This will blow your mind!

WOW, the first thing I have to say is Thank-You to everyone for your kind words and support this year! It is amazing how even a complete strangers comment can chear a person up. So thanks thank thanks! Now lets get to the good stuff.

It is unbelievable that I haven't posted in 4 months and that time seemed to have flown by. The progress that my teeth have made is amazing and you will be able to see in the pictures below how much they have actually moved. I finally got my expander out on July 9th and I couldn't be happier. I have to say though that I thought it would have been a fairly quick and easy process to get that thing out but I was in the or-tho chair for a little over an hour. The assistant tried to pry it off and it was hurting so bad so eventually she called my orthodontist over and he had to cut the bands off my molars. I guess from all the pressure and expansion the wires did not want to come out. After it came out it was like that bright light "Ahhhhhhhhhh" singing kind of moment. I was instantly free and couldn't have been happier until about an hour after I left and my gums above the inside of my teeth started to swell up where the wires had been basically implanted . They swelled up pretty good for about a week and then finally started to go down after that. It has been about 6 weeks since the removal and I can still sort of feel the lines from where the wires were pushing my pallet outwards but they don't hurt to touch anymore, thank goodness.

I did find out that I will most definitely have to go through with a second surgery. This one will be the lower jaw surgery to realign my bite. Right now there is no way with braces and elastics for my bottom jaw to move into the proper position. I am not sure yet when the surgery will be but I do know it will be another 3200 bucks (not covered by any insurances) and most likely at Christmas time again. I have my next appointment this coming week so I am going to try and find out when I need to go back to the surgeon to find out more details about that. I believe they need to make sure all the teeth are nice and snug back together and straight as can be. So for now, I am just going to try and enjoy the freedom of no expander and save save save for the next surgery. If anyone has a magical money tree seed, please pass one on to me!

Food has constantly been an up and down battle of what I can eat and not eat. I find that for about a week after I get the braces changed, I can only do soft foods and then after that I can up it to burgers and hotdogs which have to be ripped into little pieces because there is now way I can bite into anything (even at this point). I do really miss steak especially being summer BBQ season but what do you do? Luckily my hubby is a pro at bbqing so he can make my burgers taste like steak any day.

I still do not have much feeling in my top gums above the front 6 teeth. I can feel a tiny bit when I touch them with my tongue or push on my front teeth but it's a very strange feeling almost like they are fake if that makes any sense. I have heard from multiple people that the nerves can heal over time and it has now been just over 8 months so I've still got some healing to do yet. Overall though, now that I can see some progress, this whole process has been worth it. My jaw joints still hurt the odd time if I smile excessively (which for those who know me, this happens alot) or if I have over done it with chewing and also after all my ortho/dentist appointments from having my mouth open for a long time. I have to say the pain in my joints is no where near as frequent as before all this came about, which is great! So for now I will keep on the up and up and hopefully pretty soon I'll be able to start saving for a nice REAL vacation rather then a "vacation " of pain.

Check out these pics !!

Before Smile (Dec 2012)

Smile now (Aug 2013) HUGE difference

Day before braces went on and 32 turns (Feb 2013)

Now on July 30 2013

Aug 2013 showing how bite doesn't line up