Wonky Gob

Had my 2nd post op appointment today and all went well. They are really very happy with the bite itself and how everything is healing up, the only slight concern they have is the lump in my cheek which is apparently a haematoma, i.e. a sac of blood. Yum. Apparently it will start to soften as it dissolves and is absorbed, but if it gets any bigger or starts to hurt I need to call them. I've looked it up, they can be removed (drained) if they don't start to go on their own. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. They recommended light massage, and I read that heat compresses help too so I'll give it all a go. No appointments now for 2 weeks which is a good thing. I took a special detox bath last night to see if it would help with the swelling. Not sure it did anything to the swelling but I certainly slept very well. Also a stitch fell out last night, not sure where abouts in my mouth it came from but I'm expecting more.... Swelling : Still slowly going, a

Swelling : Subsiding slowly. Bruising : Barely noticable. Although I still have a dark bruise on my left 'chest' :) Pain : Just realised I haven't had a pain killer all day which is good Tingling : Lots. Numbness : Lots. Feels like I'm wearing someone else's chin. Weight : Stabilising - certainly won't lose any more now I've discovered custard with peanut butter stirred in! Mood : Positive :)

Swelling : Definitely subsiding Bruising : Definitely fading Pain : Headache later in day Tingling : Getting used to it Numbness : No noticeable change Mood : Pretty good

Husband went back to work today, and I miss having him around. I did the school run for the first time in weeks and had a shed load of work to do. The morning went pretty well, although I did have to go and collect my son from school with a tummy bug. Let's hope the rest of us don't get it..... Still a bit bleedy from the nosey and can still taste blood in my mouth too, but I feel pretty good really. Swelling : Slight improvement? Bruising : Still as yellow as a Simpson character Pain : None Tingling : Bring it on Numbness : Left corner of my mouth coming back to life Mood : Pretty good!

Felt a bit ropey again today to be honest. My mouth is still bleeding slightly and I feel a little low. I had an Actimel, my meds, a coffee and a little later on a protein shake that was full of lots of healthy things like milled seeds, apple and cinnamon. The recipe looked AMAZING. The result wasn't that nice to be honest... Had a lazy day not doing much, a few chores but that was it. After a slightly more energetic day yesterday I felt it was necessary. Finished my antibiotics today, one less med to take. Still taking paracetamol and ibuprofen alternately and am now taking some heavy duty vitamins as I know my diet hasn't been providing enough of what I need. I was desperately hungry today, probably due to yesterday's walk, and despite not wanting to aggravate my stitches I ate quite well. I had potato, carrot and swede mash watered down with pea and mint soup, mashed up cod in butter sauce (which as way too lumpy and I don't imagine the sodium cont

Decided to go on a nice big walk earlier. I had errands to run and needed to see my kids in their Christmas stage school demonstration, so I put on my trainers and set off on a 4 mile hike. Now, I walk everywhere. I walk charity marathons, I walk to clear my head, elevate my mood I love to walk. But this was HARD. I can only assume that my weight loss has been mainly muscle because the hill I usually walk up several times a week was knee-shakingly difficult. Made a mental note to consume more protein even if it meant starting with the dreaded protein shakes again. For the last 2 days I have been enjoying chocolate buttons as I can open my mouth just wide enough to post them in. I've been letting them melt slowly....mmmmmm....lovely. However, I think the chocolate sucking has dislodged a stitch or something as my mouth appears to be bleeding from somewhere. This has put me off eating as I'm worried I'll make it worse. Swelling : Subsiding a little but my top

Definitely feeling better for the mash potato I consumed yesterday, but woke up with a lot more pain than usual. Keeping it under control with meds. Went to cinema this morning while kids were at school to take advantage of my husband's last day off work. Was craving crunchy nachos with gloopy cheese sauce and jalapenos, but settled for an ice cream shake which was daylight robbery at £4.20! Fired up the PC and worked all afternoon (being self employed means op or no op the work needs doing) and felt very normal. Swelling : Subsiding a little Bruising : Yellow Pain : More today, from lying down maybe? Tingling : Lots on chin Numbness : I think I can feel a little more on my left cheek Mood : Good, I feel quite back to normal

Woke up at 3am as usual and just couldn't get back to sleep. Even after taking some paracetamol I was cold and uncomfortable. Eventually I got in my proper bed with my husband at 4am, lying down on my side *shock horror* and got 3 hours of blissful deep sleep. Had my first post-op appointment this morning which went very well. They are really pleased with the alignment and overall progress and don't think that the hard lump in my cheek is anything other than swelling which is a relief, but just to make sure they gave me a few more days of antibiotics.  They took the bands off the front hooks for the time being and told me to exercise my jaw a little to get movement back. Being given the 'all clear' to do this is going to make a big difference as not only do I now feel confident to move on to proper mashed food, but I can also take my meds in tablet form. I am much, much better with tablets, even giant ones, so this has made me very happy. My surgeon also said

Definitely felt much better today. This morning my husband took my son to school and just as they left it started snowing. I lay on the sofa just watching it in the peaceful house and felt quite happy with the world. Husband then went and bought a beautiful Christmas tree and I started feeling really cosy and Christmasy. My energy was up so I did a few little chores around the house, I slurped my soup, drank coffee, managed to take my meds without  gagging. All in all I felt pretty OK! I even ventured in to the OUTSIDE WORLD tonight. We haven't really had a proper Christmas tree for a few years due to various renovations and such, and this year I was determined to do things properly. I was determined to put a proper tree up and get a whole load of beautiful new decorations so off I went with my daughter and husband to Homebase and Sainsbury's to face the public and buy sparkly things. I got a few funny looks and my husband was worried people would think he's

Swelling : Has it peaked? Hope so..... Bruising : Neck and upper chest looking a bit yellow Pain : Managed, apart from that nasty 3am spot. Mood : On the up.

