Take a look at this post surgery video

Therichbeauty on youtube
CLICK the link above to see the video.

I really wanted to share this video. This girl is so sweet and after watching her videos I was so surprised that what happened to her after jaw surgery could even happen. It's very rare, as she explains but from the video you can see that she has been left with exposed bone due to the incisions not healing as they should on one side of her mouth. I think its important to take the time to watch these videos, although it is very rare, in the slight case that something like this happens to you. This way you can become educated on what she did and what has worked thus far for her.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Terra

X-ray

The art of waiting

I decided to print screen my countdowns I use on the forum archwired.com.
As it appears, I am 10 months into braces, and 7 months away from jaw surgery.
At least I'm more than halfway there.

I have been fighting this week with the nightmares and the anxiety of having my surgery dates all changed on me once again.
The thing that is so important in this process, which I have discovered, is that nothing moves fast.
Nothing is for certain, and you pretty much have to give a couple years up to the professionals to come up with what they think should be done when.

I have been trying to gather myself, put this behind me, and just be patient until October when I will certainly be having surgery. (lets hope)
I called my orthodontists office today to see if they received my surgeons letter but they have not, which isn't surprising to me. I also asked about having my appointment pushed up, but they are closing next week and are fully booked past when my appointment is set and therefore I have to wait until March 13 (I think) to see my orthodontist. I'm going to call ahead of time and make sure they have the letter, because otherwise theres not much point, what they're doing right now isn't what my surgeon wants.

I have been on reading week this week, which is a good time to process everything.
I was hoping to get a lot more work done but have had this frustration in the way.
Today I am going to stay in and do research for a paper I have due next week, I'll be working on that over the weekend as well.

I need to take the time to sit down and decide what to do with the rest of my year.
Initially I planned to take the entire summer off and do a full course load in the fall. A lot of people in my program don't take a full course load because it means studying 24/7, its very intensive, but now as it turns out, I'm going to try to divide the load over the summer and fall and try to have all my fall midterms pushed to the finals and that way I can stay home and heal for a month as suggested before returning in november.
Well at least I get lots of time to spend with my doggies, which as you can all tell, I'm pretty obsessed with.
Tommy and Pookie are older, around 10-11 right now, so they've become a lot calmer in their senior ways than how they used to be. They like to just chill out with me as I study, and enjoying spending an hour circling the same tree over and over again at the park.

Theres something about older dogs that make them so loveable. I wouldn't ever get a puppy, unless it really needed a home. I really look forward to adopting more older dogs in the future and giving a dog a second chance at having a good life.

As for an update on my fishy girl. I got a Betta fish last weekend. She's so cute, and very active. I've going to try to care for her perfectly. Right now she has a little tank and a couple plants, but I will probably upgrade her to a decent size tank in the future, although she's a very tiny fish.

I'm still looking for an animal charity to donate my revenue sharing to. I'll have to do some research on that.....

Well now I'm just rambling. I'm going to check my email later today and get back to everyone, but first to my research.

Hope everyone is having a great friday, and a happy weekend :D

Pre surgery Consultation

My appointment with the surgeon

I realize my last post was very short and didn't really explain much of what happened.
Anyway to start I got to my surgeons office earlier. I have to take the 401 to get there and you never know when theres going to be an accident that will delay you. My appointment was suppose to be at 2:30, then they thought it was 3, but didn't know.

To avoid as much misunderstanding as possible I went early. 2;30 passed and then 3:00 passed. By 3:30 I was about to get up and ask when I going to see Dr. C, and then someone came and called me in.

I went to his office, waited a bit longer. He came in and asked what Dr. G had said, and I told him he thinks May is ideal for surgery. I saw on one of those dental chairs and Dr C took measurements, looked at my bite, opened it, closed it, opened it, closed it. Made me stand up, opened it, closed it. He had this funny look on his face like he was trying to understand something.

He finally started to explain what was going on. He said that my bite had closed, and it should have been opened more, or worsened, as he words it. Apparently my bite got better, which is bad for surgery purposes.

I made a post about this last summer and everyone was sort of reassuring me that my bite closing mean't it was getting worse. Well sorry bloggers, you were all wrong. My orthodontist f#@$ed up, and closed my bite, or rotated my top teeth inwards. I sort of wish I had gone with my gut feeling and called them about it, because now I can't have surgery on my top jaw with my teeth in this position.

He offered to do surgery on just the bottom jaw, but since the top jaw is retrognathic, I still won't be able to breathe through my nose, or place my tongue where its suppose to go.

This is what my bite looks like now.

Well anyway I just feel disappointed. My surgeon also said that the orthodontist should have sent me in for an evaluation halfway through the presurgery braces. That would have avoided all this, but now its too late for anything.

