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My Back Story: Part 1

I've had jaw and bite issues for most of my life that I can remember. When I was 10, my jaw started giving me limited range of motion and even locking completely shut at times. My mom eventually took me to the dentist, who referred me to a TMJ specialist. Once there, they discovered discrepancies between my left and right jaw joints. It was such a long time ago and I was so young that I can't recall many details of what shape my jaw was actually in. I do remember the doctor saying that I was a great candidate for surgery (most likely because of my skeletal malformation), but that it wouldn't be a good idea until my jaw had fully grown. This comment stands out because as a 11-ish year old, I thought surgery sounded kind of cool (ohh youthful ignorance, how I miss it). They created a bite splint for me to relieve the pressure and stress off my jaw that I had to wear 24/7. By this point, I was in 6th grade, so the massively thick splint I had to wear over my TOP teeth that was
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My Concerns Pre-Surgery

I feel like it's a unique and subtle form of mental torture to have so many months to anticipate having such an invasive surgery on your face. These months are when "ignorance is bliss" would come in handy, but I know I'll be glad I researched what to expect beforehand instead of after surgery at 2 AM when I'm swollen-faced, on pain pills, and convinced I might be dying. I've been keeping a running list on my phone of anything and everything I can think of that makes me worry about the surgery. When I see the surgeon again in about a month, I hope to be able to talk through most of the items below, at least the ones that keep me awake at night. Here are my top concerns: 1. How long will it take me to be able to go about life normally again? --- This is probably my immediate top worry. Most blogs I've come across are written by people who are a bit younger than me and don't have kids. Because my kids are so young (6, 4, and 1), there's a lot of
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Before Pictures

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I'm already a few months underway with my braces, but I did think to snap a few pictures of my face and profile before the braces went on. I'm hoping they'll be a great way to look back and compare once they're done rearranging my face :)  My resting face (if I'd done a true resting face, my mouth would be hanging open because of my open bite but didn't think to snap the pic that way!)  Crooked and gummy but don't care!  Me biting down (yes, this is as close as my teeth touch - only the very last tooth on each side touches, and that's barely)  Right side profile Left side profile (softer than the right side, interested to see how much this changes post-surgery)
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My Reasons For Surgery

From what I've seen, there are a few core reasons why most people decide to put themselves through this surgery. They've got to be pretty darn good reasons too since it is an extremely expensive, time-consuming, long and hard process. I was a little shocked when I discovered that not only do I have to have both jaws cut into pieces and put back together, but I also have to have braces for 22 months before and after surgery. I've never really wanted to re-visit looking/feeling like a 13 year old again, but here we are. Here are my reasons for going through with surgery: 1. PAIN - This is absolutely my #1 driving force in making this surgery happen. I've prayed and wrestled with trying to make peace with living in chronic pain, but the fact is I just can't. Not only is the pain too constant and at times too severe, but frankly I'm just too young to live this way. I feel like my husband, kids, family, and friends deserve more than my distracted self that's t
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Who I Am

Hello! I'm starting this blog as I'm preparing for double jaw surgery in just a few short months. As I've been wrapping my mind around what's to come and starting to plan every small controllable detail I can like the Type A rock star I am, I've come across so many incredibly helpful and comforting blogs written by people who've faced the same experience. It has made me feel so much less alone in this journey that I thought I'd start one myself. I would love to offer encouragement to anyone who's had similar challenges to mine and would also welcome coming across anyone who's going through surgery at the same time. Here's a snapshot of me! I'm a 31 year old wife to an amazing man and mother of 3 adorable young kiddos. We live in Colorado and love it. TMJ has been an unfortunate large part of my life since I was 10 years old. It became all-consuming 5 years ago when my frequent headaches and jaw pain became excruciating all day, every day o
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