Peace, surgical hooks! 12 weeks.

Today I had the immense pleasure of getting my surgical hooks removed. It's definitely not the same level of awesomeness as having my splint taken out, but it's still a welcome change. No longer will my lip get awkwardly stuck while I'm talking to someone, and I won't be that weird girl on the bus who keeps licking her teeth anymore. Remember back when I got them put on? My 2nd blog post, if memory serves. Oh, how menacing I thought they were. And how menacing they turned out to be. Ah well, distant memory. I've already forgotten what it's like to get my lip stuck. Maybe it never even happened...

Anyway, this joy was made possible by a trip home today to visit my orthodontist. She also replaced all the brackets at the top because a few of them had broken in surgery (I don't want to know how) and they had unsightly blobs of white plaster holding them on. You realize how actually non-white teeth are when they have pure white glue on them. Now they are back to the beautiful invisible braces I've had for the past 15 months. My roommate didn't seem to notice a difference when I oh-so-excitedly showed him my new and improved hardware, but I notice and that's all that matters! (To be fair, I don't really smile very much). Regardless, now that they are a little more viewer-friendly I've snapped a good ol' photobooth shot to show the change in my teeth. In both photos, my teeth are clamped shut. Look at that space in the before shot! No wonder I was a disaster at biting things. Now they happily close like normal-people teeth! Never using a knife again- I will pick things up on a fork and bite pieces off. Just because I can.

Bite improvement!

Someone give me a plastic bag I can tear open please.

Oh! I found the little notebook that I was using to write on in the hospital when I couldn't speak. It is equally the funniest and saddest thing ever. Here are a few choice excerpts: 

"More pain meds. I can't swallow. I'm drowning." How depressing is this! Even required an underline, it was so hectic. First night drama no doubt.

"Do my teeth touch?" Why yes, Allie, yes they do! "Need to swallow :(" Problem was solved by a nifty little suction device.

"Pain pup. Mump. P" Third time's the charm. I think they understood that I wanted a pain pump, and not an aching doggie or a weird measles-like disease.

"More aip please. More aire please." My god- medicated, suffocating Allie sure is polite.

What song do you want, Allie? "Call me madbe lol. Also d my yelids close". No, no they don't, but that's okay because I had Carly Rae to cheer me up.

"Aliusfblzjflzkjfnvlkmcxvnlzudfbliuzdfn." What do you mean you don't understand? I do notice a "...yyyyyy" at the end of a word though, so I was clearly trying to emphasize something. What do you mean I have to move my hand as I write- can't I just write every letter on the same spot? Don't do drugs, kids.

Voila. Now it's as if you were all in the hospital with me! Can't believe that was 12 whole weeks ago. Insanity! It's gone by so quickly, yet at the same time it feels so long ago. I guess that's like everything though (I mean, take university for example- how am I in 4th year?). I read some of my pre-surgery blog posts the other day and it just brought back a flood of memories of the night before/morning of. I really have no idea how I actually did this. I get so flustered and nervous thinking about it, and then I remember that it's already happened! I never really thought about how it would feel to be done, though. I only thought as far ahead as immediate recovery, and to some distant future where I'm an real adult with the most unreal bone structure. Didn't really think about that moment when it wouldn't be the only thing occupying my mind at any given time. I might slowly be getting there. My smile is even slowly improving! My roomies are all such good sports when I run in to show them the latest flash of my pearly whites. Good god I must be annoying. But annoying or not, they always say it looks better.  And I'm finally starting to actually see it! The goal is still for big smiley grad photos in the spring. Those babies will be framed and/or put in the wallets of everyone I know. All you 7459 people who have read my blog can have one. Well, approximately 7456 views were my dad, but the other 3 of you are more than welcome to have a copy too. I'll be taking orders closer to the date.

More immediate goal, however, is skydiving! Me and 2 of my roommates are going on the 20th. I figured 15 weeks post-op is more than enough. Much to my mother's dismay, my orthodontist today said she didn't see a problem with it. The only thing that could stop me would be if my surgeon says my jaw will fall off. I would hazard a guess to say, though, that titanium is probably tougher than my real bones would've been. Maybe I'll wear a balaclava to keep everything together. Either way, I am UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED. 

Time to go study for the psych middy I have on Thursday. Gotta brush up on my facial recognition! Heehee. I'll end this post with the requisite 12-week-selfie.

Day 82

Night!

A