Because of this, I have a surgery date booked for October 5th. I'm very grateful my surgeon allowed me to book a date, and trusts that my orthodontist will fix this problem and have me surgery ready in time. 

Now excuse me as I go lock myself in a room and scream. 

Another summer with my stupid jaw. 

Well, lets at least hope I'm out of braces by summer 2013. 

But I really don't want to hope. 

...........................

JAW SURGERY DATE, and some other crap

Okay so this appointment didn't go as planned. It turns out that my top teeth should have been orthodontically positioned differently (well left in an open position). At this point my surgeon cannot do surgery on the top jaw. Therefore, I will be going back to the orthodontist to have my bite reopened and I have a surgery date set for October 5th, 2012.
I'll make a longer post when I have more time.
I'm not impressed, but I'll just let it be. At this point theres nothing anyone can do to fix this issue fast enough to have surgery sooner.

Family day and Surgeon appointment tomorrow

So its a long weekend but I'm off this weekend.
Haven't spent much time on the computer so I'm going to read my emails and respond later tonight.
Its beautiful today
2 degrees out, which is warm for Canada.
Took the boys to the park.
I also got a new pet. A betta fish named Sadie. Shes very active, I think she's very happy in her new home. She's been very busy exploring her little aquarium and swimming through the plastic plants.
My dogs had a lovely day and now they're both passed out.


I'm going to the surgeon tomorrow, pretty excited but just going to wait and see what happens.
I've been having more vivid dreams about jaw surgery, I usually forget the details, but they're happening more often now.
I'll add some pictures.
I'm going to make a video tomorrow and explain what happens at the surgeons, easier than all this typing, and most people just watch my youtube videos and don't check my blog.

Valentines day, and one week until I see my surgeon :D

Hey everyone!!
Hope everyone had a good valentines day.
I had midterms up until the 13th so it was a good day regardless of what was to happen.
I saw a possum at school in the morning and that in itself made my day.
I'm horribly addicted to animals and go into a little school girl panic whenever I see anything fluffy.
My poor little doggies are constantly smothered with affection.
Well anyway I got lots of nice stuff for valentines day.
My bf was amazing, got me my favourite flowers, snap dragons. (Yes because they remind me of fluffy animals.) He also got me this little panda that is perfect for this pearl necklace I have and was wearing yesterday but has always seemed too plain for my liking. Pandas are super special to me because I call my dog Tommy a panda, he has similar colouring so I always refer to him as my little panda bear.
Anyway its super cute and I loveeee it!!!
He also bought me enough chocolate to last a lifetime.
I think I may die from chocolate overload.
I have this thing where I buy him tons of candy every holiday so I guess he got me good this time.
I did restock his candy supply with more candy.

We went to a japanese restaurant that doesnt sell any meat, which was nice, but I usually stick to my usual food, with chewing always being an issue. I loveeee pad thai and I've noticed over the months that it takes me forever to chew through the noodles. My bf is a veryyyyy slow eater, and last time we had thai I took twice as long as him to eat. I usually finish my food before everyone, so this was new to me.

Well it was a lovely day and now I have to go read a novel for my humanities course. I'm on reading week next week!!! yayyy
I can't wait!!!! I believe that does mean I'm halfway through the term!!!
Oh so close to being done this year :D
On that note, I'll update next week after my appointment.
Sorry this was all totally unrelated to my jaws, well except for the chewing part.

Lataaaaaa!!!

New Blogger

Hey guys,

Please check out Sophie's blog if you get a chance. She in in the process of preparing for double jaw surgery and has just created a blog.
http://sophiebbraces.blogspot.com/

Thanks guys,

Terra

GOOD NEWS! Finally

So I got an earlier appointment with my surgeon. My orthodontist is awesome, well his staff as well. They talked to my surgeon and had him move my appointment to Feb 21st, thats like 8 or 9 weeks earlier!
YAY!!!!

So Feb 21st I'll be seeing my surgeon, and March 13th I'll be back to see my orthodontist.
Yay, Thanks for all the good vibes and well wishes.
Now just gotta stay positive that everything goes well at this upcoming appointment.
I'm on reading week that week too, which is awesome because I won't have to miss school.

I just thought I would share some pictures with my children.
I got some really great pictures of them on the weekend but I need to upload them off my Nikon.
My dogs are my life

Finally something to say.

Hey guys.
So I uploaded a new video on youtube yesterday and I was feeling awful.
Its been so stressful lately. And I keep getting this fear that I'm not going to get a surgery date for this May.
Anyway, I finally got around to emailing my Orthodontist. I wasn't sure if I should call them or email him directly or what to do. So I sent him an email and he actually got back to me last night.
He said he's going to try to get me bumped up on the waiting list.

