflexively and that was the perfect way to beg off of another conversation. I also ducked out of a sushi lunch that I wanted to attend socially, but just don't want to deal with in public with both braces and a mouth that doesn't chew or manipulate very well.
I was definitely sore after the first day, moreso the second day, and by Friday I was exhausted and in quite a bit of pain in my jaw. Today, being Saturday, I'm tired and grumpy but hopeful that I'll recover over the wknd. Next week is another 5 half days, so I'll judge by mid-week how things are going and make a determination about what to do going forward.
Monday was a pretty big day for me actually, since I had to get to downtown Toronto for 7pm to have an MRI that was ordered by my oral surgeon. I had it done, and I have to say that having an MRI with braces in your face is pretty terrifying. They give you a thorough screening to ensure that you don't have any implanted devices, or random metal pieces in your eye, or tattoos...but braces are ok? My heart was beating pretty quickly when they slid me into the machine with double hearing protection on (ear plugs and muffs), a cage over my face and a little bulb to squeeze just in case I needed to communicate with the outside world. I thought that somehow the machine would turn on and my face would be magnetically sucked to the side of the machine or something. Turns out it was fine....noisy and a little claustrophobic, but I just kept my eyes closed and breathed. They took images of my face and then stuck a foam popsicle in my mouth to get images with my jaw open. It was all over in about 15 minutes and it was totally painless. Braces and all.
Actually, it turns out that the concern with braces (or any metal, including any makeup you're wearing that might have metal in it) is that it can cause what they call "artifacts" on the MRI images and obscure what they're trying to see. Hopefully the technician can get good enough images in spite of that. Now I have to wait until my follow up with the oral surgeon at the end of February to find out what it shows.
The purpose of the MRI is to see what might be happening with the soft tissues in my TMJs, including the discs (it's a joint after all, and one that moves in different planes, so the discs are important), tendons and ligaments. So far I've only had X-rays and CT scans, both of which only show hard and bony structures. This will give a more complete picture of what's going on inside my head.
More to come on a few things: my second week at work, my first wire change on my top braces, hopefully news about my lower braces and what I've learned so far with having braces and jaw limitations...and the deal with clear braces. I hope to share a lot of tips and tricks on having these....many more of which I'll have to share when I have a full mouth of brackets.
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