It's been a long while since I last posted, so I will give y'all a nice big fat update. And I DO mean big and fat =) So I have now officially returned to normal, post SARPE/Wisdom teeth removal. I do still have a tiny gap between my two front teeth, but it has become much much smaller. During this process, my palate was expanded about 12 millimeters. At a post-op appointment in Dec. '08, my fantastic maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Poor told me it was time to schedule part two...jaw lengthening. At this point we scheduled a date for the surgery...Jun 5th 2009.
I continued to go about my senior year. It was the busiest year of my high school career. It was also the most emotional. There's uncontrollable excitement, uncertainty, and I will admit, I did get a HUGE case of senioritis. I went through so many changes this year. I turned 18 in January, and after years of begging, pierced both my nose and bellybutton. It did take a while for me to get used to my gap tooth. At the beginning it was so big that you could nearly put a pencil through it! And I admit, I did smile less, and was more weary of having my picture taken, but as the gap shrank, so did my self consciousness. So I settled into my normal, school life routine.
In late March I was snapped back into reality. I was informed that it was time for braces. I had known they were coming, as they will be used to wire my jaw together post surgery for stabilization, but I had already endured 2 years of the dreaded metal, and had just had my expansion device removed and was just getting the hang of a semi-permanent retainer. This seems like a small change but for me it was huge. It meant that something huge was drawing near. Not only was my mouth and face about to change, but so was my life. I was about to finish high school, which was a huge step. May was going to be a packed month, and April was already days away.
Braces suck...period. Not only are they ugly and dorky but its a bitch trying to floss with them...in fact nearly impossible. But I didn't have much time to fret over them. I was busy rehearsing for my high school's production of Bye Bye Birdie in which I was playing Harvey Johnson. It was an interesting production, as I attend an all girls school, but we pulled it off..despite my hat falling off on opening night. I had to crouch behind a box during "The Telephone Hour" and when I popped up, off went my hat! Kinda gave away the fact that I am, in fact female....if my chest hadn't already, lol.
So April came and went and the May craziness began. May was all about graduation and finals. First there was grad night (which deserves its own seperate blog post!) where our senior class went to Newport and invaded DisneyLand from 11:30 at night until 5:30 the next morning. Then, on May 28th, graduation finally arrived. I don't think it has quite sunk in yet. First of all, its still summer, so I am expecting to be on a break, but my mind hasn't processed the fact I will not be at HNHS in the fall. Another factor is that I am planning on taking a gap year and not heading straight into college. Honestly, I feel slightly non-chalant about graduating, but by the time the fall comes, I am sure I will get emotional.
So now it is June. My surgery is tomorrow. I was originally told that only my lower jaw would need to be lengthened, but today my surgeon and orthodontist called me and said that they had decided to do my upper jaw as well. This means I will have to spend the night in the hospital. My only grievance with staying overnight is that you are constantly woken up to have your vitals taken. I am excited for the results of this surgery. I will sleep better, my singing will improve and i the words of my surgeon, my face will be more "asthetically pleasing" whatever that means. However, I am not looking forward to having my braces wired together for 10 days even though I will lose ten pounds. So off I go to prepare for the next long days ahead...I will try to post an update asap, but it may be a few days.
Take care guys! Hope you guys are enjoying summer!
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