Weighing the Options...

Oh what to do, what to do....
So on the one hand, I really want to get this surgery done. Here are my reasons for having the surgery asap:

• My TMJ pain has gotten way worse in the past 2 months.
• My joint on one side is very swollen and sticking out, not sure what this means :S
• I really want to be out of these braces asap!
• Its gotten harder to chew my food without getting a migraine
• My mouth opens about 2/3 as much as it did pre braces, if I try to open it more I hear cracking noises
• 7 months is just too far away!!!

Ok so I guess I have to list my reasons to not push my surgery sooner and leave it for the original time I had wanted:

• I have a full year course with a huge portion of the workload due after the holidays
• I'll end up missing a lot of these lectures, although my TA said she'll work it out for me
• Its going to be winter here!! Which means very sub zero temperatures
• Technically I'm suppose to be tutoring astronomy students all year
• My mom will be flying here from Auss in the winter, lots of cancelled flights

Oh the damn obligations!!

It feels like school is my largest contributing factor! BAHH

Well my orthodontist appointment is in two weeks and thats when we will find out this actual surgery date!! 

I'll just go ask the universe to figure this one out for me because I am lost!!

In the meantime I'm going to go study and use this whole jaw thing as a good excuse to keep eating ice cream :) Whats the point in trying to look attractive when I have an underbite, braces, and will soon look like I got hit by a truck? Thats just logic to me :P

Hope everyone is doing good :)

Braces Update

Hey guys. I made a video yesterday. I also went to my orthodontist today to see what we could do about the horrible tmj pain I'm having.

Basically at this point nothing can really be moved or i'm just going to have more pain.

Originally I had planned to do the surgery in april or may, but because of the amount of pain i'm having I've decided I'm going to do the surgery at the closest available date instead. I'll somehow make it work with school because I am at a point where my headaches and tmj pain are so frequent its affecting my everyday life.

This is in no way rushing the actual process, as I was already going to be surgery ready by december, I just didn't want to do it at that time for a combination of reasons. At this point I am weighing the pros and cons and I would rather do it sooner than later, depending on when I can get a surgery date.

Hope you guys are doing well.

Thanks for all your support and comments.

Terra

TMJ pain and underbite/crossbite

Hey guys!

So my TMJ is hurting allll the time now. I sort of feel like my bottom jaw is shifted to the left and its really causing a lot of pain. The images are mirrored so the left is your left. I'm getting a lot of headaches. Chewing hurts and it also makes my jaw really tired and sore. I hear a lot of cracking in the tmj when I open my mouth. At this point the surgery is 7 months away. I know its not very far but I wish it was sooner. I really want it out of the way. My underbite is becoming more noticeable. I'll try to post some better pictures when I get a chance. Its pretty amazing how fast time goes by. I started looking into this process 7 months ago, so its been about halfway to surgery from that point. 

The time goes by really fast and one day you seem to wake up with a really horrible bite and realize that you're getting a lot closer. My open bite has closed a lot, which is a relief because it was really effecting my speech. I notice my speech improving with my bite closing which is soooooo nice. I don't feel that weird about the braces anymore since I know I'm getting closer and closer to saying goodbye to them. 

I'm going to the orthodontist on oct 17th for an adjustment, xrays and to book my surgery. I'm really excited to get new elastics because it seems that no matter what colour you get, they discolour to a degree. 

I went to the dentist a few days ago and he said I look like I've lost weight since the last visit, he said my face looks a lot thinner. I've heard this from other people too, I think its just the underbite sort of changing the shape of my face. Eating has been really hard and I try to stick to soft things or liquids. Anyway I just went for a cleaning and he was happy with the movement in my teeth, explained some stuff to me and asked me to have my surgeon send him some information. 

I'm feeling pretty exhausted with this whole pain thing. I sort of wish I could do the surgery in december, oh I wish!!!

 

Thank you and keep in touch

Just a quick little post here
I just wanted to say thank you to all the amazing people I have come across throughout this process so far, the emotional support is a lot more important than I ever thought it would be.
I just want to tell anyone out there who is feeling down about it, or is just questioning everything right now that everything will get better.
Its amazing how we can't predict what will happen in life.
There were times early in this process when I thought I had it all and everything was going for me. Then came times when everything fell apart, when I couldn't stand my family, and there were personal issues evolving and relationship issues. There were times when I realized how important some people are and how some people were never there for me in the first place.
Its an amazing journey and I still wouldn't trade it for the world.
I've become closer to people who value me and appreciate me for my good and my bad. People who accept me the way I am and don't want me to change anything about myself.

Please do this much for yourself, if someone is bringing you down through all this, don't let them in, don't let them affect the way you see yourself. This is a huge challenge, having your appearance change, and the pain involved and all the other emotions and fears. There is nothing easy about it, but we chose this for a reason, because we know we're important enough to deserve the best quality of living and we want to be the best we can be.

Be strong and when you feel down, remember the people who pick you up.

Also, I have a lot of readers who have been really awesome and if any of you want to stay in contact with me either to talk about jaw surgery or just because we've gone through similar experience and found each other supportive, I am more than happy to stay in contact via facebook or email.
My email is trossi@yorku.ca I don't check it too often, maybe once a week or more, but I should be found on facebook via this email address too.

I hope you guys are having a nice transition away from or into summer depending on where in the world you live. I value you all so much more than you'll ever know.

