2011 has had a busy start on the medical front, but it has been positive. (I have been brainwashed to have this 'sunny outlook', I know it doesn't suit me.)

Last week I met with my surgeon, orthodontist and neuromuscular dentist. More measurements were taken, x-rays were admired (I take a pretty picture) and lots of photos of my face, shoulders and hips (!!!) were taken. After much discussion, we agreed on my treatment plan for the coming 18 months. I was surprised by how unusual my condition is, with one of the most respected surgeons in the world telling me he'd only seen 20 cases like it in 30 years of surgery. My treatment plan isn't really set in stone (bone?) as my jaw has proven to be a fairly unpredictable little bastard and thus things may deviate slightly. There's a lot of 'playing by ear' to be done but, essentially, I will have traintrack braces for six months to help prepare me for surgery, I will then definitely have my upper jaw broken and moved about (Le Fort I osteotomy) and my lower jaw may have to be broken and manipulated too. After the surgery and the inevitably horrible recovery time, I will stay in braces to 'finish me off' and then the braces will come off and I'll have restorative work done. It's not a quick process (I've already been undergoing treatment for a couple of years and I have at least a couple more ahead) and they're not entirely sure it will even work to reduce my pain, but it will improve my functionality (I'm describing myself as if I'm a robot) and I'll be able to eat/sleep and talk like a proper human person again. Which will be nice. And if the pain is not significantly improved and I haven't thrown myself down the stairs, they can get to looking at my neck more closely. But the first port of call = JAW.

My braces go on next week, so yesterday I saw my neuromuscular dentist to have some electromyography (EMG) analysis work done. I basically got wired up to a computer which analysed my muscle activity in my temporal, masseter, trapeze and *other I can't remember* muscles. I looked like this man for a couple of hours....    

The results were pretty fascinating and I'm *very* lucky to have had such clever clogs testing done here in the UK, apparently I'm only one of half a dozen patients who have had it on our fair island. So that's kinda cool. Some of my results were a bit weird (heaven forbid they'd be normal) and so will be looked at by an even cleverer doctor person all the way in Seattle, but in general the results were as to be expected with my level of discomfort. My temporal muscles are pretty much flat lining because they're chronically fatigued from years of supporting my horrid jaw, whilst the muscles in my neck are working eight times as hard as they should be even in their most relaxed state. They're basically all over the place...and my left and right sides are behaving very differently, which makes sense as my left and right jaw joint are not equally unhappy. (I can still make my furthest back teeth meet on my left side, I cannot make contact at all on the right.) I had practically non-existent muscle recruitment, and I have no bite force at all. It all made a lot of sense and was a nice little bit of proof as to why my diet generally consists of painkillers and baby food. These results will help shape my treatment, and hopefully by the next time I have EMG analysis I'll be getting ever so closer to healthy averages. I'll have further EMG work done just before my surgery, after my surgery, then after the final braces are removed. 

Whilst those results now go to my surgeon and orthodontist, I have also been having more ceph x-rays and chasing up all previous x-rays from the Homerton hospital to see how much my jaw structure has changed. Again, a lot of this is just to allow us to have good 'before and after' evidence, but my surgeon also needs to check that my jaw isn't too weak to even have the surgery...because this isn't the kinda shit you can do twice.

So today I had separators put between my back teeth to prepare me for having my braces fixed on next week. I am pretty much always in agony, but the pain in my mouth right now is at a new level of gag-dom. Pretty unhappy over here but POWERING THROUGH. Just. Yes.

The bands are blue and match my nails. 

And as I suppose the bands are already working, I guess I should really document my official 'before' photos. This is my jaw fully closed, you can see how fugly my open bite is in all its glory...

Next time I post here will be with photos of my braces. If you laugh at my ugly traintrack mouth then I will punch you so hard that you'll need your own jaw surgery, deal? DEAL. Don't mess with brace face xxx