This made my day

I was at the Clinique counter today buying foundation and the makeup lady said to me, "You have the most wonderful bone structure!"

No one has ever said that to me before...ever.

I didn't tell her about my surgery and the fact that my bone structure was manipulated into this. I just smiled and said thanks. :)

No plate removal for me

Yay!

I saw Dr. C today. I shared with him my concerns about my crooked nose and the possibility of inflammation around my plates. He poked around my face for a while and manually pushed hard on one side of my nose. It wasn't pleasant. Dr. C said sometimes during orthognathic surgery, the tube that goes in the nose sometimes slightly deviates the septum and it heals that way. But I've always had a crooked nose. I just didn't notice until now because pre-op, I rarely looked at pics of myself. I rarely even took pics of myself.

Dr. C said that certain symptoms usually go along with inflamed plates (that sounds funny, I picture dinner plates on fire, hehe), like swelling, pain, etc. I don't have any pain or numbness at all, anywhere. He said the plates felt fine, my tissue looked fine, everything was fine and normal. Then he mentioned that I have a lot of bone on my upper jaw and they didn't do any bone-shaving at all during surgery. And that I have a little more bone on my left side than my right, which is probably causing the asymmetry. He said that after my braces come off, he can shave that bone down if I want. I might consider that in a few months.

He also said that my asymmetry wouldn't really be noticable to the Average Joe, that only people who looked at me all the time could tell anything was amiss, and that most people had facial asymmetry naturally (I knew this).

So everything is A-OK. No new info, really, but I'm glad I talked to Dr. C. He didn't brush off my concerns or tell me I was being silly and I liked that. I don't see him again until I get my braces off and have my retainer.

I remember writing in this blog, many many week ago, about my crooked noseness and I wouldn't mind if it stayed that way forever because I loved my new jawline so much. I still feel that way. Even if I'm not 100% happy with every single thing about my appearance since this surgery, it was still immensely, incredibly, insanely worth it.

I can't keep a straight face.

Ha ha.

Okay, so I saw Dr. J today for an adjustment. Nothing new there. One bottom tooth refuses to move, so more pressure added there. Otherwise my bite is fine.

Anyway, Dr. J asked if I had any concerns or problems at this point in my recovery. I mentioned my crooked nose, of course. He had me stand up and looked at me straight on, and he agreed that I had some asymmetry. He said at this point (15 weeks post-op) it's probably not swelling causing this asymmetry. He also said my midline was fine (whatever that means). Then he said that I may have some inflammation around the plate on the left side of my nose. He said my tissue may be considering that plate a foreign body and reacting to it. I was told before that my tissue wouldn't reject titanium, but I digress. He started pushing on the skin around my nose and asked if it hurt, and I said no. There's no pain or noticable swelling there, so he doesn't suspect infection of any kind.

Long story short, I have to make an appointment with Dr. C. Depending on what he thinks, it's possible I may have to have this plate removed. Which, as Dr. J said, takes about 20 mins and should fix the problem. I was thinking, "Oh man, not more surgery and swelling!" But I'm assuming it's not a big deal, at least not as big a deal as my surgery. No bones are being sawed into, for instance. So if that's what I have to do, I'm fine with that.

Considering all the things I'm reading lately on the Yahoo board and blogs about the problems others are having after their surgeries, this is a pretty minor deal.

Oh and...NO MORE EVIL ELASTIC BANDS FOR ME! Woo hooooo! I can flick those suckers into the garbage. They did their job.

3 months post-op

That's the only smile pic you're getting, a far away one, because I still don't like my smile very much (though it's getting better) and because my ligatures are all stainy. Yuck.

Well. Three months post-op today. Can hardly believe it!

Not a whole lot has changed since last month. I'm getting a little feeling back in my gums. I notice it when I floss. My teeth don't feel like false teeth anymore. My top teeth are looking great. My bottom teeth, there's that one little stubborn bugger of a tooth that still won't move to where it's supposed to go. Dr. J has been trying to move it for about 6 months now. It must really like it there. My bite is awesome though! Teeth fit together really nicely.

I'm still breaking my bands left and right. I get tired of removing them and putting them back on 1000 times a day. I hope I get to be done with them this month.

I can open my mouth alllll the way and I'm still eating everything with no problems. Totally back to normal in that regard.

A couple of weeks ago I got a headache, the same kind of migrainey thing I used to get before surgery. I can no longer say I am headache-free. But the thing is, I did it to myself. I was tired and had ONE vodka cooler AND ate stuff with nitrites. Bad baaaad idea. I got a headache instantly. BUT it wasn't as bad as pre-surgery headaches. I was hoping for no more headaches at all, but I can live with fewer ones of less intensity.

As for my sinuses, they are doing great. I used to have so many problems with them. The drain much more easily now. I caught a cold last week, my first cold since the surgery, and I noticed my nose got a lot itchier and drier than it used to. It really bothered me. I was squirting saline spray in there like crazy.

I've noticed my nostrils settling down a little. My nose is a little narrower. Not as flared as it was since surgery. But still, I have a little swelling and stiffness around my nose. It's still crooked too. My smile is a tiny bit better. I still don't show enough gum (can you believe I'm saying that after 30 years of showing too much gum?). The thing is, a no-gum smile makes you look kind of OLD. I don't want to look like an old lady when I smile, thank you. I know Dr. C did not move my jaw up that much, so it has to be from swelling.

Well, that's it for this month!