RE: Scary Stuff

[Guest guest]

Well, yes. It is startling for most of us, I think, to hear these

suggestions.

But honestly, the actuality is seldom as bad as the expectation. Do

note the " seldom " there -- but be aware that there are also self-

fulfilling prophecies which are also to be avoided.

If you have all that good stuff going for you, get it done before you

have the bad stuff happen. Not that the bad stuff will necessarily

happen either. but I don't see how you can lose, unless your doc and

ortho screw things up majorly. which also has been known to happen.

Very rarely, but it can.

> Ok, so the questions. Does anyone know how the military, police

forces etc. view corrective jaw surgery?

Ans: Nope. I am in Alabama. I have been told that the U.S. armed

forces will not accept prospective jet pilots who are in braces. (Go

figure. It's better to be flying hungry because you can't eat? Or in

pain, because your jaws aren't right? Not me... I have also heard of

other military forces who will not accept braces in place, but will

fix surgery, requiring that the braces be removed, although it delays

the process, for active duty. Even in the states. I give up. The

military, in my book, has never been a bastion of lay logic.)

I think the bone heals over the screws and plates (or some docs use

resorbable ones) and the integrity of the jaw is eventually

maintained. But ask your doc, and even more important, if the

R.C.M.P. is in the least like the U.S. military forces, get it in

writing, signed, sealed, certified and delivered.

>

> A cosmetic question, How much does your profile change?

Depends on what you need to have done. Mine changed very little,

because my work was minimal. Others have found " a stranger in the

mirror, " and that can be a difficult issue, emotionally. Look at the

pix on site 2.

My surgeon doesn't offer that computer gimmick, and I think fewer and

fewer do, perhaps because they fear lawsuits in our litigious

communities. They also can be misleading, for one thing. Better,

methinks, to have the talk about all this.

Look at Fiddlesticks' Geocities site for questions.

Not everybody wires patients shut. Ask your doc what to expect.

(that's a codicil to your earlier questions.) Try doing a bit of

homework on this site and site two to find out what's there, before

you expect us to recite the invention of the wheel. (Sorry, and I

don't mean to be rude, but I read for a year before I ever posted.

There's a lot of info you haven't even looked at, clearly... Some of

it contradictory, no doubt. But read first, and then ask for piles of

info, please. I've been here since 2001, had surgery in 2002. it

bogs and clogs the site, and grows wearisome to keep posting the same

thing again and again, when the info is already there....)

I do wish you well, and will help if I can. But sheesh! You gotta

help yourself, first... and I'm not gonna keep on typing forever...

We have answered, answered, answered questions about how long? when

will I be functional? how much weight will I lose? when can I

exercise? When will numbness go away? When can I eat?

Just go read, first, in the back posts, and you'll find a lot of this

stuff there already, please....

Or maybe I should just fade into the diminished past, and let all you

younger folks find your ways anew every time.

Cammie