On Top of the World

It’s been a while since I posted about my braces, probably because not much happens most of the time. I’ve had two adjustments since I had them put on (the most recent one was yesterday), and the ortho put a new wire in each time. I haven’t really had any trouble with them at all so far, except for the occasional tender tooth. The wire he put in yesterday must have been a fair bit thicker than the other two I’ve had, though, because only a couple of hours after the appointment, one of my teeth started hurting. I thought the pain was going to disappear today (since it’s never lasted longer than a day so far), but it actually got a bit worse, and is still sore. It’s not that bad; it doesn’t prevent me from eating (although the packet of Kettle Honey Baked Ham chips I had this afternoon caused a niggle or two), but it’s been the most noticeable pain so far. Although that pain is still nothing compared with the pain I had with the spacers. Braces over spacers any day!

The appointment went well - the ortho said that at my next appointment (which has been scheduled for 3 weeks’ time) he should be able to get the rest of the brackets on my lower teeth - up until now there hasn’t been room to put them on. I’m really looking forward to it, since I just want everything to be in place and start moving the way it should. They’ll be metal brackets on the bottom, so that will be a bit weird to look at for a while. Semi-Metal-Mouth! Well, two thirds metal mouth since I do have some metal brackets on my upper teeth.

I haven’t taken any photos for ages; the original plan was to take pictures every week and compare, but that lasted two or three weeks I think! In the first two weeks I noticed a big difference, but not much for a few weeks after that, but in the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed one of my teeth moving quite a lot. I’ll definitely take some this weekend since I’ll be getting the rest of my braces on soon and I’m keen to compare pictures of my lower teeth as the weeks pass.

I quit my job a couple of weeks ago! I’m starting my new job next Monday, so I’ve got 4 days left at my current place. I’m really looking forward to leaving (not that I’m trying to sound too joyous - there are some people I will miss); I’ve been unhappy there for the last year and a half or so (on and off, but mostly on), so to finally find something else was great. It hasn’t really sunk in that I’m leaving though. I’m not having a going away lunch, but my (soon-to-be-ex) work has drinks and a BBQ on the last Friday of every month, and since my last day will be the last Friday, I think that’s going to be my farewell.

I had thought about blogging about my interviews and all that sort of thing, but I had a silly fear that I’d jinx myself if I talked about it, so I didn’t say anything. My first interview was in mid-January, and although I was so nervous, I had the feeling I did ok, and that they were pleased with some of my answers. One of the guys there was really nice, and he sort of had the look of wanting me to do well, which was encouraging. I was called back in a couple of weeks later to have another chat and a bit of a tour of the place, and I was told at the end that I was going to be recommended for the position. I had to have a medical check and give them a couple of referees, and since all that went ok, I was made a formal offer. I called my boss the next day to let him know, and he didn’t seem to care too much - I guess that’s a pretty good indication that I made the right decision. I gave 3 weeks’ notice and now it’s down to 1 week left. The first half of my first day will be an induction at a different site, and then I’ll go to my usual office for the rest of the day to get set up. I’m looking forward to it, but am also a bit nervous - it’s been a long time since I’ve started a new job and I hope it will go well. I suppose I’m most worried about what the people will be like. The only person I’ve met is my new boss; I haven’t met any of the other people I’ll be working with. I’m confident that I’ll be good at it, and I suppose that’s one of the reasons I’m leaving where I am now - my confidence has been gradually sapped over the past year or more until there’s now virtually nothing there, and when you don’t have confidence in your abilities, the enjoyment disappears pretty quickly.

We’re going out for a celebration lunch on Saturday, and we’ve got a bottle of Moët et Chandon that we bought ages ago and thought that this was a good reason to open it, but we haven’t quite decided when we’ll do it.

For someone who hates shopping as much as I do, I did a pretty good job of hiding it today. My sister-in-law couldn’t make it after all, which meant I had the whole day to wander around by myself. And so I did. I didn’t intend to spend that long in there, it just kind of worked out that way. I got into the city at about 7:45 this morning, and got picked up at 4:15.

The only thing I had to eat until I got home was a scone with jam and cream and a mug of coffee. I was quite looking forward to my scone, and after I spread some jam and cream on my first morsel and put it in my mouth, something was not right. At first I thought it might be the scone, but that was fine. And the jam was fine. The cream was not. It had that awful cheesy, rancid taste. I took it back said that the cream didn’t taste quite right, and they said they’d get some more. A little while later, the girl came over to me and said that the chef tasted it and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, and thought that maybe because the cream wasn’t sweetened, that’s why I thought there was something wrong! After years of eating kitchener buns, I know very well what fresh cream tastes like (mmm fresh cream), and that was not fresh cream. Anyway, the new cream was brought out and it tasted as fresh cream should, so that matter was resolved, although I had a bit of a Witches Moment* when I got the new cream and thought how nice it tasted.

