Officially 5 months today...And back on a soft food diet.

So Saturday evening I noticed my jaw felt really funny on the right side every time I chewed. It was like constantly popping and cracking and making these awful sounds and feelings. I just figured it was a side effect of my rubber bands. (I wear them religiously, and one day about a month ago, I woke up and my bite was all kinds of screwed up. So of course I panicked and called the orthodontist. They just said that means I obviously wear them a lot and need to take them out for a couple of hours because they were kind of "over correcting.") So I thought it was kinda something like that, and didn't worry. Then Sunday, every time I would chew, it would hurt and pop and crack like crazyy. That continued and I just tried to do my best to eat. As time went on, it got to where when I would just look down, I could feel the disc in my jaw slide forward and pop. I knew Tuesday I had a regular braces adjustment at the orthodontist, so I just thought I'd wait until then.
Well, I don't know if he had a bad day or what, but he was not very pleased with anything haha. The short version of the story is this: I told him all my symptoms, he said "that's not an orthodontic problem, you need to talk to your OS," then he had me bite on that paper I mentioned 2 posts back, and polished my molars down a little to make my bite absolutely perfect, then got all bent out of shape because I couldn't slide my lower jaw left and right. He kept saying "you're 5 months post op, you should have full range of motion, did he not give you any exercises to do? You should be doing this and this, blah blah blah" I didn't even bother explaining everything again because we were both pretty frustrated and I knew what I was capable of doing when my jaw wasn't acing up. Plus I planned on calling my OS right away when I left. So after all that crap, nothing was even done to adjust my braces. But he did go on and on about how awesome and perfect my bite is, so that's good news. He basically said I'm ready to get out of braces, but he said he won't take them off until he knows I have full range of motion. Then told me to make an appointment for 8 weeks from now? Cool.
So I went out to my car and called and made an appointment to see my OS today and then called him on his cell phone. He told me he can't really say much without seeing me and sounded a little perplexed when I told him what went on at the ortho appointment.
SO....I went to his office today, and at first he really got on my nerves too because we were both having trouble communicating what was going on. He obviously knows a hell of a lot more about this than I do, and all I know is what I feel. So after a while, he paused and then said "...you look annoyed..." Ummm..YES I AM. (I don't hide emotion well haha) I felt like I wasn't getting any answer from anyone and hated what I was feeling. So we started over and he got me calmed down and explained in a different way. Basically, my jaw disc is acting up because it has been overexerted. He said I seem really stressed (duh) and that will cause it, plus fatigue, overstretching, trying to eat too many hard and crunchy foods too often too early, strain, etc. All of the above applies in my case, so he said for two weeks I need to "rest my jaw." This means back to the "things you can cut with the side of a fork" diet, prescription ibuprofen every 8 hours, and warm moist heat. He also said to not wear my rubberbands at all for this time. Oh and he made me feel so much better about the ortho visit. He said "you're hurting, your disc is acting up, it's fine" because he knows what I'm capable of doing and he wasn't happy I was so upset.

If you're wondering, (most ortho blogging people already know this) young women in their 20's are much more likely to have issues like this over any other group of people. Including people that have not had jaw surgery. He said it can happen to anyone. He also said that probably 5 out of 10 non surgery people can't even move their lower jaw from side to side anyway and it doesn't matter.

Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but I seriously feel like my jaw already feels a little better. I really pushed it the past couple of days when it was hurting with a big meal on Sunday, hibachi and sushi Monday, and really crispy Italian pizza Tuesday. This afternoon I just ate some beans and rice since it's soft, and I haven't had rubberbands in for 24 hours and it seems to be helping! I'm not too discouraged about a soft diet either. I know some yummy foods I can eat and it's just 2 weeks. Also, I'm challenging myself to not eat any fast food for almost three weeks. I eat way too much junk and I've never felt so uncomfortable in a bathing suit, so I'm trying to take care of that since we are going to the beach soon! So a soft food diet only makes that easier for me haha. I want my jaw to be happy and ready to chow down on some fresh seafood and eat more than a killer whale does when I'm on vacation.
Another thing that makes today not so bad? I won tickets to the sold out Kenny Chesney show today when I was on my way to work! That's the second year in a row I've done that for his shows haha That's gotta be pretty rare!

I'm taking a Maymester class right now and it just might kill me, so I won't be on here much but I will update when I go to the OS in 2 weeks.

Sunday was my birthday, so I'll post a few random pictures from it on here!

Some of my girls and I at the Braves game:

Aid and I being silly...but I thought I'd post it because it's a good profile shot!

And I'm just adding this one because it cracks me up every time I look at it hahah

My boyfriend and I: