On Wednesday I went to Dr. F and was done expanding! He put something in the expander so it wouldn't move anymore, took some pictures and an x-ray. He told me I come back in 4 weeks and he'll make me a fake tooth for the gap.
Here's where things kinda went sour and the reason I didn't post this for so long. I asked Dr. F what we were going to do about my not being able to talk. Well, he said I was talking fine and left it at that. I'm not sure if he can do anything, maybe Dr. S made up the thing about the retainer type of thing. But I felt like I was blown off. My speech is fine if you're a 10 year old. But I'm 33 years old and speak to government officials at work. I'm in a position at work where I can't afford misunderstandings. In most cases I can be understood, but it's not uncommon that I have to repeat myself or rephrase things so that people can understand me. I'm quite frustrated with this and am not sure how I'll deal with it for another 3 to 5 months. On top of having issues at work, it doesn't make me want to go out and meet people or go to social events. It's one thing to have speech problems with friends and family, it's another thing when you're with people you don't know. It makes a new social setting even more stressful. I start work again tomorrow, it should be interesting...
If I had known about this I don't know if I would have chosen this route. It's not just about my problems with speech, and at the end I'll probably be happy with everything and all this discomfort and frustration will be forgotten. But the palate expander is quite inconvenient, I have trouble swallowing, eating, taking medication, brushing my teeth. If I knew then what I know now I would have asked a lot more questions and maybe made a different decision. There's a lot of things that weren't in the brochure I got.
Also, I was supposed to get my dental cleaning this coming week, that will have to be put off for 6-8 weeks to avoid getting an infection in my cleft.
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