After breakfast, the shopping began in earnest. It was actually a very productive day, and I bought enough that I did a bit of a cleanout of my existing wardrobe and relegated some of the older items to the goodwill pile. So it was a good day of shopping but my feet are so sore, and I’m ready to sleep!

* In the book The Witches by Roald Dahl, there is a part where all the witches are having dinner after their Annual Meeting. A woman returns her meat to the kitchen, saying it’s tough, and after the chef puts a new piece of meat on the plate, all the people in the kitchen take turns spitting on it before it’s given back to the woman. Later on it’s reported back that the woman thought the second piece of meat was perfect.

We had a very quiet New Year this year, and after the disaster that was Christmas Eve, that was exactly the way I wanted it. We had dinner with 2 of my sisters-in-law, and then we came home and just hung around until about 5 to 12, when we went out onto the balcony with a glass of sparkling wine to toast at midnight. We got to watch 7 or 8 fireworks displays from our balcony, which was quite nice as well.

Other than the coming of a new year, not a lot has been going on. The weather here lately has been absolutely awful, in the high 30s (Celsius) for the past few days, and it finally cooled down tonight. It’s been a pretty boring Christmas holidays, being stuck at home in the unbearable heat. Thank goodness we got the air conditioners installed, otherwise it would have been a very unpleasant week indeed.

Tomorrow I’m heading into the city with my sister-in-law to see if there’s anything left worth buying in the sales. We ventured in last Sunday and bought a half-price cutlery set (well, 2 actually - one for my parents because it was a design and brand that I knew my mum loved, so I rang and asked her if she wanted one as well) and a few cheap things. One of the department stores opens at 7am, and I’m getting dropped off at 7:30, so it will be interesting to see how many people are around, considering I don’t think anything else there will be open!

I’ve had my upper braces for 5 days. I have some brackets on the lower arch but not all of them because there isn’t room yet; hence there’s no lower wire either. I’ll be getting the rest in a few months I think (or whenever there’s room!). In the end I got clear brackets on my front upper teeth. After I had it done I had regrets, thinking I should have got the metal ones. I was even thinking that I might ask to get them changed to metal but I’m feeling better about them now and I’ll just leave them the way they are.

In terms of pain, I had a bit of aching on the second day, and I get the occasional twinge, but for the most part I can eat normally. It’s a fraction difficult to bite into some things, but chewing is mostly fine. Something I’m already sick of, though, is brushing my teeth after everything I eat! I mean, before I got braces I brushed my teeth twice a day anyway, so it’s really only one extra time (unless I have a snack, which I’ve now decided not to, to cut down the brushing frequency), but it’s still annoying! It takes a bit of the enjoyment out of eating as well, knowing I’ll just have to brush it all away afterwards.

The day after I got them, I went to an end of year dinner for TAFE. I’d initially planned not to go because I thought I might be a bit self-conscious, or in pain, but the day I got my braces I thought I may as well get out there and get used to people seeing them, so I went. I’m glad I did - I had a good time, even though I didn’t eat anything (I wasn’t brave enough to try eating in public, plus I didn’t want to have to brush my teeth in a public toilet!). I’m becoming less self-conscious of them, but I still catch myself smiling at people with my mouth closed, so obviously I’m not completely over it yet.

I had my follow-up appointment today, where the ortho asked if I had any ulcers or sores. I told him about a bracket at the back that’s been cutting into my cheek, and he had a look and directly poked the sore part (ow!), and then got some plier-y things and twisted the offending tube out of the way. Much better! I rinsed with salt water a couple of times today, which gave some relief, but now the tube is out of the way, hopefully the salt water will actually fix the problem rather than just temporarily alleviating the pain.

I’ve finally finished TAFE! Thank God for that. Four years of studying 2 nights a week - it’ll be so great to have my weeknights back! Tonight we had an assessment (on the last night, can you believe it!), followed by a supper sort of thing. It was ok, but it was nice to get out of there. This year was such a drag, and I’m so glad to finally be finished. Now I commence the process of forgetting everything I learned over the last four years. I might still volunteer in the ETD (Education and Training for the Deaf) program next year, so that’ll give me a bit of practice, but it depends on how it fits in with work.

