One Last Thing...

... until tomorrow that is =)
        I forgot to tell you all that I'm officially approved for surgery! I'm healthy enough for them to cut my face open. I feel very accomplished.
        Anyway, here's some valuable advice. When you ask the nurse if she's good at drawing blood, and she just laughs at you, FIND A NEW NURSE. She is not laughing because she's extra happy, she's laughing because she doesn't want to tell you the truth... she's awful at her job This lady poked my arm a bunch of times, and still couldn't find a vein. Then, she decided it would be a fun time if she did a 360 with the needle while it was my arm. We finally asked for someone who was 'a little bit better at this', and guess what! On first try, she was able to find a vein. Congratulations NYU, you have at least one competent nurse!
     That's really it for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll have a lot to write about. We move into the 'apartment' (it's one room I believe) and get ready for the big day. My jaw will no longer be all opposite and confused! (major accomplishment on my part)
GOOD BYE!!!

To Do List While in the Hospital

This was taken from a Grey's Anatomy Episode. It's some suggestions for how I can amuse myself while I am half dead. :-)

1)run through the halls screaming "code red" just to see what happens

2)walk around drowsily saying "morphine makes everything pretty".

3)counsel patient

4)counsel doctors

5)pick up a defibulator and run around yelling "clear"

6)walk up to people and say "what happens in the OR stays in the OR"

7)ask interns how much money they make

8)answer hospital phones

9)hide in storerooms and hand people supplies

10)go up to the psych ward, sit in a corner and rock back and forth muttering "4 8 15 16 23 42"

11)fake a seizure

12)tell people you need a brain scan because your brain is "abby-normal"

13)put casts on sleeping people

14)give doctors sleeping pills

15)foam at the mouth and tell people that you have rabies

16)steal people's wheelchairs and go on joy rides

17)pretend to od on morphine and walk around petting people and saying "good dogie"

18)strap patients to stretchers and roll them down hallways

19)go up to the psych ward and confuse the patients

20)hold a wheelchair derby

my food for the next 8 weeks... JOY

well this is unfortunate :-)

HI PEOPLE!!!!

        Okay, so long story short... I don't breathe (much). This is due to an obnoxiously small airway. And, according to the professionals, not breathing (much) isn't very beneficial to one's health. Therefore, it's necessary to break my face, make a bunch of adjustments to it, and put it together again. On June 1st, I will undergo a Lefort 1  jaw advancement surgery. Sounds like fun... right?
        This all started a couple years ago when I went to have a simple consult about my bite. As soon as my xrays were seen by the room full of doctors, they realized that my airway was about 2 mm wide. Thus began a three year love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with the world of orthodontics. Immediately following this appointment, I had a sleep study. According to this study, I stopped breathing 82 times in an hour, and had no REM sleep. According to doctors, I should have stayed behind at least one year in school and been diagnosed with ADHD. Because I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, I had to use a CPAP machine (aka CRAP machine). Two and a half years of braces, machines, and masks later, I'm finally ready for them to fix my jaw.
        I'll try to explain this procedure to the best of my understanding. If everything goes as planned, Dr. McCarthy, Dr. Grayson, and their surgical team will move my top jaw forward 10ish mm. This will hopefully widen my airway to the extent that I no longer stop breathing at night time. If this does not correct the problem, I will have some sort of tongue surgery over winter break.
       For those of you who are just really hearing about this, I'm sure it seems like a lot to take in at once. The past three years have been very overwhelming for me. For the longest time, this surgery seemed like it was lightyears away. Now, I'm just starting to realize that it's soon. Really soon. Honestly, I'm ready to just be done. It's like that last final that you don't want to take, but at the same time you just want to get it over with. I've spent the last three years of my life, at least once a month, going to NYU. It's been a very interesting chapter of my life, to say the least. However, I'm more than ready to close that chapter and move on to better things.
        I'll be updating the blog as often as I can. If you want to read some funny stuff, make sure to look at the entries around June 2nd-5th. Apparently I say/write some pretty interesting things while on pain meds :-) Bye!