I have some dates!

Unfortunately, these dates are not the kind of dates described as tall or handsome with a foreign accent.

As soon as I had published my last post about waiting for insurance approval (honestly, just a few hour later...), we had a letter APPROVING the first surgery.  

Just to remind you:

This first surgery is called Surgically Assisted Rapid Palatal Expansion (SARPE).  The goal is to widen my upper jaw.  Since I am an adult, and my palate bone has connected, Dr. M will go above my upper teeth and cut my palatal bone in half. This will allow the expander appliance to widen my upper jaw and create new bone growth as I crank it with a key every day post-op.  The procedure is done in the hospital but is an outpatient procedure, so I will be home the same day.  I was told that the recovery for this is not as extensive as the second. Dr. M and Chippy, the sweet surgical assistant, said that this will be similar to recovering after my wisdom teeth were removed.  I think that'd be no big deal for a lot of people, but I had a miserable recovery from getting my wisdom teeth out.

After a lot of phone tag today between Dr. M's office (surgeon), Dr. S's office (orthodontist), and Chippy, I finally have a game plan.

February 18 - Orthodontist appointment: This is pretty much to get all our ducks in a row. We might make some molds for the expander, and I'm assuming a chance to talk with Dr. S for a few minutes about everything that's going on.

February 26 - Office pre-op appointment (about 30 minutes) at 11:30, then hospital pre-op appointment  (1-1.5 hours) at 1:00.

March 3? - I hope this is when I will get my expander put on. I'd rather not get it put on too far in advance before the surgery.

March 4 - SARPE day!

That's all I know for now. I'm not sure of post-op appointments yet, but I'll be sure to update all of you as everything progresses.