Day 49: Serendipity and Jay Leno . . .

You know, writing a blog every day about the recovery process and everything to do with jaw surgery has been an interesting process but I confess, at times, that I find myself wondering about what I am going to write about on a particular day. I could tell that today was going to be one such day until I had a conversation with someone about my surgery.

So instead of writing about nerves, swelling, talking, eating, scar tissue, cleaning teeth, etc., I thought instead that I would simply write about events and how you never know why things happen but invariably they happen for a reason . . .

We have some friends who have a child who is in need of some Orthognathic work and although they had visited other surgeons and Orthodontists over the past year or so and received recommendations as to how to proceed, for whatever reason they never moved forward on the recommendations.

Both my wife and I, in discussing my surgery with them, as well as talking to them about the jaw surgery work that their son apparently needs, felt like my surgeon (Dr. Egbert) would be a great fit for their son and we highly recommended him to them. Not only does Dr. Egbert have 20+ years of experience in this field but he has a personality that makes you feel at home as it were and as I have discussed before, I think having a great relationship with your surgeon in many ways is equally as important as the credentials and experience that a surgeon may posses. This would especially be true I think for a teenager or younger adult.

So, our friends made an appointment with Dr. Egbert and sufficed to say both their child and the parents loved him! Jaw surgery is now scheduled to take place in a few months time and everything will be taken care of which is fantastic! We are really excited for them and know that everything will turn out like they want and it will be a great benefit in so many ways for their child.

What has this to do with my blog you might ask. Well, many people ask me why I even write this blog as comparatively speaking, it isn't as if I have thousands of people looking at the blog everyday and I have no advertisements on the blog so really, what is the point?!

Two things to think about in context of the above story; firstly, being able to share my experiences is cathartic not just for me personally but it also allows others who are thinking of this surgery to understand on some level what they might expect in terms of pre and post-surgery preparation and recovery. I know that for me personally, this was exceptionally beneficial in reducing my anxiety and preparing me for the surgery and recovery process.

Secondly, our friends are convinced that it was meant to be that they use Dr. Egbert as for the past year they simply have not felt right about the other medical practitioners they have visited and consequently appointments were not made, surgeries were not scheduled, etc. However, after meeting Dr. Egbert, they all felt really positive about him and the direction he recommended and most importantly, their child feels excited about moving forward. You just never know why certain things happen and the serendipitous nature of life do you . . .

Moving on to lighter fare, someone at our local church asked my wife today how I was progressing to which my wife responded that I was doing much better. The individual responded by saying that, "I see that he [me!] is going the Jay Leno route". What does that mean!@!?

When we returned home, I took a not-very-good-photo of my profile (picture on right)  to see what on earth he was going on about! Now I recognise that my facial swelling causes my face to look different that it eventually will look like (cheeks swollen, lips swollen, overall profile affected by swelling, etc.,) but really, Jay Leno?! Now if that isn't enough to make you question surgery, I don't know what would be! :)