2 weeks and counting!

Exactly 2 weeks from today I will be lying on an operating table, getting my jaw broken and fixed.... or reset. It has been a long time coming. On Monday I had the surgical wire put in by my orthodontist and he happily said " see you in 6 weeks, for a look at your new smile", I had a moment of fear that I wouldn't be fully recovered and they would start moving my teeth back. Since for the last 2 weeks my teeth have been killing me, and now that I had the new wire in plus hooks between each tooth...... my mouth was on fire ,as I headed for the door. But he reassured me that it would only be a check up and no really work done on that first visit back after my surgery. I would not be going back to see him for a wire change, till mid July. So that was a little load off my mind. Still as we get closer and closer to the actually day.... I'm torn between excitement and fear.... I know it is for the best, but still I have a fear of going totally under for this surgery and also how much pain I will be in afterwards. I'm sure it will be fine....hundreds of people go thru it every year with my surgeon. I just like to know all the unknowns.... which they really can't tell me, till they start cutting into my month... and then it will be too late to prepare. I have written a page or so of questions that I need to ask the surgeon.... I have been complying it for a couple of weeks now, as I think of stuff... or someone asks me a question I can't answer.
Last night as I was watching T.V., I started to think about how much I have gone thru with my mouth..... I mean it all started when I was really little and the dentist would tell my parents that I had to stop sucking my thumb or it would mess up my teeth.... well no matter what they did, I wouldn't quit...and it really didn't do anything to my actually teeth..... so they finally just gave up and figured that I would need braces whether I sucked my thumb or not..... I have a small mouth and never got a few teeth baby teeth and for that matter adult teeth, so I had lots of spaces in my mouth, but for the most part the teeth were straight. So jump up to age 12 when I get my first set of braces on. I have them on till age 16, since during the 4 years I would have baby teeth pulled, wisdom teeth pulled and teeth uncovered, plus have to wait for teeth to move correctly. Finally I have the braces removed and get a retainer... which I wear till age 22, first everyday then just at night after a few years. But by the time I graduated college, the nice overbite and pretty teeth I had left the orthodontist with when the braces were removed, had now gone to an under bite. At first it was no big deal, but after a year or so, my jaw started to hurt. So my dentist suggested that I go see an orthodontist again..... were I got a bite guard for night time. Which lasted about 6 months.... and I got another one.....which again last about another 6 months. Then the orthodontist referred me to a physical therapist and the oral surgeon. I went to the oral surgeon first, he looked at me and said I had T.M.J. and I could have surgery, at that time there was about a 70% change of success. So I told him I would think about it and headed over to the physical therapist. I started by going 2x a week...... then it got down to 1x a week and it was working for about a year... then it did nothing for my pain, so I stopped it, but not before they told me to try a memory pillow at night. Off to the store I went to get that..... which worked for a while. So I talked to my dentist again...who made me a different bite guard for night time.... which work till about a year and 1/2 ago. So after 10 years of suffering and trying different methods... it came time for me to go back to the oral surgeon and maybe have the procedure. This time when I went back, he told me there was a 90 % chance of success. So that was good enough for me..... and the rest is history...
Like I said in the beginning of this post..... I'm just counting down my days...... only 14 days to go.........