Jaw Jigsaw

Well HEY! Nothing much has been happening with my mouth lately (WHICH IS GREAT!) so that's why I haven't updated or anything. But TODAY marks ONE YEAR since my jaw was broken in two places! Can't believe that I went though with it. It was honestly the best medical decision of my life (except for maybe my epidural HAHA). I wear my retainers in the evenings and all night. I see my orthodontist and my surgeon in April. I'm hoping I get the go ahead from my ortho to only wear to bed, but we'll see. I'm still extremely happy with my smile. There are tiny gaps in little places occurring but there's nothing I can do about those- says my ortho. Just normal movement. They don't bother me either. I still can't really feel my upper gums, but it doesn't bother me at all anymore. It's just weird sometimes. I love my smile! I wish I had more to say, but here's some photo spam instead. :P Me, TODAY. Loving life and my new smile!  Me...

Well it's been about 9 months since jaw surgery! I can't believe it. This year has been such a whirlwind. I would not have changed anything. Here's a few pics to see what my face/life has been through.... January 2014 February 2014 Day 2 after surgery- March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 November 2014 November 2014 December 2014 Today, December 23, 2014 Profile comparison. CRAZY! (Excuse my un-made-up face in the 2nd one. It was after working out!) Oh what a difference a year makes! Check out that sexy smile/jaw! ;) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! :) Can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for me!

As of Tuesday- my braces are officially off! :) And let me tell you... I can't stop taking selfies!!! Just minutes after getting out of the orthodontist's office.  Everyone was so excited for me! It took approximately one minute to get them off. That's so crazy! Hurt a little bit, but not much and was sooo quick. Bye bye braces AND arch wire! YUP. You read that right! I don't need an arch wire on the roof of my mouth anymore! He said I should be fine without it!!! So right now I have NO metal in my mouth! *hallelujiah* I have my upper (plastic) retainer. It's amazing and beautiful. Can hardly tell I'm wearing it! I will have to wear both my retainers 24/7 (except for eating and brushing) for 4 months. That's like nothing, haha. I don't have my bottom retainer yet. He asked me if I'm okay with a regular (metal) one for the bottom. I don't even care, haha. So I will be getting that one next week. They said it might be hard to talk wit...

In approximately a month I will be getting my braces off!! Woohoo!! So much excitement. Ortho scheduled me for one more adjustment on the 14th and then let me schedule my de-bracing/retainer-fitting for October 28th ! Exactly 2 years and 1 week from when I got them on! Can you even believe it?! I can't! Here's a comparison photo. I can't believe how much the swelling has gone down!!! The doc said 6 months until the majority of the swelling is gone. And he was right... funny how doctors sometimes are... lol. It probably helps that I've lost like 25 lbs though... hahaha. The tip of my nose still seems a little big bigger than I'd like, but I think that's more from them expanding that part of my face, not really from swelling. Even though it's bigger... I think it fits my face better. Everything looks a little more balanced because of it. First one was the week I got braces on and the 2nd one is this week! SO AMAZING. I love that teeth ...

Just had a post-op appt with Dr. Ochs. It was one of those quick 5 minute appointments. He said everything looked great (he's very impressed with his work, haha) and sent me off to take some x-rays! He also said that I may still get feeling back in my upper gums so try not to worry about it too much, haha. I said considering everything that's the least of my concerns. He said it won't be long now for the braces to come off, haha. Everyone's constantly saying that! C'mon people! I have an otho appt on Tuesday so I'm PRAYING he'll say the next appt it's braces off time, but I'm not getting my hopes up..... Also the next time I see Dr. Ochs is after I get my braces off! So crazy! I just wanted to put this on the record. Having jaw surgery was like one of the best decisions I've ever made I feel like. And it's only been 6 months! haha. It's changed my life for the better. Here's an update before/after. My face is visually thinner be...

April 24. One month after jaw surgery! I can't believe it's been a whole month. My baby girl just turned 9 months old. And I had my jaw broken one month ago! It's been a ride. I'm still the kind of tired that sleep can't fix, haha. Perpetually tired. Swelling : It comes and goes. Always worse on my left side. Still look like a chipmunk. Makes me very sad. I just need to remind myself that it won't be there forever. And I had major surgery a month ago. I can't expect things to go back to normal so quickly. I think I just had expectations that after 3 weeks most of the swelling would be gone from looking at others' blogs. I guess everyone is different. Whatever. I'm trying to get over it. I just make people take pictures of me from my right side. It's a little less swollen, haha. Numbness : Been getting a lot of upper lip and below the nose tingles! Little tingles on my cheeks, too! That's a good sign! In the past few days a lot of feeling ...

My appointment this morning wasn't too exciting. It was mainly to take out the sutures on my face & neck. My surgeon said everything was looking good. He asked me what I thought and then agreed with me that it's too hard to tell with the puffiness. Apparently I'm still 70% swollen. Not cool, man. Not cool. This swelling needs to get the f out of here. I got the stitches out, which didn't hurt despite having feeling there. Then I got some x-rays. I'm not able to put my teeth completely together because of the splint. It's in the way. The surgeon wasn't worried though so I'm not either. He also cleaned the back of my splint!! Food gets stuck in it like no joke. :( The splint has an arch in the back that supports the roof of my mouth that grabs everything. He said that sometimes they cut that part out after a week, but not for me unfortunately. :( He said I was doing an okay at cleaning though other than back part. I've not been trying very h...