16 weeks

Today is 17 weeks since my surgery! Monday will be exactly 4 months!

I know this is ridiculously long, but I like details, and think this is important. Besides, it's been a few weeks. So you should read it all! :)

Last Monday I had an appointment with the oral surgeon, so he could make sure I had been doing my exercises. I passed! haha I had really been slacking, but I tried so hard to keep up with them. It would take exactly 50 minutes out of my day to do 10 sets of 10 reps, 3 times a day (Yes, I calculated). I don't have nearly an hour every day to devote to that! But I spend half my life driving, so I tried to do it then. Driving a stick shift, managing ATL traffic/bad drivers, doing jaw exercises and of course texting/updating facebook is hard to manage! Just kidding, I don't really do that. (Cause my mom is reading this (: ).
But he said I can open 36mm. He said he's sure I can very easily stretch it to 40 with my fingers, so he is pleased. I think I'm going to continue doing them though because 40mm is the minimum.
He said everything is wonderful/excellent/great and that I am a good healer. I think he's just an awesome surgeon! ...I was looking all over the inside of my mouth after brushing my teeth the other day, and I seriously have practically no scar tissue at all and you can't even tell where incisions were in there!
He asked about my numbness and said not to worry about it, because I am not even 4 months yet and nerve regeneration will take 6-9 months. Yesss! There's still hope! He also said that big nerve that runs basically ear to ear through the chin, wasn't severed during my surgery. He said he only stretched it out a lot. (I can't even imagine how that works/looks. Stretched? wtf?) So he has no doubt the feeling will come back. I don't knooooow.
But I guess my numbness that went away quite quickly wasn't related to that big "main" nerve. I don't know, I'm not a neurologist. But it's really interesting and cool. I still feel electric shocks and pinching all the time still, so it's trying to work!

So, that was my last visit to the surgeon, and I don't even have to go back until after I get my braces off! That is sooo crazy! How have I gotten this far already?? It doesn't even feel right because since December I have gone in there at a minimum of every few weeks. It's like a part of my life now haha. A year or so ago when this process really started moving along, there were several days where I got in my car from OS and OD appointments and just sat there and cried for 20 minutes because of the pain, confusion about what I should do, fear, etc. And now when I leave either office, I feel so happy about the direction I'm headed, and so thrilled with going through with this! Amazing.


Then last Friday I went to the orthodontist and he said over and over again how great everything looks! That makes me feel great because he is a total perfectionist and would not say that if he wasn't beyond pleased. He asked me to bite down on paper that made little black dots on my teeth so he could see my "wear patterns" he said a few dots weren't supposed to be there and said if he polished my back teeth just a little bit, my teeth would fit together even better. So he pulled out basically a sander haha and polished down a teeny bit of each molar. Then when I bit down again, my bite felt even better! Amazing what they can do! After that, he started putting something on two of my upper teeth and I heard him tell the assistant "Now, I may have made this an extreme step, so if it gives you a lot of resistance when you engage it, let me know!" When I heard that I thought "Shit...this is going to hurt really bad." Sure enough, it did. The assistant had her pliers or whatever haha and was bearing down like all her weight to get this thing to engage. The resistance alone was hurting and when it engaged...OWWWW! Then she did the other side and it was the same way. Apparently these two teeth were sitting at a little too much to one side or something so that will fix it. I hadn't had any extreme ortho stuff since like November so I guess I got spoiled with only little stuff that didn't hurt much. Other than that, he changed my rubber band configuration, which made my teeth look even more perfect like 2 days later! So crazy how quickly that works! My next appointment will be May 16th.

Life is so normal now. There are days I don't even think about jaw surgery! I eat whatever, do whatever, it's nothing. I'm so busy with school, work, and an honor society I'm participating in. Plus I've been going through a process since January to be accepted into a program that offers a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I was accepted! Only about 10 or 12 undergrads were chosen, so I'm really proud of myself. So I get to visit New York in the fall! :) I also started an internship with a cool company in the area yesterday, so I am really excited to gain some experience. Everything just seems to be falling into place. Like my jaw :). Okay, lame.

This is from last night:

 

I thought this would be a good comparison that shows the little changes: