3 Days Pre-Op

I haven't done much blogging in several years. I use to be an avid journalizer, diary writer, note taker, and anything else related to writing. Of course, this was before life got busy with jobs, college, social life, marriage, oh yes, and motherhood.
The purpose of this blog is to talk about my jaw surgery experience, hopefully provide encouragement and knowledge to others considering having it, and also share how I juggle recovery with being a mom. Perhaps there will be entertaining moments to help ease the stress and pain that I know will be associated with the surgery.
I am going to post a bit of dental and orthodontic history here, so please bear with me. And if anyone finds this blog and wishes to comment, I welcome that with open arms. I'd love to hear what your Teeth Journey has been like as well.
To start, let me tell you what my actual problem is. It is not a cosmetic issue (although, this surgery will absolutely help in that area). I have a class II malocclusion open bite, and I also developed a cross bite. I have had two series of braces. The first from the ages of 11 to 14, and the second from 27-29 (hope to have braces removed before my 30th birthday!). With my first orthodontist, we'll call him Dr. C, the idea of expanders for a narrow palate was still a newer idea. What he did instead was remove my two upper pre molars to provide more space for growth. He did not have the lower pre molars removed. Has anyone who had braces 15 years ago or more had this procedure done when getting braces?
Anyway, I had my braces taken off at age 14 and I had a lovely smile for about 5 years. I had a permanent retainer put behind my lower teeth and a removable one in the top. Of course, I was quite lazy about wearing the retainer, and stopped after a couple of years.
In 2007, I moved to Southern California, land of desert and DRY weather. I started having nosebleeds, and began mouth breathing too. By the end of the year, I began to notice a small gap between my upper front teeth and the bottom. I kinda shrugged it off. After all, I was a busy college student, with no time to worry about teeth. By the following year however, it was more noticeable, and I started to choke on food occasionally. I thought maybe it was a narrow esophagus issue, but after a visit to a dentist for a cleaning, it was revealed that I was developing an open bite and would probably need braces. Well, a college student with hardly any money and a ton of student loan debt couldn't pay for braces, so I again shrugged it off.
In 2010, I moved back to Northern California, began to work full time and went back to school for a Child Development degree. I was still having issues chewing food, and I began to notice that my back  molars didn't meet on the right side, only on the left. The open bite was worsening, and I would still occasionally choke on food. The mouth breathing got better, since the weather wasn't as dry. I did however, have a tongue thrusting issue, which I believed was a contributing factor to the open bite. But being that I still had a ton of college debt, and could barely pay the minimum balance on the loans, I wasn't going to get braces anytime soon.
Then I met my future husband. He was unemployed for most of our dating relationship, but I knew that God would provide a job for him. A month before our wedding, my husband had a stable job. Praise the Lord.
In 2013, a few months before we got married, I saw another dentist in the area. He did x rays on me and said I had an extreme open bite and cross bite, and explained that the missing pre molars on the top were causing a bad bite relationship. Great. He recommended seeing an oral surgeon. This was my first awareness of the idea of jaw surgery. I saw a surgeon, showed him the x rays, and I was referred to an orthodontist in San Ramon. We'll call him Dr. M.
Dr. M explained that I had 2 options: Surgery with orthodontics, or a partial fix with orthodontics. After much thinking (AND PRAYING), I chose Surgery. This required having my lower pre molars removed to have an even number of teeth on top and bottom. My permanent retainer was also removed.
February 2014, I had braces put on. Just in time for Valentines Day. YAY.
The plan was that the space where my pre molars had been would be closed, and the projected surgery time was August 2015.
The process moved along much slower than anticipated and then I got pregnant. I gave birth to a beautiful daughter December 25, 2015. Yeah I know, a Christmas Baby.
So here we are, 7 months later. My jaw surgery is this Wednesday, July 27th. I'm very nervous, but I have done a TON of reading on blogs (Doublejawsurgery.com, runningonfaithycafeconleche.blogpot.com), forums (ArchedWired), Mayo Clinic, several other medical clinic websites, and Facebook groups.
I've spent a lot of time praying, and reading Scripture (namely, the Bible). I know what to expect, I know the risks, its going to be very hard, but this is a now or never scenario. I don't want to to wait until I'm older and there's more risks. I don't want to do it when my baby is toddling around.
its time to get it done.

Okay, this is a LONG post, but its an intro one, so I guess thats expected. I am going to post pictures of my face, so you can see exactly what the issues are.
I'll probably do one more post Pre-Op as well.

God bless you!

 From the front, looking straight on, it doesn't look too bad

 If I look up however, you can clearly see the open bite. My tongue is kind of in the way too.

 Because of the lower pre molar removal, my bottom teeth were retracted, creating a more severe open and overbite.

You can also see that I have a receding chin. Not pretty. And its only going to get worse before it gets better. Next photo will be a very swollen face.