Jaw Journal

surgery schedule update

May 20, 2011 /

Well, my orthodontist and surgeon met yesterday to discuss my situation. They decided that my orthodontist needs to keep working on my arch proportion, which will take 2-3 more months. They’re also concerned about my bite stability. My bite has been changing lately since I don’t have a mouthpiece to keep things in place. Apparently the surgeon thinks it’s a bad idea to operate on an unstable joint… which is why I like this guy: he’s a smart one. 🙂 So, while I agree that surgery on an unstable joint is a bad idea, I’m bummed that the stabilizing process will take an extra 2-3 months.

So basically it looks like surgery will be in another 4-6 months. Instead of a summer surgery, I’m looking at a late fall surgery.

I can’t begin to express how bummed I am about this. I was really counting on a summer surgery for several reasons:

  1. I’m ready to be out of pain. Duh.
  2. Summer is a pretty decent time to be away from work because everything moves like clockwork in the summer, but it gets a bit stickier during the school year. (And I’ve prepared everything to be out for the summer…)
  3. I’m ready to be out of pain.
  4. My FMLA will expire in January 2012…so I might lose my job during recovery if the surgery is as late as December.
  5. I’m ready to be out of pain.
  6. I have built-in caretakers during the summer: my husband and my mom have summers off. No one has a 3 month stretch of time off later in the year.
  7. I’m ready to be out of pain.
  8. And I’m ready to be out of pain.

But, I have to hold on to my hope that God does actually want me to have a better life than this, (“For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper and not to harm you.”) and I need to keep faith that this surgery will happen. It’s been such a long time…10 years, really…but healing can still come. It will.

Just not this summer.