Sunday 21 June 2015

Penultimate Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Monday 22nd June 2015), is the penultimate day for this whole braces, jaw surgery and implant adventure. Thank you to everyone who has read and/or commented on my blog thus far. I hope it has helped at least 1 person who may be on a journey even just partly like mine.

So, we passed the 7 yrs since the braces went on mark on 27th May.
I am now almost 10 months post BSSO.

In respect to my BSSO surgery, I can now eat an apple in 'normal' time, not like the 15 minutes it took me a few months ago. I can now eat pretty much anything, dried banana chips are probably the most difficult thing now but nuts, etc are all fine.

I will say though, I have had a LOT of jaw pain on the right hand side. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to it, there's no specific time it hurts, the pain just begins round about my tempromandibular joint and spreads upwards. It's very much the same jaw pain I had post surgery, the feeling like someone is smacking me in the side of the face. And it's been accompanied with increased tinnitus. I've pretty much had to take painkillers on a daily basis. Although I did start going to see an osteopath and I can highly recommend that if you are reading this and having similar pain, try an osteopath. Initially, I didn't really know what an osteopath did or if they would be able to do anything for my jaw pain but I knew the hospital wasn't going to do anything about it, so I went with an open mind and if it worked great, if it didn't, well at least I tried it. And I can say, that after 4 or 5 treatments, the pain and tinnitus was definitely reduced. Unfortunately, I can't see my osteopath at the moment due to having had surgery for my bone anchored hearing aid and the pain has come back but I'm hoping to go back to see my osteopath as soon as I can.

Now, back to teeth.

I was at the dentist on Thursday for the first of my fillings. The restorative dentist was going to do them, but then the date I was given clashed with the date for my bone anchored hearing aid surgery so I ended up having the fillings scheduled with my dentist.

On Thursday, I got my inlaws to take me, given my history of fainting after getting a local anaesthetic.
I also mentioned a problem I was having with my lower left premolar (was giving me pain when I bit into food). So I got a small xray which showed there was nothing wrong with the premolar (possibly still not liking feeling too mobile after the braces) but the xray revealed that I have root resorption in the first molar next to that premolar. The root is pretty much half the length it should be. Good news though is that it is not giving me any bother so we need do nothing more than keep an eye on it.

Then came the filling and then came the violent shakes. I reacted to the adrenaline in the local anaesthetic. Dear Lord! Took an hour and 15 minutes for the shaking to stop! I have the other 2 fillings to get on 6th July and the dentist has told me she will try me with a local anaesthetic without adrenaline. At least I didn't faint. I'm not sure what is better, fainting or shaking. Didn't feel too great the next day, I'm definitely not one of these people who can get a filling done and then just go back to work afterwards.

And now, today, we are just about 12 hours away from the first part of my surgery for my implant. I'm to check in at 8.45am tomorrow. No breakfast and I'm guessing I'll see a return of the jaw surgery diet for the next few days :( That, I am not looking forward to.
I am getting IV sedation and have to tell them to give me local anaesthetic minus adrenaline.

I am nervous, although not as bad as before my jaw surgery. I have blocked the rest of my diary for this week and I *WILL* take time to recover....well, for the week anyway :)

After 7 years, we're nearly at the finish line!