16 months of braces and even more set backs

As you may recall from an earlier post, at my last appointment (which was in May), I was told to book two appointments - one to see my ortho for final measurements, and one to see my surgeon at the 'joint clinic' (i.e. to discuss my surgery).  I booked my ortho app and was really annoyed that I had to wait until 9th August for it.  They told me they'd send me my joint clinic app in the post.  So I waited 3 weeks, and still didn't receive this appointment, so I thought I'd ring them up, and surprise surprise, they hadn't even booked it.  So the woman looked for when the next available appointment was, and the answer was... 27th September!!!   I can't believe how long this is taking.  I'd already been told by my ortho that I can book my surgery date at my joint clinic appointment, but if my app isn't until the end of September, then God knows when I'll actually get a surgery date... 2020 at this rate.  When I rang I was at work so I couldn't really say much, but I decided to ring them back another day and see if there was any way of speeding any of this up at all.  I asked the woman if I could starting booking my surgery and pre-op appointments now rather than waiting until my joint clinic, but she basically said that there's a lot of people ahead of me in the queue, and I would have to wait like the rest of them.  Which is fair enough I suppose, I just wish that they'd booked my joint clinic appointment 4 months ago, rather than waiting until my teeth are ready for surgery before even thinking about it!

I asked her how long it usually is between the joint clinic app and actually getting your surgery, and she just said 'It varies'.  She said I could be lucky and get a cancellation and have it fairly soon after, or it might not be until March next year! :(  This is just getting ridiculous now.  How can it take this long?!  I thought I'd be having the surgery this summer, not still waiting to be put on the waiting list!

I think I'm going to try and ring them again and see if they've had any joint clinic cancellations.  I doubt they have but I might as well ask.  I'll also ask when I go in August for my ortho appointment.  I'm getting so sick of this now.  I don't think they realise how  much having braces and waiting for this surgery affects your life.  I feel like I can't move on with anything until it's over, which is stupid but true.

Just to make the situation worse, my hospital has been in the news because it is one of three hospitals in the country that is massively in debt.  Great.  So that will probably mean even more waiting.

I'm going to upload my usual monthly pics in a minute, but will do it in another post to avoid poor blogger getting confused.