Weight and diet

Now that my surgery is in sight... kind of... I hope... I thought it's time to start thinking about preparing my body for the trauma it is about to go through!

I'm a small girl and weigh less than 8 stone, so I don't really want to lose much weight after surgery.  I was wondering how much weight everybody lost after surgery?  And was it easy to put it back on?  I was planning to try and fatten up a bit before surgery so that I won't descend to an anorexic weight during my liquid diet days, but I don't know how much weight I should try and put on... I don't want to go too far and not be able to lose it again haha.

I'm already starting to think that now is the time to stop worrying about how much fat is in stuff and just go for it, because I could do with gaining a few pounds before surgery.  But the thing is, I want to gain weight healthily.  As much as I'd love to just stuff my face with cakes and chocolate for the next few months, although it may make me gain weight I don't think it will put me in the healthiest state for my surgery!

The other thing I wanted to ask my fellow jaw bloggers about is what kind of vitamins, nutrients etc. should I be eating before surgery to help my body prepare, and after surgery to help it recover?  I've read things about B12 helping nerve regeneration, so I've got some B12 supplement tablets, but I haven't started taking those.  And I think I've read that it's good to have lots of protein after surgery.  Does anybody have any tips?  Just to make this a little more difficult, I'm vegetarian so will have to find veggie options containing all my necessary nutrition!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Ps. I had a dream last night that I had my surgery, woke up from the operation and felt absolutely fine!  I was like 'I can't see what all the fuss is about, I feel fine!'  Haha, somehow I don't think this is going to be the case in real life...

Progress at last!

On Thursday I went to the hospital for my joint clinic appointment with the surgeon followed by an ortho appointment.

I did lots of waiting around, but then eventually got called and told I needed to go and have some new x-rays done as it's been 2 years since I last had them. 

Then I did some more waiting... and then went in to see the surgical team.  There was the man who I'm pretty sure will be my surgeon, and then another surgeon, and two women who just said they were a part of the surgical team.  One of the women then explained the surgery to me at a very basic level, even though they've already explained this to me at least 3 times, and I've done so much research I think I could be an amateur jaw surgeon!  Anyway, so then I just asked all the usual questions, which I kind of already knew the answer to but thought I'd ask anyway.  I asked about whether I'd need a splint, and they said they don't remember anybody having a splint in the past year, and that I definitely won't need one, so that's good! 

I also asked about my nose, because although I hate my nose and pretty much any change can only be an improvement in my mind, I'm also really worried that I will end up with some wonky bulbous nose!  They said the only negative thing that could happen to my nose is that it might turn up a bit at the tip, but the surgeon nicely pointed out that i have a 'small hump' in my nose, and that it going up at the end might make it look more straight.  I swear these surgeons are just trying to make me feel more ugly, I wasn't even aware of this hump!  

Anyway, onto surgery details.  They said that my op will actually be at King's hospital in London, but then all my follow-up apps will be at my usual hospital.  They said that they usually operate on a Wednesday, and then you usually go home on the Friday, but obviously it just depends how you're feeling.  So the surgeon said the next step is to wait for a letter with my surgery date!  I asked how long it will be, and he said that he'd hope that it would be done well before Christmas! 

The surgeon also said that my teeth are in a really good position ready for the op, so he thinks I will only need my braces on for 3 months after!!  This is all very exciting, but they also said last year that my surgery would be around August, and that obviously hasn't happened, so I try not to get too excited when they say these things, cos I kind of won't believe it until it happens.

I then went to see the ortho, and she took some more moulds of my teeth.  Then she said that she wants to see me again in October, and said that she'll send an email to the woman that books the surgery, and she said that she thinks they are booking for November at the moment!  So it seems like it will probably be in November.  I'm now just going to be doing a lot of waiting for letters for my next appts and my surgery date!  But if I don't receive any letters with a couple of weeks I'll be on the phone nagging them about it!

I'm soooooooooo excited now that it finally feels like it's going to happen.  I'm sure when I get my surgery date I will be equally terrified as excited, but that hasn't set in yet.

17 months of braces :( But some good news at last! :)

So, I have now had my braces for 17 depressing months.  I think it's 17, the other day I thought it was 18, but now I've lost my diary so I can't check my brace progress, but let's stick with 17, it sounds slightly less depressing. Here's the usual pics...looking the same as ever.

For ages I've been trying to take a picture that shows the brownness of my teeth...not something I would usually want to display to the world, but I'm worried by how brown they are.  The pic below nicely (not sure that's the right word) shows all the lovely brownness around my bottom brackets.  Is this normal?!!  I hope to God that they can scrub it all off once my braces are off.  I had a hygienist appointment booked for next week, but I've had to cancel it, and it's so hard getting time off work for my many many tooth related appointments

I hope I get these stupid wires off next time I go to the ortho, they make teeth cleaning really difficult.

Anyway, on to the good news!  You know how annoyed I was that my next app with the surgeon wasn't until 27th September and I'd harassed them for earlier appointments but they said it wasn't gonna happen?!  Well, a few days later I had a letter from the hospital, and guess what it said???  That they'd moved my appointment to 2nd August!!!  I literally couldn't believe it, and I rang them the next day to make sure there hadn't been some kind of mistake, but they said that it was right and that my app was on the 2nd!  I was ecstatic.

Then about a week later I got home from work and saw a letter in a hospital-y looking envelope.  I was actually scared to open it in case they said it had been moved back to 27th September again.  I literally ripped it open (and ripped the top off the letter too), dreading what it might say.... But thank God, they just said they were moving it back to 9th August.  That's the day I've got an app with my ortho anyway, so I think they must have just thought it made sense to put them on the same day.  So on Thursday I will have my appointment with the surgeon followed by my ortho appointment.  I'm sooooooo excited!  But I'll be so disappointed if I come away from the appointment without a surgery date.  They're meant to be putting me on the waiting list when I see the surgeon, so hopefully I will at least get some sort of provisional date... although I have no idea how long the waiting list is...probably far too long for my liking!