I guess he funnels a lot of work to them since its a super busy office. At any given moment it seems like there are 7 other people in chairs so I guess a small portion of those people get sent to my surgeon for one thing or another.

This is the same surgeon who did my wisdom teeth and he is probably one of the best here in Toronto. His surgery results are also very ideal and he has an extremely low relapse rate. I understand that along with that its very hard to get an appointment with him, but I've been told all along that I'll have a surgery date this spring so I just want to know that I actually will.

Being a full time student there are very few times I can take the time to recover since I don't really get any time between terms or over the breaks. I pretty much always have work to do in my program.
My mom is also flying in from australia for the surgery and she needs to be able to schedule the time and book her flight so having a surgery date so close to when we are planning surgery would be a huge help.

I'll respond to all my wonderful youtube comments later on today.
I really appreciate everyones kind words so much.

This process really does give you more than you bargain for, its extremely emotional and really tests your patiences.

I started this process 10 years ago, actually 11 years ago, on and off, and deciding to have my jaw surgically corrected was a very big decision. Anyone going into this should really think about it and make sure they are ready and that they have a great support group. A two year process is a very very long time.

I honestly admire all of you who got through this, and I appreciate all the blogs and videos out there of other peoples journeys. So many of you have been so nice to me and offered so much advice and information.

If anyone from Toronto is at the beginning stage and looking for an orthodontist, send me a message. My orthodontist has been amazing, and my smile has never looked so good, even if this is pre surgery.

I'm going to try to add some more informative info to my site when I get a chance and also add some awesome links I've come across.
The blogs I have posted on the sidebar are awesome. I haven't gotten all of them up there yet, but check them out because the more info you find the more assured you will feel.

Well my lecture is starting now.

Thanks everyone for being so awesome :)

Terra

Revenue sharing and helping animals, and a big THANK YOU

Hey readers!!

So not many people know this, but I have youtube partnership as well as adsense incorporated into my blog. This means that when people watch my videos and view my blog I earn a portion of the revenue from the ads. Not sure exactly how it works but people who have found the ads useful have helped.
I got my first cheque from google for just over $100.
I've decided that since I purely do this blogging because I love it, and I find it so helpful in so many ways, that I will donate any revenue earned to an animal charity. Not sure which charity yet, but I will let you guys know when I figure that out. Since I am Canadian I'm thinking Canadian or US.
I already donate monthly to Greenpeace, so I'm looking for something that focuses on cats and dogs and other household pets that are in need.
Let me know if you have any suggestions.
And thanks to everyone who reads my blog and watches my videos, Its really because of my amazing readers and viewers that I'm even making this post, so thank you for helping me help animals in need :)
Much love,
Terra

My surgeon called today and they moved my appointment up two days. UGh
They try to sound like they're doing me a favour but its only because my surgeon isnt in the day I was booked to see him in april.
Still hoping I get a call soon with an earlier appointment. I'm pretty much willing to go at any time at this point since I really want to have a surgery date set.
My family has been sort of passive about my upcoming surgery, but now that its getting closer and I actually have the okay for surgery they seem more concerned about me getting a surgery date as scheduled.

My mom will be flying in from Australia for a few weeks and I would also like to give her the heads up so she can book a flight and schedule work around my surgery.

I will be sure to update the moment I find out more.

Thanks so much for the comments guys. I'm going to call my orthodontist tomorrow and try to get them to pull some strings, they seem to have more power than me. The coordinator over there got me an appointment within a couple weeks last year when I went for my first consultation.

I also have an exchange interview on friday, but at this point I'm not really concerned with exchange. My number one priority is to get my jaw fixed and get it done right, so I don't want to rush out of braces so that I can go overseas.

Well I start midterms in a couple days so that should occupy me and keep me from thinking about whats going on with this surgery.


On a good note, I feel a ton of pressure in my lower teeth where those couple gaps are, so hoping those gaps close up, they're really the only thing we're waiting on right now so thats good news.

Thanks so much for all the support :

)

Good news/ Bad news, how about neutral news?

So I finally got through to my surgeons office this morning.
They booked me a pre surgery consultation for APRIL!!!
WTF

Okay so the plan was to have surgery in april, but now we are saying May which is fine.
But if I can't book a date until my appointment in April, then I'm not getting a surgery date this May, maybe not even this year. And someone is going to be hearing it from me, thats for sure.

I just feel really pissed because I've been waiting a year to book this surgery and my orthodontist kept reassuring me I'd get a date for April when we originally planned on the surgery.
UGH

Well I'm also on a waiting list for any appointments that open up so all I can ask is that everyone just hope that I get a call soon.
I just really don't want to have to take time off school for surgery, and that might be the case at this point.

This is just so frustrating.