7 Year Update

Hello, and thanks for visiting my blog.

I am amazed to see that this blog is still getting quite a bit of traffic! I hope that you will find some useful information within these posts.

I am now 7 years post-braces/surgery. Though it's been a long time, I still think of my ortho experience quite often. I am active on Facebook's "We Need/Got Jaw Surgery," which I highly recommend if you're looking for up-to-date stories and advice.

Though my surgeon originally mentioned cheek implants and rhinoplasty, I did not opt to have those surgeries alongside my lower jaw procedure. To be honest, I think of rhinoplasty from time to time, as the shape of my nose changed after my jaw surgery. I also have a bit of a double chin now when smiling, and I feel like my profile is not quite what I hoped it would be. I have some numbness starting at the left lower lip and extending down to the bottom of my lower left chin. Occasionally my jaw becomes sore or tired if I'm eating taffy or chewing gum.

Other than those minimal issues, there are no long-term side effects from my surgery. I can bite into apples, I love my smile, and I am still ecstatic that I went through with the whole process. I couldn't imagine having it any other way.

If I could give one piece of post-braces advice (I'm sure you've heard this before), it would be to wear your retainer! I haven't worn mine in a couple of years and my bottom teeth have moved quite a bit; my bite is not the same as it was when I had my braces taken off!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at Melissa@happyby30.com. You can also find me over at HappyBy30.com.

Thanks for looking, and good luck on your journey!

Done!!

I feel so awful for not posting any updates; I have been getting comments and emails wondering where I disappeared to since getting my braces off.

Well... I've gone to living a normal life! I am now living a life that doesn't revolve around obsessing over my face, my teeth, my surgery, my appearance... and it's awesome!

I have waited years for the day when I could say that it's over, and it finally is...

And it was worth every minute!

Thanks to everyone for supporting me; I never would have started this journey without the inspiration from my fellow bloggers.

Excited!

My braces come off in seven hours!! Woo hoo! I should probably be sleeping, but something tells me that won't be happening much tonight...

I'll post pics tomorrow!!! :) YAAAAY

debracing date!

I have a date!!!

The braces come off February 16th.

So excited!

I've been doing well; it's so amazing to be able to take bites with my front teeth. Still have quite a bit of numbness on the left side of my chin/lip, though. blah.

Hello!

Hi everyone.

Hope Christmas was excellent for all of you... I was so spoiled it isn't funny ;)

Had an ortho appointment on the 18th, and I was all fitted up with tons of annoying rubberbands. I'm supposed to wear them 24/7, but it's too difficult to talk to wear them at work... so I've mostly been wearing them at night. My bite feels just about perfect, and my midlines are lining up beautifully. I've just got one issue left: one of my front teeth is a bit crooked, so I'm doubling up on the bands every once in awhile in the front to try and move that baby back into place where it should be. My next appointment is January 25... I'm hoping so badly that that is the day that I've been looking forward to... yep, that's right: the debracing.

I have another post-op surgeon appointment on the 29th. OH, that reminds me. I was under the impression that Kaiser would not be paying the $2000 assistant surgeon's fee, which was the fee that I had to get a loan out for to pay the doctor before my surgery. But get this: Kaiser DID approve it, and they sent a check for $7500 to my surgeon's office. What!! They overpaid by $5500! So the office sent the check back (darn it, haha) and asked for them to resend the correct amount of $2000, which we're still waiting for. They were ridiculously slow, but I am SO THANKFUL that they paid for EVERYTHING. I am one lucky girl. So my advice based on my experience is... GO WITH KAISER!


Have a wonderful New Year!

All banded up, yuck. See my crooked front tooth? Argh!


On Christmas!

contrast

when i get my braces taken off i'm gonna do more pics like this, but i was messing around and came up with a contrast pic... i can definately tell the difference, even though it's from a slightly different angle...

Ortho appointment tomorrow... hopefully my last adjustment. WOO HOO!

3 months post-op

Hi! Hope everyone is doing fantastic.

