Finally!

I have been such a terrible blogger lately! I read my sister's, my aunt's, and a couple friends' blogs all the time and I think "I need to get better at that". So here is my new goal: I will write in my blog at least once a week no matter how short it may be. I've also decided to veer slightly away from our original intentions with this blog. I still love sharing our experiences as we learn and grow and have fun together, but sometimes I just want to write about what's going on. Especially since I don't see friends and old roommates as often as I used to.

It has now been two months since my surgery and I am feeling tons better! I can open my mouth about 35mm...as opposed to the 16mm pre-surgery. The average woman's mouth-span is 40mm so only 5 to go! Woo-hoo! I've also got to say, I love physical therapy!!! Every time I go I leave feeling so great! My physical therapist specializes with jaw recovery and he is amazing. He does these exercises with me, massages my jaw and face and does some heat treatments that help me feel tons better. I am finally nearing the point when I can eat most foods again. My goal is steak and Sunday night we are having it for my mom's birthday...so we'll see how it goes. After steak, my next step is carrots and dip. Never knew how much I loved carrots until going on almost 6 months without them.

Matt and I are doing well, for all those who feel like we've been MIA lately. I have the best husband in the world, who has been taking care of lots of extra housework and cooking while I make this long and slow recovery. We've been dealing with tons of crap from the insurance company who has decided they want to pay none of my surgery costs. Excellent. =P Our second appeal hearing is on September 22nd, so wish us luck!

Surgery

Well, I know that it's been a while and it's totally my fault this time. What finally prompted to get an entry written was Stacy's surgery. She had her surgery yesterday and it was a complete success. For those of you that don't know, Stacy's been suffering from TMJ for several years now, but about three months her jaw locked up and it has been locked since. We went to our family doctor who sent us to our dentist who sent us to an oral surgeon. After looking at Stacy's jaw he told us that she has the most sever case of TMJ that he has ever seen in 12 years. He ordered some CAT scans and after taking a look at those he felt that surgery would be the best option. Stacy went into surgery yesterday at about noon and got out about an hour and a half later. They had to reshape the cartilage on the right side and reposition it inbetween her jaw and her skull. The left side was better news. The joint and the cartilage looked good and all there was was some inflamation. About an hour or two after surgery they let her go home. Right after I got her home and into bed she looked up at me and told me that she had changed her mind and that she didn't want to have surgery any more. Poor girl. She was feeling pretty cruddy yesterday, but today she seems to be doing better. Sadly, I couldn't stay with her because I couldn;t take the time off of work. Thankfully, our good friend Breezy said that she'd spend the day with Stacy and take care of her. Thanks again Breezy. You're the best and we love you. And so as not to leave anyone else out, there were several people who offered to look after Stacy, make food, and take care of the dogs. We want you all to know how much we love and appreciate all of the phone calls, text messeges, prayers, and concern for Stacy from both friends and family alike. We love you all so much and we don't know what we'd do without you. We also want to say thank you to Dr. Blaine Austin, the oral surgeonwho preformed the surgery.

If there's anyone else out there that's suffering from TMJ or think that you may have TMJ, below are some other sites with some pretty good information:

The TMJ Association
EMedicineHealth
Consumer Guide to Dentistry
MedicineNet.com
MayoClinic.com