SURGERY DATE!!!

Wow, so I'm still in shock a little. Came away from the consult with a date...!

Went in early to get some more impressions done and was ever so nervous. For those of you new to the experience it's very intimidating being in a room with at least 3 people staring intently at your face, pulling you this way and that, getting their rulers out and measuring every angle and telling you 'bite together' followed by 'broad smile'... But you just grit your teeth and get it over with...

So after a lot of fiddling with my moulds and discussion, they decided that I will need to have a full 10 mm of movement... 6 mm forward on my maxilla, 4 mm back on my mandible, and elevating my maxilla by 4 mm to prevent the gummy smile... The genioplasty wasn't mentioned again and I forgot to ask..

So then the diary comes out, and they ask when would be ideal. I tentatively said 'Well, obviously Christmas is the best.. but...' and that was ruled out straight away, as I thought it would. There are a few minor tweaks that need to be done still, and a lot of work-up and pre-assessment appointments too, and we agreed around Easter... So this is the calendar as it looks so far:

March 24th: Pre-assessment. As far as I'm aware this is the appointment where the final models and measurements are taken, so that the 'wafers' can be made and fitted. It sounds like they also make lots of measurements of my head so that my jaw can be aligned with my eyes, and ears etc.

April 3rd: They try the wafers to make sure they fit my teeth. I think this is like a splint which they use to line up my teeth during the surgery to ensure the bite is right.

April 8th: SURGERY!!

So.. it's really happening; of course, I need to run by the details with school but was great timing as I am seeing my tutor next Wednesday so I can discuss it then.

After the consult, my ortho took me to reposition 3 brackets on the teeth that need to be moved slightly and had my wires changed - has been a while since my teeth ached and they do again today! There'll be a few more appointments and I'll need some more hooks fitted apparently, but really when you think about it in terms of 6-weekly appointments it's not long at all! So even though it's not ideal, and it looks like I'll have to miss my friend's wedding, it's a huge relief to have something definite to plan around... Good luck to everyone else waiting on surgery dates!

Clinic

I am absolutely terrified about my clinic with the surgeon next week; it's all I've been thinking about. I literally have no idea what to expect the outcome to be. I know worrying will not change that, but it's been building up for so long!

It's been a while since anyone made a particularly negative reference about my face, but it came yesterday courtesy of my Consultant firm head; we were having mid-rotation interviews and he asked me that his secretary had told him I was due to have surgery? So I explained the situation and he proceeded to mutter on about how it was 'definitely the right decision' and that it'll make such a difference, as when you compare other people's normal faces... Just as well I'm no longer overly sensitive about the whole thing; to be honest he's such a brusque kind of guy and doesn't really mean it nastily, more of an observation. And he made up for the fact by making some extremely positive comments about my progress so far, completely unprompted. We're changing over so that we're more ward-based next week and I can't wait!

Let's just hope my recent run of happiness and good luck carries forwardr to Friday.. fingers crossed!