I had an appointment with my surgeon a couple of weeks ago... not due again until December.

This week I had an ortho appointment, and Dr. Arango said to give him one more adjustment and then I'm done. YAY! That means.. dare I say it.. January?! Awesome! Some tiny little thought in the back of my head was hoping for lovely white teeth in time for Christmas... but yeah, that was asking too much.

They took off the buttons on the inside of my teeth, too! I wasn't expecting that, and it was AWESOME. I had them on for a year and a half! I have to wear one band on each side right now to get all my teeth to sit together more tightly, and it's a pain. Each band is in the shape of a box, and I have to take them off to eat. It's hard to get them back on the front of my braces, too. Boo.

I still feel swollen sometimes, and the scar tissue bugs me. Every once in awhile my jaw will get sore, but I have about 60% feeling back on the left chin area and 75% on the right.

Take care, til next time...

Ortho Appointment

Hi, all.

I had my first post-op orthodontist appointment last Tuesday. Everyone in the office was so excited for me, and they all came over to see my results. I don't have "very much longer" in braces, according to the assistant who changed my wires. Yay!! Just some fine tuning left. And I only have to wear one band. Double yay!!

I also wanted to mention that Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Cleansing Cloths are awesome!! They cleared up my skin in just a couple days, and they feel great. Check them out at this site!!

My smile still looks a little weird, but as I get more feeling back in my chin, it gets better.

Take care, everyone!!

Day 38

I've been so busy the past couple of weeks!

I started back to work on Wednesday, and it went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would. I still feel like my lip looks incredibly silly when I talk.

My chin area is SO BROKEN OUT! It's awful! I have never had so many pimples on my face at one time. Anyone else have issues with this? I think it might be from touching it so often (hey, it's very interesting not being able to feel your lip and chin).

I had my IVC filter (the little umbrella-shaped thing that was placed in my chest to catch any blood clots that might try to go up into my lungs) removed on Tuesday. Everyone from interventional radiology remembered me, and even asked me how my farmville was doing (HAHAHAHA). The only issue I had with the whole thing was that the nurse couldn't use my arms for the IV (since they were so messed up from the first hospital visit a month ago), so she had to use my hand. Apparently I have tiny veins in my hands, though, and she couldn't get the IV in right. Owwie.

Other than that, I'm doing well. I like my courses this semester. This weekend is the Fallen Firefighters Memorial, so I get to make lots of money and then go hang out downtown with my boyfriend, my friends, and a billion dudes in kilts. Ha.

I was supposed to have my first post-op ortho appointment tomorrow, but they called and asked if I could come in next friday instead because Dr. Arango had a family emergency. bummer!

Only two pics today (since I'm so pimplified).

Here's me now... still a little swollen:





Here's where they took my filter out through my neck. Yeah. Sick.

1 Month Post-op

Today marks a month since my jaw surgery, yay!

Bad news first, to get it out of the way:

Apparently, while I was in the hospital, my teeth moved around a lot. Since I don't have an appointment to see my ortho until next Friday, my surgeon put some rubberbands back in my mouth to try and correct the movement. Bummer!

Good news:

I'm feeling a LOT better. The only thing that is annoying to me now is the numbness. It's a constant tingling in my chin and lower lip. I've started snapping at people when they tell me I have food on my face ("I KNOW! I CANT FEEL IT!"), and putting on lipstick is a joke. I have a tiny bit of feeling back in the lower right part of my bottom lip, but other than that... still totally numb, baby.

I am still a little bit swollen.. but everyday it gets better.

Every once in awhile the incision on my right side hurts, but it has healed nicely.

Yay!!

X-Rays

Taking out and setting up a scanner sounds lame right now, so I just took pics of my x-rays. You get the idea. My teeth line up so beautifully now!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER

weight!!

Yo, thought I would mention a good thing:

I've lost twelve pounds! Yaaaaaaay! My pants fit again!

pics

k, so here are some pics, taken 18 days post-op.

An Update

Hey all.