Sleeping upright is giving me a crick in my neck and stiff shoulders :( I wonder how long I have to wait before I can have a massage? Kids went back to school today so I had a nice calm house. Husband went off to gym and shops for a few hours and I took a lovely long bath which helped relax my aches and pains. Still can't stand the thought of protein shakes so slurped down a soup instead which was MUCH better and felt almost like proper food! It was just a normal fresh soup, but I blended it and diluted with some milk to give it a lovely sloppy consistency. I drank it like a cup of tea - classy. Still keeping up with the ice packs as much as I can. I bought three of them so I have a steady supply. My nose is annoying me, it's very blocked and trickles with blood a lot. Grim. I have had 3 operations to remove polyps over the years and it's reminding me of that, you can smell the blood in your nose but are told NOT TO BLOW. I have decongestant drops which help a l

Woke up a few times in the night in a lot of pain and forced down a paracetamol, woke up feeling very swollen with my eye very closed. Dozed on and off for most of the day, watching a steady stream of 'Friend' re-runs (which have always had a calming effect on me) By the afternoon my eye swelling had reduced sightly and a nice black eye was starting to appear. I am completely sick of milky drinks and the words 'protein shake' make me gak. Had a miso soup instead as I had a salt craving. Swelling : Lots Bruising : Mainly on left Pain : Bearable, if I keep up with the meds Mood : Tired and weak

Am now home and feeling quite ropey. When I woke at 2:30am I was very sick, then I suddenly felt a weird movement all over the left side of my face, starting in my nose then moving all around my cheek. When I woke again at 7:00am my left side was so swollen I could barely open my eye! Apparently I have bled into my cheek which is why it's so solid and swollen, but it's numb so not bothering me too much. Still felt very nauseous and sore and the nurses insisted I ate something so I could take pain meds. This was really hard. They said I couldn't go home until I'd had something, so I reluctantly accepted a chocolate milkshake which I forced down over the next few hours. It did make me feel slightly better I must admit, my blood sugar must have been pretty low. My husband finally picked me up at lunchtime and took me home. Although I really wasn't in the mood for visitors my friend called to say that she was at the hospital and could she pop over! She lives a

Well, it's all done and I'm feeling a big rough. It took just over 3.5 hours and the anesthetic was pretty harsh on me, leaving me very nauseous despite 4 types of anti nausea drugs. Need sleep.....

......I have a surgery date! 30th Nov 2012. Excited beyond belief :-)

Gap Watch: What gap? Oh YEAH.

Gap is tiny, less than a playing card. Surgery looking ever so slightly closer :-)))))

I measured my remaining gap using playing cards. 2 cards. That's around 0.6mm. Next appointment in just over 3 weeks and I'm DETERMINED that my gap is a gonner.

Well today's appointment was a very different experience to two weeks ago! First off the consultant told me that she would be dealing with my treatment from now on. This is brilliant news as she is a) very senior and experienced and b) I have had some dealings with her before so she is familiar with my case. Interestingly enough my notes showed no record of the appointment a few weeks back which proves that something went very wrong that day. So let's just pretend it didn't happen and move forward.... I started by asking her a few questions that my dentist had asked. Firstly, will I need extractions on the bottom jaw? Answer: No. Secondly, was the loss of cement around my back molar band cause for concern as it is a potential food trap? Answer: Yes, more cement promptly installed. There. That was easy, wasn't it? On with the adjustment. The powerchain fitted a few weeks back had already served it's purpose so off it came. Off came my archwire so it could be n

I'm not happy. About 6 weeks ago I saw my Orthodontist and he told me that he was leaving. I was a bit upset at this news, apart from the fact he was a nice chap, he also had been with me from the start, always kept me informed as to what the next stage was, and more recently always squeezed me in for an adjustment every 4 weeks. Oh well, life goes on. A few weeks ago I had an adjustment booked, and was quite keen to meet the new person who would be looking after me. I am still really desperate to put some sort of time scale to the op; being self employed means that I will have to put suitable measures in place to make sure I don't miss deadlines, and childcare is always a big issue. I felt pretty optimistic..... First minor annoyance was that I had to wait for AGES. This was only annoying because I have been going for appointments for quite a while now, have never had to wait 45 mins before. I occasionally take my kids with me, frequently the appointments are just befo

8 months on....still waiting... It's been a year since I had two extractions in my upper jaw, and I'm STILL waiting for the stupid gaps to close. I'll try and explain what exactly I'm waiting for.... On my left hand side I had my first molar removed (my second to last tooth as I have no wisdom teeth) and in the last year my two pre molars had shuffled up to fill the gap, leaving me with a gap between my left canine and first premolar. My canine is now being moved back using powerchains and extra elastics to create a gap between my canine and lateral incisor. It's been about 5 weeks since this tooth started moving and it's moved about half way through the gap. On my right hand side I had my first premolar removed and over the last 12 months my canine has slid back to fill the gap leaving me with a nasty gap between my lateral incisor and canine. Once I have matching gaps each side between my lateral incisors and canines my four front teeth (which are curren