"How'd this happen?"

 GREAT QUESTION.


Well it all started in a Galaxy Far Far Awa- ahhhhh gotcha. No but really, this whole thing started a long time ago. I have no idea if this had any effect on start of my mouth issues, but I sucked my thumb until I was about 8 years old...Yep I was a thumb-sucker. My mom tried everything short of just cutting the damn thing off. I was in third grade when I got a thumb guard, (right)

I always got food stuck in it. Yum, save that for later.

that I finally quit for good. They slapped some braces on poor little third grade me and sent me on my way. I was literally the only 3rd grader in my school who had braces and I was mortified. About a year later they finally realized that braces alone weren't fixing the damage that 8 years of thumb-sucking had done. So off came the thumb guard and on came the palate expander (left). They cranked that thing for another year until they assumed my bite was wide enough, then off came the braces and the torture device. I got my braces off at about 11 years old (the time all my friends started getting them on) and I thought that I had finally gotten the last laugh. But oh was I wrong...

Worst. Pain. Ever.

Fast forward about 5 years and...Wow, would you look at that. My mouth was messed up once again. I had lost my retainer after about a month, and at the time, no one was talking about how important retainers were. Guess what...my teeth all moved. I was about to enter high school when I really started noticing the awkward gap between my upper and lower teeth. I could stick my tongue through it and drink through a straw. I remember one car ride I mentioned it to my mom and we soon returned to the orthodontist. I thought that they would be mad because my teeth had moved, but they were so perplexed by my mouth shift, that they sent me to our local Oral Maxillofacial Surgeon. We had a consultation, they told me I'd need surgery if I ever wanted to bite right, but the price tag drove us away. I was going to have to live with my open bite until/ IF we ever found the money to make it happen. I gave up hope for the correction of my face forever. I didn't think about it much except when I tried to bite foods or if I saw myself in pictures. I always noticed in pictures that I would have a double chin. I soon realized that I basically had no chin... or as the doctors call it, a "weak chin." I became very self conscious of this which was super fun, especially going through high school.

How I felt 24/7

Freshmen year of college, I got pulled aside and told that, SURPRISE, you get to have the surgery after all. I was literally in shock though. Like, I was happy because it meant good changes, but I also might have started crying because I was scared of what kind of surgery that would mean for me. It also meant that I would have to be THAT kid in college with braces. Of course by the time you get to college, everyone else has already gotten their braces off and have perfect, amazing, white smiles. Just my luck that I would have braces book-ending the normal time for people to have braces... awesome.

So here begins the adventure into my Jaw Surgery journey.