There's Always Light at the End of the Tunnel

Today marks three weeks since my corrective double jaw surgery and to be honest I’m starting to get very fed up being at home all the time! I do get out and about for walks and stuff but I miss my routine, I miss my Monday night scouts and my athletics and I even miss going to work on the weekends! I am at the stage where come next week I would like to be getting back into some sort of a routine, I know I’m due to be out of activities for six weeks but next week it will have been a month and I don’t think going to a lecture or two will kill me.   I want to begin to ease my way back into things, starting with college and the youth café I volunteer in followed by athletics, coaching not training because that is off the cards for another little while as is the gym! And finally get myself back into scouts and work, those both being things that will happen at week six as both involve children and children can be unpredicatable and I don’t fancy getting a whack to the face with a ball o...

On Thursday I had my first social event since my corrective double jaw surgery and I have to say this event both met and went beyond my expectations! What was this event you might ask well it was the 2015 Blog Awards Ireland hosted by Ashville Media Group. I have been apart of the blog awards since 2011 when it was formally know as the Irish Blog Awards and since then my blog has been a finalist each year with me attend 4 of the last 5 awards. Now over the past five years there has been changes to the organisers and each year the awards have grown and improved and this year was no exception. I was a bit hesitant when I found out that the awards were being hosted by a company worried that the personal touch might be lost and indeed part of the personal aspect was lost in my opinion with the winners not being given as much time as before to accept the awards but besides that everything else met my expectations. When I heard the food was "street style" was was confused about how...

It's hard to believe it has only been two weeks since my corrective double jaw surgery, it feels like it happened months ago! I was hoping that my two week update would be as positive as my first week update but I’m afraid its not. For about the past week I have been dealing with a lot of pain on my right side particularly at the site of surgery on my lower jaw. Having met with my surgeon last Friday he prescribed another course of antibiotics, as he was concerned there could be a slight infection due to the pain I have been experiencing, much to my dismay the pain in my right side is only worsening. It’s nothing I am very concerned about; I mean it’s only two weeks since the surgery so it is more than likely as a result of you now my jaw being broken! But nevertheless it is something, which I am monitoring and keeping a close eye on, should it continue to worsen over the next couple of days I phone call to the surgeon, might be in store. Swelling has improved a lot sinc...

I’m in a bit of shock to be honest that it is only 10 days since I have had my corrective double jaw surgery; it feels like I had it months ago! So far things have been going really well and I guess it would have been naive of me to think nothing would go wrong so I have been preparing myself for the possibility of a halt in my recovery. So far I have had one little bump in the road and it was as a result of medications as opposed to the surgery itself so I don’t think of it affecting my recovery as much but today we were face with a bit of a blow, nothing major mind you but my almost perfect recovery has slowed down a bit.  Today I met my surgeon again who loosened my elastics once again and allowed me to open my moth a little bit wider, still no solid foods though. We had a good chat from everything jaw related to mental health and even the rugby this Sunday. During out little chat I informed him of the increased pain on my right side of my face, this was cause for some con...

Huge day today!! It is one week since my corrective double jaw surgery and I am delighted to announce everything is going very well! my surgeon has loosened my elastics once again giving me a bit more movement, enough to get a tablet in my mouth. He has also described my bite as perfect! Pain is very much under control with no need for pain meds since yesterday morning, bruising is also under control and localised to my under chin and doesn't appear to be worsening. Numbness  hasn't improved at all however I have been reassured that it takes time, however I am aware of the possibility that the feeling in some parts of my face may never return but in the grand scheme of things I feel that is a small price to pay! My mood has been great, a few very emotional days in the beginning and no doubt more emotional days to come but I'm letting them happen and not trying to fight it. Overall I have been having a brilliant recovery, there have been rough days and no doubt there will be...

Am I dreaming? Did I really just undergo corrective double jaw surgery? Did it really get moved forward? Did it really happen? Yes, Yes and Yes. Finally after what has felt like a lifetime of waiting I have final received my corrective double jaw surgery to create a normal bite. Around the age of 10 I found out that I would need surgery in the future to correct me underbite and when I turned 18 my treatment began! Finally after constant delays in my treatment, either because my teeth weren’t ready or because of a lack of surgeons/resources I finally got my surgery after some honest letters being sent to a number of different people. Things happened pretty fast to be honest, one week I had a phone call from the National oral health office saying that there was s new surgeon taking on my case, the next week I met that surgeon and received a surgical date and then a week later my surgery was moved forward by two weeks! Needless to say I was pretty excited but when Tuesday morning cam...

About a month ago I was let down once again by our Health Service when I was informed my corrective jaw surgery would not take place for another 6-8 months. After receiving that news I was devastated, distraught and was faced with a feeling of hopelessness, one which I have not faced in some time. After my meeting with the surgeon I walked with a tear soaked face over to give the orthodontist the all too familiar news that surgery would not be happening any time soon despite my teeth being in the correct positions and ready to go. Not surprised with my news all that was left to say is that you have to begin to make some noise, its nothing new that patients are having their surgery’s postpone but in order to achieve any results it was my job to begin to make some noise and with that sound advice I did just that!! 10 letters and two weeks later I had received about 5 responses from those who got my letter. some were the usual ‘we are looking into the matter ’responses, some were su...