Sorry for the lack of updates; I have had a rough week.

Last week I started having really bad pains in my left leg, and by Friday I couldn't even walk on it; it was all purple and swollen. So Nathan took me to the emergency room and they told me I had a clot from my ankle to the middle of my stomach. I was so scared... I thought I was going to die!

They performed this surgery on me where they go in through the back of my calf and put a catheter in, and the catheter runs through my leg, along with "clot-busting" medicine, and disperses the clot. They also put this little filter that is shaped like an umbrella in through my neck and placed it right below my heart so that no other clots can travel up into my lungs, heart, or brain. I get that taken out in three weeks.

So I'm on an anti-coagulant for six months and I have to give myself shots twice a day for a few days.

Apparently I have May-Thurner syndrome, which is where the main artery that lies on top of the vein to my left leg compresses the vein and doesn't allow blood to escape my leg. So they implanted this tiny little stent tube thing that will hold the vein open and allow the blood to flow. They said that being immobile after my jaw surgery, having the syndrome, and taking birth control pills all contributed to the clot.

I just got out of the hospital about an hour ago, and I am so glad to be out!!! At one point I had three IVs in me and I was just laying there sobbing... it was awful.

I have to wear these goofy stockings, I'm limping around, my arms hurt, my neck hurts, my stomach hurts, my hands hurt from needles, plus my jaw is still kinda swollen and sore.

The swelling has gone down tremendously in my jaw, though. I didn't look in the mirror for five days and when I finally was able to get up and go to the bathroom, I was so surprised at what I saw! My teeth have been sore; I think I've been clenching at night :( I couldn't go to my second follow up appointment with my surgeon because I was in the hospital, so I have to call and make a new one today.. or maybe tomorrow.. I'm so tired!

Well, I have to email my instructors (I've missed a week of school) before I run out of energy... I will post pictures in the next couple of days when I get some strength back.

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Day 8- Balloon Head!

Hey hey hey.

So today was my first post-op appointment, and Dr. Vetter said everything looks perfect! yay! We compared xrays from before and after the surgery, and it's so crazy to see my top teeth in front of my bottom teeth. My jaw looks way shorter, too.

He took all the rubberbands off, but he said if I want them back on I can come back in. At first it felt like my jaw was just hanging there, but now the muscles are getting used to it. Today I had mashed potatoes, and they were soooo goooood.

We got back from the doctor and I was exhausted.. had to take a nap.

My mom said I look more swollen today than yesterday... going in the wrong direction! School starts on Monday; I hope I can go!


Pics later.

DAY 5 - More swollen?

I think I'm more swollen today than I was yesterday, and my neck is all yellow. It also looks like I'm stuffing tennis balls in my cheeks!!

Today all I could think about was a McDonald's cheeseburger. Wah!

I slept most of the day, and then my mom came over and made me "dinner." A shower felt great today, too. I hope this balloon face doesn't last too much longer.

DAY 4 - Swelling

Well, I'm happy to report that the swelling looks like it's going down just a tad--or at least not getting any worse. I had a bit more energy today, too, and I am amazingly not sick of Boost yet :)

It's so weird to have a 100% numb bottom lip and chin!

Here is a pic from this morning (about 12 hours ago).. oh, and I'm not saluting, just holding my glasses up, haha:



And these two are from tonight... it looks better to me than it did this morning. ..Maybe it's that I'm getting used to it, though.

swollen

Arrrrgh, my face and neck are so swollen.. it's so freakin' uncomfortable! There is so much pressure... Im glad I just had bottom jaw surgery and not top. I couldn't imagine having cold symptoms too...

k, i'm a baby. ow.

Also, I want to thank my mommy and boyfriend for taking care of me. My mom bought me all kinds of stuff and has been reloading my ice pack all day. ...And it's her birthday, too!! Yay for moms.

for steph

Thanks so much for the zip n squeeze bags, Stephanie. They have really come in handy today. You're a lifesaver!

I'm so swollen!!