No chance of speeding things up :(

I rang my hospital yesterday to see if they'd had any cancellations in the hope that I might get seen quicker and therefore put on the waiting list for surgery quicker.  But the answer is a definite no - apparently they're not even having any more joint clinic apps until the end of September (when mine is) so there's no appointments before that to be cancelled!  Great.  Grr.

16 month pics

Here are my 16 month pictures, which obviously look the same seeing as my teeth are ready for surgery (i.e. the braces are doing nothing now, I'm just having to endure them until surgery), but I'll put them on anyway just for completeness.

I also wanted to add this picture of me and my gorgeous nephew, because it was taken as I was naturally laughing, and I just can't believe how disgusting my teeth look when I actually laugh, rather than do a pretend smile for the photo.  It's so gummy and disgusting.

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.

15 months of braces

 I feel like it won't be long before I'm writing 982 months of braces!

Tomorrow will mark 15 months of braces.  Here are my pics for this month.  Since the last ones I've had the disgusting "transparent" (i.e. yellow after being in my mouth for so long) bands around my front brackets taken off.    I think the point of these bands was to close the gap between my front teeth, and I'm a bit concerned, because since I've had them off the gap has started opening up a bit :s  Also I have these weird wires going from my back brackets to my canines, which you might be able to see on the side shots.  Don't really know what these are doing.

My bottom teeth are getting REALLY brown.  I tried to take a photo in the hope that I would get lots of encouraging comments telling me that it's normal and the brownness will go after the braces are off, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) you can't see the brown in the pics very well.  I've got an appointment with the hygienist at my dentist soon, so hopefully she will be able to scrub a lot of the brown off.  I really hope so anyway.

On the bottom picture, I went a bit crazy with Paint and decided to draw lines from points in my teeth/jaws/mouth that should be level, to try and illustrate the wonkiness of my jaws.  I've noticed that my chin is also wonky - I don't think this is something anybody else would ever notice, so it doesn't bother me too much, but I'm wondering if my top jaw being wonky is causing my bottom jaw to be wonky which is causing my chin to be wonky?!  I don't know, maybe I'm just over thinking it all!

Getting a little impatient now...

The good news is that my teeth are ready for surgery.  The bad news is, my next appointment isn't until 9th August!!!

So I went to the orthodontist on Wednesday 23rd May, and she looked at my teeth and said they were ready for surgery, and did some moulds, changed my wires etc.  She took off those transparent elastics that were across my front teeth too, which was good because they were more yellow than transparent by then!  She said I need to book one final appointment with her to have final measurements done, but that the appointment had to be when this other ortho/surgeon man was there too.  However, when I went to book this appointment, it turns out that the next time they'll both be there is 9th August!  I've also got to have another 'joint clinic' appointment, which is where I'll see my surgeon again.  I've got to wait to get that appointment date in the post, but the receptionist said it's more likely to be after than before the  9th August appointment :(

It's all so slooooow, and I'm so sick of having braces now!  I was hoping I would be having my surgery in July/August, and now it looks like it's not going to be until September/October!  I know I should be grateful that I'm getting this done at all, and I really am, but I'm just starting to lose my patience now.  I feel like I have to put so many things in my life on hold until these braces are off, and I'm sick of feeling ugly!

Stop commenting on my braces drunk men!

I've noticed that the only people who feel comfortable bringing up the fact that I have braces without me saying so first are random drunk men.

I went out last night, and had one man start telling me about how his son has braces.  At the mention of the word 'braces', I think he could read my expression which said 'Thanks for bringing that up', and he was like 'Oh no, no, I'm just saying that you're going to have really nice teeth afterwards, and you're a pretty girl already so you'll look really nice'.  I'm sure he meant well, but it wasn't really what I wanted to chat about with a stranger.

Later that night a random drunk man in the street stopped me and said 'You look too old to have braces', so I said 'I am too old to have braces'.  He asked how old I was, and when I told him he was like 'So why do you have braces now?' and I just said 'It's a long story'.  He tried to get me to tell him the long story (which I didn't) and then asked for my number, so I suppose I should see the positive side that the braces didn't put him off!

It really depresses me when people like that do mention my braces.  I was not interested in either of them, but when I'm on a night out I at least want to try and feel attractive and forget that I have a big mouth full of metal like a teenager, and then I have people coming up to me and reminding me about that fact.  It also confirms that men obviously do notice them.  My friend always says to me that people don't even notice, and I know she's trying to make me feel better, but last night just confirms that they do.  I'm getting so sick of looking like a gummy, goofy metal-mouthed teenager.  I can't wait to get these stupid braces off.  I'm sick of feeling so unattractive all the time.

14 months of braces

I realise these posts are getting very repetitive!  56 weeks of having these beautiful braces on.  Next appointment is on 23rd May, hopefully something exciting will happen then and I'll have some encouragement.