thanks everybody!

[Guest guest]

It was so nice to log on and see everyone's congratulations and

birthday wishes ) You guys have become really fast and close

friends! I posted a couple of pics of the ring - they're not

professional but I just took them this morning...I am still so excited )

I'm glad I had such a wonderful weekend, though, because yesterday was

a little rough. I was supposed to go to the ortho last wed - but she

called up and said the splint wouldn't be in until fri afternoon,

could i come in sat afternoon? I obivously was going to be in lobster

heaven - so i asked if we could do it on mon. She said yes - it would

only take a couple of minutes. I guess a couple of minutes to her is

four hours! Ugh.

Initially the appointment was to fit the splint. OK. But then she

brought out the hooks...OMG! I swear, the hooks on the arch wire

sitting on the tray looked like the crown of thorns! You're gonna put

that in my mouth! I knew, from this site, that it was coming - but I

don't remember _her_ ever discussing it with me. The process of

putting them in was kind of long and tedious - she had some trouble

with the ones between my molars. At the end she said " is anything

poking you? " I thought she was kidding - my mouth was pretty cut up

from her putting them in - and the hooks are bigger than the brackets.

How could I possibly tell? Ugh.

The good news was from the models, x-rays, and soft tissue exam. She

first said it wasn't necessary to do a segmental advancement on my

cleft side before the lefort i (which was the initital plan) because

the teeth were in perfect position as is. Then she said the cleft had

closed 3mm since we started, and there was a bony ridge in the cleft -

so the bone graft should be much easier and have a much better chance

at success! Finally she announced that my jaws were aligned perfectly

- so they only need to bring it straight forward, no side to side or

slight differences to either side. She called Dr. Cutting and said

the surgery should be extremely simple - and that they no longer

needed the segmental. Yeah!

I guess the inspirational point here is that two years in braces

allowed her to move my teeth to a better position that hopefully will

make the surgery easier. Although it was a year more than I had

bargained for, and I was frustrated that things were taking so long,

she really was helping me out. Sometimes you just have to have

patience and a little faith that they know what they're doing )

Then, last night, I had steak!

Hope you're all having a good day ) Thanks for being there!

-becky