I’m considering changing the name of my blog. I go for ages without posting, and when I do it’s to have a bitch about how much my teeth hurt. Boo hoo, poor me. Sheesh, get a grip, woman!

Having said that, my teeth hurt! I got a sandwich for lunch today, and it took me 25 minutes to eat it. Pain really takes all the fun out of eating. Dinner was much better though - I bought some soups from the supermarket on the way home, and I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the one I chose for this evening’s meal was actually pretty good! So, if you’re finding it difficult to chew, I can recommend the Big’n Chunky Butter Chicken Curry Soup from Heinz. At least, I can recommend it until I eat it once too often and become completely sick of it. But for now, it still gets the thumbs up from me.

And for dessert, I got some Creme Caramel. At least that’s sort of solid.

Well, the pain never came. Not from the extraction, anyway. I took the painkillers and antibiotics as instructed, but oddly enough, even after the anaesthetic completely wore off and I was in between drugs, I didn’t have any pain. I stopped taking the painkillers after the first day to see how I went, and it still didn’t hurt so I just finished off the antibiotics on their own.

Today I had an appointment to put the separators in, to make spaces between my teeth to make putting the braces on easier. The appointment started off with the orthodontist’s assistant going through the standard stuff about what foods to be careful of or to avoid completely, and then she showed me the horror photos of people who hadn’t cleaned their teeth properly while having braces.

I also got to ask her a few questions, which was really good because I was still trying to decide whether to get the clear braces or just the ordinary metal ones. I think I’ve decided to go with the metal ones, which I didn’t initially think I’d want, but for various reasons I think they’ll be better for me.

After my chat with her, the orthodontist put the separators in - 4 on the bottom and 4 on the top. They felt pretty uncomfortable at first, and it hurt to chew, and the discomfort got to the point where I just took a Panadol to try to ease the pain a bit. A bit wimpy, but it really is hurting! I never thought that I’d be taking painkillers for this, but not the extraction.

So, it’s a week until I get the braces put on, and I’m actually looking forward to it so I can get these stupid separators taken out. I know it will still be uncomfortable with the braces on, but it will be a different kind of discomfort, and at least I’ll be able to chew properly.

Well, I’m back from my overseas trip, which was brilliant. I may post more about it later, but the purpose of this post is to indulge in some self-pity.

My orthodontic treatment has officially started, with a tooth extraction today. I’d never had any injections at the dentist before, so I’ve been feeling pretty worried about it, not knowing what to expect. Everyone has said that it won’t be that bad, and I won’t feel anything, but no matter how much people try to reassure you, it still doesn’t entirely calm the nerves.

I had to fill out a form at the dentist, and one of the questions was ‘Are you feeling anxious about receiving dental treatment?’ I put ‘yes’, because I thought they might give me some extra-powerful drugs or something The dentist was really nice, and I think he was especially nice because I answered ‘yes’ to that question. He explained what was going to happen, and then started. I guess none of this will be news to you if you’ve had dental work done, but the injections were ok. They stung a bit but they weren’t too bad. After that, he made some small talk, which I thought was partially to make sure I wasn’t going to freak out and bolt from the room, and partially to be able to tell how well the anaesthetic was working. The fact that I could hardly talk probably proved that it was doing its job.

So then he started the extraction, and soon after he started I heard and felt a snap. Ugh. He kept poking and digging around, and used the drill at one point, and had to put a stitch in at the end. Afterwards he explained the roots had snapped so he had to dig them out individually, hence the need for the stitch. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and gave me a rundown of instructions, and that was that. Fortunately, M was with me and he went in and got my drugs while I waited in the car, and I’m sitting here now with half of my face numb, having had my first drug cocktail, and waiting for the numbness to wear off (and the pain to set in).

So, all in all the extraction was ok (but the dentist said there wouldn’t have been quite so much digging around required if it had been done when I was younger), but it made me grateful that I had a general anaesthetic when I had my 4 wisdom teeth out - sitting through one of those was bad enough, but three more wouldn’t have been pleasant!

The appointments have been made, and the day I’m getting my braces has been set for December 13th. They could have done it before we went away, but if they had, I would only have had the braces for a month or so before we left, and that just feels like a bit too little time for me. Plus, since I’m waiting until I get back, I’ll be able to eat whatever I want while I’m away, which is always good when you’re on holiday!

I’m kind of dreading it, especially since I have to have a tooth extracted (that’s the bit I’m dreading most), but I’m also looking forward to getting started.