Yesterday I went to Dr. F, I had hoped to get a new tooth, but ended up with a new wire instead. Although Dr. F did pick a color for the tooth that will be made to fill in my gap, hopefully he can add that when I return in 4 weeks. I did warn him that if I didn't get the tooth my mother was going to be calling him, she is quite eager for my tooth thinking that it will improve my speech. I do not believe it will have any meaningful impact on my speech.
But he did do a couple things during this visit.
He added a rubbery chain to the tooth on my lower right that is sideways, it would seem he's finally trying to rotate that tooth.
He also added a wire to my top row of teeth, while doing that the cap on one of my teeth fell off and had to be recemented. But my teeth really hurt today, I'm taking some good drugs and they still hurt. Also, it appears this morning that the wire has already moved to the left. I'll have to try to go tomorrow to take care of that.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Another milestone
On Wednesday night when I was brushing my teeth for bed I tugged a bit on my last and final stitch that was still in my mouth and it hurt, a lot.
On Thursday in the morning it hurt so much that I had someone from work take a look at it, I was actually on the verge of tears at one point because it hurt so much.
Thursday afternoon before dinner I noticed it finally fell out!!!!! Yea! It only took 6 weeks and 2 days, but who's counting?
On Thursday in the morning it hurt so much that I had someone from work take a look at it, I was actually on the verge of tears at one point because it hurt so much.
Thursday afternoon before dinner I noticed it finally fell out!!!!! Yea! It only took 6 weeks and 2 days, but who's counting?
Monday, April 5, 2010
So what's the deal with the bone graft?
I went to Dr. S today primarily to discuss when I would have my bone graft surgery. He said that Dr. F was being very conservative and I had to wait 4 months since the date of my last surgery. February 23 + 4 months = July (I'm guessing that Dr. S is going on vacation in early July so no late June or early July). I scheduled for July 27, but nothing is that easy since that is cutting it close to some vacations I have planned. I'll get back to that in a minute...
I asked Dr. S what the recovery was like after the bone graft - he said for 2 weeks I'll be on really soft food, ugh, I'm sick of soft food already! He said he was going to take the bone from my tibia (shin just below my knee) and that I would be a little sore 7-10 days and wont be jogging for a little while. But he said that if he had to take from my hip then the recover is a lot slower, possibly a couple months to get fully back up and running. He seemed to play that down, but the fact that he mentioned it indicates that it's a possibility. I also looked online, though it's hard to tell what type of bone grafts people are reporting about. Sounds like I'll be fairly sore for at least 2 weeks and the roof of my mouth will be easily irritated and tender for 2 weeks. And I saw that there might be an issue with flying (the whole pressurized cabin thing.)
After talking to Mom, who seemed a little concerned about the time frame and confused as to why I couldn't do it earlier I decided to call Dr. S's office. He said 2-3 weeks to fly, so I'm good, but I'm on the border with that time frame and that stressed me a bit. I asked if there was any possibility of getting the surgery the week before and was told that they are waiting for more surgical space and she'll see next week if they get more room. If they do she'll call me and give me a spot the week before. I would feel much more comfortable with that. While the trip to Las Vegas with my family is pretty relaxing I feel like 3 weeks will be cutting it close, 4 weeks I feel MUCH better with.
The other thing I asked about was my front tooth that I've been having trouble with - it's been sore for a couple years now and finally had a root canal in the fall. It's very close to the cleft but Dr. S thinks there is enough bone. However, he wont know for sure until he cuts open my mouth. Ackk!
I also have a vacation that I'm planning for mid September with Contiki. I think I'm fine with mid to late July and the recovery. Unless, they take the bone from my hip, my solution is to carefully research the reasons I can cancel my tour with travel insurance companies.
I asked Dr. S what the recovery was like after the bone graft - he said for 2 weeks I'll be on really soft food, ugh, I'm sick of soft food already! He said he was going to take the bone from my tibia (shin just below my knee) and that I would be a little sore 7-10 days and wont be jogging for a little while. But he said that if he had to take from my hip then the recover is a lot slower, possibly a couple months to get fully back up and running. He seemed to play that down, but the fact that he mentioned it indicates that it's a possibility. I also looked online, though it's hard to tell what type of bone grafts people are reporting about. Sounds like I'll be fairly sore for at least 2 weeks and the roof of my mouth will be easily irritated and tender for 2 weeks. And I saw that there might be an issue with flying (the whole pressurized cabin thing.)
After talking to Mom, who seemed a little concerned about the time frame and confused as to why I couldn't do it earlier I decided to call Dr. S's office. He said 2-3 weeks to fly, so I'm good, but I'm on the border with that time frame and that stressed me a bit. I asked if there was any possibility of getting the surgery the week before and was told that they are waiting for more surgical space and she'll see next week if they get more room. If they do she'll call me and give me a spot the week before. I would feel much more comfortable with that. While the trip to Las Vegas with my family is pretty relaxing I feel like 3 weeks will be cutting it close, 4 weeks I feel MUCH better with.
The other thing I asked about was my front tooth that I've been having trouble with - it's been sore for a couple years now and finally had a root canal in the fall. It's very close to the cleft but Dr. S thinks there is enough bone. However, he wont know for sure until he cuts open my mouth. Ackk!
I also have a vacation that I'm planning for mid September with Contiki. I think I'm fine with mid to late July and the recovery. Unless, they take the bone from my hip, my solution is to carefully research the reasons I can cancel my tour with travel insurance companies.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Building confidence
Since I've been back to work I have been feeling much better about my poor speech. Maybe my speech has gotten a little better, but I doubt much. Last week was a little rough being my first days back and then taking a training class - the whole being around strangers in a large group thing. Then over the weekend I had to speak with the executive staff at work and that went well (or at least I didn't hear anything bad.) Then this week I was away for training. I went to Washington DC, and other then a down moment when I first got to DC, I did well. And my down moment was probably more related to my being in a strange place and trying to find food with little success. But the first day in class I told the class that I had had surgery and that if they couldn't understand me to just ask me to repeat myself. I was a little quieter then I might normally be (possibly a good thing), but when I only had a few problems with I did speak and everyone was very nice and respectful. I'm running out of new and intimidating situations to be stressed about.
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