Friday, March 02, 2007

The Elephant Woman

Doug made a comment the other day that I thought was.... well, from an interesting angle. He said that the way they described my condition (Class III Malocclusion, severe skeletal deformity) made it sound horrible. If you've never met the person, and only read the description, you'd almost expect to meet the Elephant Man. But, he never thought I looked "wrong". Of course, he likes the new me. :) But the point he was making was - he never disliked the old me, either.

The power of words (medical terms, in this case) and a vivid imagination. Smile.

4 comments:

Brandyleigh35 said...

Hey Kristen,
Yeah those medical terms certainly don't sound very complementary. You asked me on my blog how I heard about doctor li. Well since I'm doing all of this to get rid of my sleep apnea, I have done extensive research on it. Stanford is considered one of the best places to go if you are having this type of surgery done, and like I mentioned the other day. Dr. Li is world reknown for his work with Sleep Apnea, and the MMA treatment for it. So....many others who I talk with on another board have had surgery with him, and recommend Stanford as the gold standard regarding treatment. Shelby (she is on my blog under my sleep apnea buddies) Just had MMA a few weeks ago with Dr. Li, and another girl I chat with "Anabelle" just went in Wednesday with him for MMA. If my insurance would cover it, I would be seeing him, but they don't so I have to go to a network approved provider. I like my surgeon a lot though so it's ok, but Stanford does a ton of these surgeries a month so they are really experienced with it. I think my doctor does about 30 a year, and has been doing surgery for about 30 years,so he has a lot of experiences, but Dr. Li does like 30 a month, so that is a huge difference! Anyway....that is how I have heard of him.

Mrs. Shanton said...

Doug is a keeper. What a total sweetie! I think we don't give men enough credit for being sensible. You probably are, in addition to being a knock-out, a really great companion for him, and he loves you for that!

Melissa M. said...

i've shown a few people your before and after photos. when i showed my boyfriend your before picture, he said "okay, so what's the problem? she looks great! i would never look at her and think there was something wrong." and it made me think about how we with the "deformities" see ourselves so differently than those around us. i have a hard time seeing anything but my jaw when i look at pictures of myself!

laura said...

re "deformities", I have a Class II malocclusion ie a small (deficient!) lower jaw, and I've always hated the way it looks. I'm getting braces on next week, and will probably have surgery with Dr Li in a few months.

Anyway, the funny thing is that I think mild Class III looks kind of cool. Probably because my lower jaw bugs me so much and Class III is the opposite.

Now if I could only find a guy who thinks braces look kind of cool ...