Terra

Underbites and blah blah blah

Hey readers. I have noticed now in pictures how noticeable my funny bite is getting. Not very fun!!
Anyway, I'm trying to look forward to having it fixed and not focusing so much on the current.
I know my other posts were all over the place, but me and my bf did actually break up about 2 weeks ago. I thought it was very supportive of him to break up with me once I decided to undertake this whole process and once I started to feel insecure about my appearance. Just thought it was nice to know he would be there.
Anyway here are some pictures of my funny bite. Enjoy, while I go enjoy feeling socially awkward and count down the days to looking normal!

Underbitessss

Someday

Hey everyone, this is a video I took on monday as an update. There seems to be a lot of progress when it 
comes to my jaws. I've just recently started getting TMJ pain again, it subsided for a while but now I feel a 
lot of tension on both sides of my jaw. I'm hoping this doesn't get any worse and that I can manage it as my surgery is still a bit away.

the braces aren't so bad anymore, I feel less like they have become a part of me and more like they are 

a transition just helping me get back to who I am.Just for those of you know don't know, my bite started to 

open a couple years ago, it stayed pretty closed,or compensated I should say, up until then. I started 

getting a lot of pain at that point and I didn't understand why it was happening. I'm looking forward to 

this process.

A big eye opener hit me today. I was responding to a youtube comment and I saw that the video 

(my open bite) which was my first jaw video was posted by me 6 months ago!! I can't believe its 

been that long since I started this process!the past 6 months have been the most challenging times for me. 

I really had to learn to deal with a lot of new things and realize that this transition is temporary.

I am very grateful for all the support I have received from my viewers and followers, and from those people 

in my life who have reassured me along the way. I had no idea how much I was taking on by undergoing 

this process. I really do wish the surgery was sooner, and although my teeth may be ready, I have to wait 

a couple more months from when I will be ready. Its not too long really.

I go back to school next week and I will be very busy with that. I have one final left from my summer 
courses that i had to defer, so that will be around the end of september. The thing I like about school 
starting up again is that it keeps me so busy that the year will go by so fast and before I know it I will 
be updating about my recovery.I don't fear the risks or complications anymore, I'm not worried about 
the possibilities, just ready for it to be done.

Life is really teaching me to have patience right now and I've recently learned so much about myself 

and the type of person I am. I have to admit, I am so proud of myself for being everything I am and 

for never letting myself down or trying to be someone I'm not. Someday I know my big heart and my 

compassion and devotion will do me good. Right now it feels like its only brought me more pain, but I 

really believe that someday I will be appreciated by someone. Maybe 2012 will be my year, maybe 

turning 25 will be my change.

Someday everything will be better

Braces Adjustment Update (August 2011)

Hello Hello!

Me and my nephew Miko 

I am sitting here with a jar full of M&Ms. My favourite chocolate.
I just got back for the orthodontist not too long ago. I do have some news, not a lot of news, but still news.

First off, I found out that my bite is coming together very well and I will be surgery ready sooner than expected. This time a new orthodontist was there, along with Dr G(my awesome orthodontist). Anyway the assistant changed all my elastics and I have 4 teeth that are wired around the bracket to help move them faster. The assistant was one I haven't had before and she was so nice, I really hope I get her again.

I talked to the new orthodontist who was very relieved to see that I am having jaw surgery, he initially got scared when he saw my bite. He said it looks like its coming along well. Then Dr G wanted to see me and how my progress has been. He said that my bite looks better than expected and that next time I go in we will do some type of special appointment where I will have more x-rays taken and they will check to see if any f the brackets need to be adjusted. At this time I can BOOK MY JAW SURGERY!!!

I'm really excited about this, as you can tell. My bite looks so different now too. Its totally different from the past few months and from what it was before I had the braces. I'm really excited to see how it changed come my next appointment. At this point, my next appointment is on October 17th, I might have to change it depending on school since I'm still picking up courses. Anyway thats in 9 weeks.

Other Stuff

So I start classes again in a couple weeks and I have an exam left from the summer that I had to defer. I don't know when this exam is going to be, so that sucks. Other than that things have been good. I stayed downtown with the boyfriend for our two year anniversary. Tonight we're going to have a BBQ and I'm hoping I can at least chew a little bit after this adjustment. My little pookie bear might have a bath tonight since he is a smelly little guy. 


I'm going to make a video showing my bite one of these days so everyone can see how much it changed.  Maybe I'll put a clip from my old videos in it as a comparison. Oh and I want to show the massage techniques that I learned. Its very cool, I had no idea that a RMT could work on the jaw! I'll be going back to her pre and post op to help my muscles go back to normal and hopefully help gain mobility faster. 


I have had a lot of people ask in my videos about speech therapy, but I haven't started that yet. I'm going to wait until I have the surgery so that I can actually put my tongue where its suppose to go. My thrusting has improved though, and I really suggest that anyone in this early process try to correct that on their own as early as possible. Its a pain at first but its gotten a lot easier. 

Massage therapy and my jawssss

Hey Everyone!!

I just wanted to make an update regarding something pretty cool. I went to get a massage today, and to my surprise, there are massages for the jaw and mouth area. She taught me how to massage the muscles around the TMJ and other areas of the mouth since I've had a lot of tension in there areas which has been causing really bad headaches and pain. I'll explain the exercises in a video when I have time. 

I'm going for an adjustment on wednesday. I'm pretty excited about that! Hoping I can book my surgery!!

Some quick updates since my last video. Me and the bf are good. According to him we never broke up. Anyway we worked out our issues and things have been really good. Tomorrow is our two year anniversary. Hoping for a nice and relaxing day! 

I'll update on thursday once I know whats happening with my braces, and jaws and all that jazz. 

Braces and Jaw Surgery and my life