Why I needed surgery

My Story: 

Let me take you back to the summer of 2007. This was the best summer of my life. I met one of my best friends this summer. We were skaters. We skateboarded everywhere. And one night my board seemed a little unstable. So that night I let my friends’ dad see it. He fixed, but told me it wasn’t going to last very long. I should have listened…

The next morning I got a text from my other friend. He wanted to hang out. Well, I was grounded. I don’t remember what I did, but I clearly remember being grounded. Anyway, I needed a way to get out of the house. So I walked in the kitchen and hid the milk and bread. Then I told my Mom we needed milk and bread. She gave me money to go to the Deli. The Deli is about 25 minutes away in walking distance. That’s when I grabbed my skateboard.

At this point I met up with my friend. And we started going to the Deli. There are some pretty big hills on the way. We rode down every single one. Everything was going fine. My board was riding smoothly. Then we hit the BIG hill. I call it Death Hill because I already crashed on it once. Except that was on my bike (no helmet, no front breaks). We walked up that hill. Once we reach the top we realize that there was a lot of construction going on. We didn’t care. We proceeded to skate down this hill. And you know how in construction sites they have that weird sand? Well, my board didn’t like it. I tried to turn and control it and I went flying! All I remember is my face hitting the asphalt.

Before you ask, No, it did not hurt. The only one thing that was running through my head was how the heck am I going to hide this from my parents?! My friend was freaking out. We continued to walk to the Deli. So I can try to get cleaned up. And so I could get milk and bread…

I finally made it home. I ran in the bathroom to see the damage. My nose was broken and my 4 front teeth were pretty much gone or dangling. So I had to tell my parents, because I obviously couldn’t hide it.

My dad made me a dentist appointment later on that day; my dentist shaved down my four front teeth and put a one piece appliance on them. The appliance looked exactly like four teeth. You couldn't even tell when I smiled. I looked “normal”. This one piece appliance was in my mouth for 3 years. Since I was only 13 when this happened, I wasn’t done growing. So everything was moving in my mouth while my four front teeth were set in that one position.

The pain didn't even start until I was in 10^th grade. It was marching band season. And it wasn’t my mouth that was hurting. It was my ears. My ENT said my ears were inflamed. This pain kept reoccurring for months. So he put tubes in my ears to try and release some pressure. The pain didn’t stop and I started to have trouble chewing. That’s when my ENT felt my jaw. He said it was very tight. He actually looked really concerned. I should also mention this all was causing vertigo....

To make this extremely long story short: I saw my NEW dentist. He sent me to physical therapy. That didn’t work. Then he sent me to an orthodontist. A year later I was in braces. My and I had my first surgery to expand my upper palate. The pain started to get worse. I was having terrible headaches, I had a lot of difficulty chewing foods, my jaw was locking, clicking, and having spasms, and I was having even more difficulty trying to play my trombone.

Now it's 2012. And On January 25th I underwent upper jaw surgery.

For those who don’t feel like reading all that, here is the breakdown:

-         Got in a skateboarding accident

-         Dentist put an appliance in my mouth and my jaw grew wrong.

-         In lots of pain

o       Jaw pain

o       Difficulty chewing

o       Jaw locks and clicks

o       Headaches

o       Ear pain