Lately, things have been crazy. Life has been ruled pretty much by work, Cameron's wedding stuff and preparation for a future surgery.
As far as work goes, I've been considering creating an anonymous blog to scream to the world at large about my frustrations. I'm currently working at two very different facilities, so as you can imagine my soap boxes have been piling up. After working for a few wonderful institutions where patient care came first no matter what, it's frustrating (to put it lightly) to be back in the 'real world' of health care where things are largely budget driven. Sadly, the projections of change due to the health care legislation have contributed to the bleak outlook of things in hospital land.
Cameron's wedding. *sigh* If I wasn't sold on the idea of flying off to get married at some remote location before, I'm definitely there now! ;) It's no surprise that the thing is going to be huge. Our family is huge, so a big wedding is pretty much a given for anyone who goes the traditional route in that crowd. She's super excited and so am I, but there is sooooooo much to do! I keep creating projects and adding things to my to-do list, but I'm excited about all of them so it keeps me positive, even when things get down to a wire on deadlines!
Surgery. Some people know what's going on, some don't - I'm going to be having surgery some time between November and January. The story of how it came about is long and convoluted, so I'll just tell you what's wrong and what they're going to do to fix it!
Things wrong with Stacie's face:
1) The septum in my nose is deviated and has a bone spur, which prevents me from breathing normally (or much at all) through my nasal passages.
2) My TMJ joints show signs of arthritis and wearing down of the condyle. The left joint is partially displaced while the right is completely displaced, has a bone spur and fluid buildup.
3) My upper and lower jaws are too far back into my head, and the lower jaw is short and at a sharp angle. This restricts my air flow to 1-1.5 mm where a normal person has around 11mm. THIS is why I sleep with my mouth wide open and never on my back....cause otherwise I'd suffocate. It's also why I click in my sleep. My lower jaw keeps my tongue so far to the back of my throat that it actually obstructs my airway. Crazy, huh?
How they want to fix it:
1) Surgically straighten the septum of my nose.
2) He doesn't want to do anything about this. I was told that jaw surgery can only improve upon 2 things; range of motion and level of pain. I have a full range of motion, and while my jaw does pop I don't have any pain at all...so he recommends leaving it alone. Because it's probably arthritis related, (helloooooo ankylosing spondylitis!) it may come back at some point in time. There's no way of knowing if/when, and I may very well live the rest of my life and never have any problems. That's just fine with me, because my health insurance doesn't cover TMJ issues anyway.
3) This is the fun part. So, remember when I had braces for those FIVE LONG YEARS of my life? Better yet - remember when I had to wear HEAD GEAR to sleep in? Yeah....we're basically going to have to surgically UN-DO that little mistake. I guess having a short jaw isn't that uncommon, but mine is significantly more severe than most. When I had braces they tried to remedy the problem by pulling my top jaw back into my head, supposedly to make the short jaw less noticeable. (thus the head gear) Now they want to surgically cut my upper jaw into pieces to move it forward and reattach it, then lengthen and change the angle of my lower jaw.
So the good news is that they can fix #1 while they've got me under and my jaws off my face for #3. The bad news gets its own paragraph.
I have to wear braces again. For 18 months. Frown-y faces. They have to move the roots of my teeth around so that things don't get jacked up when they saw my face into pieces...plus after they move things around my teeth will need to be repositioned. Today I went and got spacers. Braces go on in T - 7 days. Un. Pleasant. I'll whine about it for a while, but I'll get over it.
My surgeon is pretty amazing, his name is Dr. James Bates. I'll be having the surgery in Dallas some time between November and January. It should last around 6 hours, I'll be in the hospital for 1-2 nights if all goes well. Recovery is pretty intense. Afterward I'll look like I was in a head on collision and then somebody drug me out of the car and beat me in the face with a baseball bat. I wish I were exaggerating. Think nose job meets wisdom teeth meets severe allergic reaction? I'll be really weak and really swollen and really bruised for a long time. Liquid diet for a couple weeks (we're talking Ensure through a squirt bottle), then soft diet for a while after that. As long as they make some of it chocolate flavored, I should be fine. Out of work for 4-6 weeks, and total recovery will take around 6 months. That's for the bones to re-set and the residual swelling and bruising to go away.
So that's my story....pretty much all I know for now. I've had a lot floating around in my brain space and I've had some friends asking what the story was on the surgery, so here we are. I've found myself up too late again, I think I'll go get some sleep. AND I just realized that I've yet to post a blog about Tessa and how she came to me :) Soon, I promise!! G'night!
