good news!

It looks like I'm getting my braces off on APRIL 28TH! I have my next appt. on April 14th, and if it looks good they'll cut my wires and I'll come back on April 28th. If everything is still looking good, I get my braces off and then come back in the afternoon for my retainer.

My bite looks amazing. I'm still in rubberbands, but they're relaxed. My teeth look amazing. AMAZING!!

I asked about retaining my BITE after surgery (I'm not worried about the teeth, as I'll be good about wearing my retainers). Apparently I'll be getting a splint to wear after braces, as well, to help retain my bite.

sinus infection

Another sinus infection going on over here. Called the jaw surgeon, will be prescribed anti-biotics. Hopefully in the next 6 months the sinus problems will die down - when the upper jaw is raised/impacted it gets moved into your sinus cavity - and apparently my sinus cavity is pissed off that a foreign object is invading it!

Silly sinus cavity - the jaw bone is your FRIEND! Play nice, please.

getting nervous

It's been about 7 months since my surgery now. Around the 3 month mark when I went back to school I had a lot of anxiety about my appearance and the new jaw/face/hair. But over the last 4 months, it's really subsided because everyone I know that lives around me has seen me in person.

But this next weekend, I go to my annual state music educators conference. I'm going to see dozens and dozens of people that knew me really well before the surgery but haven't seen me at all (or have just seen pictures) of me since then. It's pretty stupid, but I've pretty nervous about going - it's so awkward to see people I knew really well that just don't recognize me and then I have to talk about the surgery and re-introduce myself and they feel all embarrassed and weird and I feel embarrassed and weird...

Now, it's not like I look like a different person to me. But for some reason, about a quarter of people I know will just walk by me the first time they see me, smile like I look familiar, and keep walking. Or I'll talk to them "Hey, Chris! How's it going!" and I get that look like "I know you from somewhere... oh God! Stephanie!"

It's just weird. Weird, weird weird.