A week post op. Doug took this photo tonight with my BlackBerry Pearl while we were in the living room downstairs (yep we have our matching Pearls, haha). I'd decided to get out of the bathrobe and dress somewhat normally. I'm sick of being a patient! Two nights ago I woke up crying at 3 am. It also happened to be time to take the pain killers again - so there I was, tears streaming down my face, with a giant syringe in hand, squeezing the medication into the back of my mouth. Pretty pathetic.... felt like a big baby. Poor Doug. He had no idea how to console me. The crying wasn't from the pain, really. I think I was really emotionally exhausted, and had to just let it out. It's not cancer, of course, and I'm very grateful for that. But it's been just emotionally and physically draining. The bright side is - it's getting better everyday, slowly, but surely.
Spent some time tonight looking over the profile photos and paperwork my ortho gave me right when the braces started. That's when I realized that the braces went on
exactly one year ago, on February 7, 2006. In fact, I got the upper half done on the 7th and had to go back for the lower half on the 14th, Valentine's Day, because I was late for my first appointment and they ran out of time. So, newly crowned Miss Metal Mouth, on the night of Valentine's Day 2006, I went out for drinks with two girlfriends to commemorate the event (see the photo to the right). Gosh I was so bummed out thinking the braces would effectively end my dating life - and that couldn't be good for any single woman, let alone a single woman of age 29 (I'm 30 now, and heck, 30 feels great!). But, as it turned out, that wasn't the case. ;)
A week post op. Doug took this photo tonight with my BlackBerry Pearl while we were in the living room downstairs (yep we have our matching Pearls, haha). I'd decided to get out of the bathrobe and dress somewhat normally. I'm sick of being a patient! Two nights ago I woke up crying at 3 am. It also happened to be time to take the pain killers again - so there I was, tears streaming down my face, with a giant syringe in hand, squeezing the medication into the back of my mouth. Pretty pathetic.... felt like a big baby. Poor Doug. He had no idea how to console me. The crying wasn't from the pain, really. I think I was really emotionally exhausted, and had to just let it out. It's not cancer, of course, and I'm very grateful for that. But it's been just emotionally and physically draining. The bright side is - it's getting better everyday, slowly, but surely.
2 comments:
hi, there. i've been reading your blog and i think it's great (and helpful) that you've posted your progress. you look great!
Hey Kristen. Thanks for introducing me to your blog! I have to admit that it's making me a bit nervous as I get closer to my surgery, but you're doing (and looking) so well! The thing that scares me the most is not being able to breathe and your experiences were scary. I will be having my surgery at Stanford too. I hope I don't have patronizing nurses!
You are so lucky to have the surgery part over. I'm jealous. ;) I was supposed to have my surgery around the year anniversary of getting my braces, but it didn't happen. Now it's been a year and a half and I still don't have a surgery date, and it wasn't until recently that it started looking like it would be happening anytime soon. I was surprised to read that you got a surgery date (well, approximation) so many months in advance. It makes me wonder how long I'll have to wait once my surgeon gives the thumbs up. I also have to go through the pre-authorization through my insurance company again (Cigna) because the first approval expired. They rejected it at first (ha ha, "cosmetic" my ass!) but then quickly approved it. I am not too worried about getting it approved again. My surgeon's in my network too (I'm in a PPO) so I don't know how much I'll have to pay out-of-pocket but that's OK. I put all of this on hold originally just to make sure I'd have the funds to cover it just in case.
Also, I totally know what you mean when you have to explain to people that what you did was for medical purposes and not cosmetic! I am looking forward to the cosmetic benefit, sure, but that is not why I'm doing it! It's so hard to explain that to people because I think most people just don't notice teeth like we do. We're enlightened and can probably spot out the most minor things! I got tired of explaining to people why I had to have surgery and I got tired of people trying to tell me that they were just trying to get money out of me. I know the truth. You know how it goes. ;)
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