To All My Bloggin' Brothas and Sistas!!!!

Hi there! I know I've been away for awhile...I've missed you bloggin' buddies.  But, I was really doing y'all a favor. I'm actually saving you from the continuous pity party I'm on while I hibernate my winter away. I am NOT a winter person and the kids have been off at least 4-5 days for snow days. So....I'm pretty unmotivated to do much these days. I had an OS appt scheduled for this Thurs that I rescheduled for next week b/c of the weather. I also see my Ortho next Wednesday. I'm still wearing rubber bands day and night, hoping he'll change this??? I'm coming up on 5 months post op! It seems like it's just flown by!!!

My back molars still don't touch and I have problems eating things like thin pasta (angel hair), tortilla chips, lettuce...things like that. But, other than that I pretty much try to chew lots of different things. I still mostly have really soft things like pasta, steamed veggies, etc.  but I've had cookies, pizza and chicken. I still am most comfortable chewing on my right side of my mouth but am also trying to use my left more. It hasn't been easy for me but I do see progress. I've been trying to pucker and whistle...can you guys whistle? I didn't know if this was normal that I haven't been able to do it. Maybe the braces have something to do with it.  I just got efficient with the straw recently. I feel like I should be MUCH further along than this....but o'well. I can't complain much more can I??? :)

We had a great Christmas though and I'm posting some pics of my family and I before my hubby's work Christmas party. These were taken a little over a month ago. It's actually the first Facebook photo I've posted of me with braces!!! I'll post a couple of new close-ups once I climb out of my cave...it seriously may not be until Spring!! :) My face is pretty much the same, I think. My nose is still nice and perky and with all the winter colds going around I've had quite a bit of mouth breathing going on. I can tell my left nostril is still quite a bit different but I'm hoping the septoplasty will help that a little. In looking at some photos pre-surgery I did notice my nostrils were a little off even then. I guess I was so obsessed w/ my mouth that I never noticed it before!

In Nose News....I have been most depressed about this situation. My nose HAS changed...and a lot. Like a fellow blogger buddy put it (not about mine but her own, as this happened to her as well)...it looks rather baboonish! I did see yet another ENT/Plastic Surgeon. She said my septum def is deviated and that I could have surgery as soon as I like to fix this which will help my breathing but not change my nose shape(so it may or may not correct that nostril situation). She also talked to me about the plastic surgery I could have done. She said that to fix my perky tip would only make it look more wide and flat at the base and the best option (which is the same thing crazy Plastic Surgeon man said) was to build up the bridge of my nose with a bone graft to try to balance it out. This could be done at the same time as the septoplasty. Only problem is that insurance won't cover it and it would be $8,000 out of pocket. I'm just not capable of spending more money on this!!! So, even though my Hubby was on board with whatever I decided I opted for the septoplasty only...to fix my breathing. I am coming to terms with the fact that I'm never going to have my old nose back. No matter what I have done it'll never look the same and I think that may depress me even more. So, for now I'll focus on the breathing issue only and maybe in a couple years I may decide to go back and have the bone graft, but I'm praying I'll be content with my new look by then! 

I set my septoplasty up for April 18th. I'm still debating if I'm going to use the ENT/Plastic Surgeon or my original ENT.  I may ask my OS's opinion next Thurs. I know the Plastic Surgeon won't be doing anything "extra" but maybe she will be more conscious of the end result than my original ENT???? I just don't want anymore "surprises". I think some of you can understand this!!! 

I'm glad I crawled out of my cave for a minute to post an update...it really was kinda therapeutic. :)