Last ortho appt before seeing Surgeon

Monday 16th May 2016

I had two appointments today – one was in the x-ray department which I had a CT scan. I had to wait a little while and then the chap needed to go upstairs to clarify something with my orthodontist as her instructions for the scan weren’t very clear. He came back down a few mins later, and I was in and out within about 10 mins. I asked him if this scan would tell my surgeon whether my jaw is still growing or not and he just said it can tell them lots of things so to ask the question to my surgeon next month.

I then went upstairs to my orthodontic appointment. As I was early, I had a bit of a wait but when I finally got called in, I had more photos and moulds taken. These probably took the longest to do and then when she looked in my mouth she said my cleaning was very good – just one little area on the bottom that needs a bit of extra care and that she wouldn’t need to do anything with the wires today. There is a gap which she created last time, and shes happy with that gap now so left everything as it was. Im assuming those gaps will get closed just before or just after surgery…..

My orthodontist is a supervisor and a lot of the time she has to go off and see to someone mid way through my appointment but shes not usually long so I don’t mind. Whilst she was away her assistant kept telling me that im too thin and that I would need to put on another stone as ‘you lose a lot of weight’. Bearing in mind, shes not weighed me so how does she know what I weigh. She kept saying that the anaesthetist wouldn’t accept me. Panic kicked in when she said this. Not because im on the smaller side but thought, I aint going through all this to be rejected at the final hurdle!

Whilst walking back to work, several thoughts went through my head:

• I don’t  recall the ortho or surgeon mentioning my weight so far
• I was accepted when I had my wisdom teeth out (okay, I wasn’t on liquids for weeks after)
• Younger people (so possibly lighter than me) have this surgery
• I checked my BMI and it says im healthy.
• I made a post on a few Jaw Surgery pages on Facebook asking if other people experienced comments about their weight (if they were under 10st for example, and felt much more at ease knowing that most of them were accepted)

I will try and put a little bit of weight on, but I do find it hard. Im less concerned now knowing other peoples experiences. I do wonder whether the assistant was just saying it to scare me and if it was a major concern, why hasn’t anything been mentioned to me sooner. Im also going to see whether surgeon says anything to me next month, because if he doesn’t, im not worrying about it.

Before I left the orthodontist asked me again when I would like to have surgery so I said September (because this is what she mentioned to me last time, so was working on that basis) and she said ‘oooo don’t think we will be, it’ll be more like November’. GUTTED. She said she thinks my surgeons waiting list is a good few months. I am still going to mention September if they ask me again next month as I might strike lucky but on the other hand, Im wondering whether I need to start thinking im having it in 2017 then I wont be disappointed. I think because the progress has been so good, I was hoping that September would be a great time (for recovery as well! I want to eat a proper Xmas dinner!). Oh well. Im also hoping that the surgeon would have a better idea of his availability than the orthodontist. She also booked me another appointment for July so really not sure what that appointment is for when I thought I was ‘ready’.

Lastly, I met up with a fellow jaw surgery ‘sufferer’ 🙂 on 1st May. I was visiting friends that weekend and whilst I was in the city, I thought it would be perfect to see her as well. I already knew we would get on like a house on fire. We went for something to eat and time just flew by and before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye for my 3 hour journey back home. We had so much in common and I cant wait to experience my journey with her. We call each other ‘twinny’ now because our journey so far has been so similar with appointments and comments although she’ll probably have her operation before me now.  🙂 Although we’re hundreds of miles away, ill be sticking by her journey 100%. I am also going to look forward to see the transformations of us both when we are done and dusted!