Day 2

Not much change since yesterday if I'm honest, I was hoping I would wake up to a miraculous adjustment and no lisp! Well I was dreaming because this is certainly not the case and if anything I feel like I sound worse than ever! I feel like its more to do with the air rattling through the brackets/wire than anything else, although attempting to block these up with wax did not help at all!

Speaking of wax - what a pulava that was!!! I dont get the wax thing at all, clearly everyone else with braces knows something I dont because I cant for the life of me get it to stick! I know you're supposed to dry the braces first... which in itself is a mission, coz how the hell do you dry the inside of your mouth!? Well I gave it my best shot with a tissue, which first of all was like chewing on cotton wool!! (eeeeek that awful squeaking against your teeth that goes right through me!!) And then second of all I got bits stuck to the wire, which I then had to lick off, and was right back to square one with wet braces again!! Oh joy!! After several attempts i managed to squidge bits on here and there... found it helped to squidge around the wax a little bit like you would do with bluetack before you stick it on the wall... although still did not like sticking where I wanted it! And I did not enjoy putting anymore pressure on my already aching teeth!! So when I finally got some of it stuck on, and realised it had only served to make my lisp worse I gave up on the whole thing and took it off again! (A mission in itself because at this stage I dont really know what it supposed to be there and what is wax! Surely it has to get easier as time goes by!?!?!)

On the bright side, the pain seemed to have subdued overnight and was down to the occasional ache- not helped by this morning's brushing and waxing experience!! I have to confess I did not floss this morning, despite promising my ortho I would floss religiously twice a day!! I couldnt face it after last night but i have promised myself to super floss this evening instead to make up for it!!

My tongue still feels ok, brackets are not the most comfortable thing ever I'll be honest, but still no major sores or cuts on the tongue which is a definite bonus!

Eating - now thats been interesting!! I had salmon and mashed potato last night, weetabix for breakfast (with lots of milk so it was basically mush - I used to hate mushy weetabix but I have a sneaking suspicious it will quickly become my best friend!!) and I just had raviolli for lunch. I used to LOVE eating, love going out for meals, snacking in between and generally snaffling whatever was put in front of me! So I'm disappointed to find I cant chew properly because of the brackets, it doesnt seem to taste the same anymore, and I am hating the feeling of half-mushed food swirling around and getting stuck in my braces. It takes a long time, it hurts, and it feels really really strange!! And i cant imagine biting anything properly ever again!! I take small cautious chews with the sides of my mouth but most of my food I am sorta sucking until it slides away down my throat so that I chew as little as possible! Eugh its horrible!! I am beginning to wonder why I thought this was such a good idea!!

Am also concerned over the amount of popping my jaw is doing... I dont think this is quite normal! Its always clicked a bit, which I think is to do with my misaligned bite. But the extra addition to my mouth seems to have changed where I hold my jaw, and it doesnt like it, but I cant put it back in the normal place because the brackets stop it going there! So it is aching and feels stiff, and will only open so far... until I force it really wide open when it does a really loud click and then feels normal again... for a moment until I shut it again back in its funny new position!! I'm going to leave it a few days then maybe contact my ortho for a bit of advice, but I'm terrified he'll say I have to take them off again when I've come so far in finally having them fitted!! But dont want to ignore it altogether in case I end up doin more harm than good... oh dear oh dear!! :(

Overall trying to stay positive but failing miserably at times. Have found some comfort in archwired.com where i discovered someone a week ahead of me, but equally as miserable/trying to be optimistic and it has definitely helped to share my woes with someone who understands... but I really just want my normal speech back! To my braces - you can throw the pain at me, I can take that...you even took my much loved food!!!.... but dont take my voice away!!! Please give it back!!! I know that I need to talk for my mouth to get used to it, but I dont want to!! I've only told a few people about my braces and they have since tried to be nice and tell me its 'not that bad', but then the amount of times they have to ask me to repeat myself is giving the game away big time! Am just hoping another week or two and I'll be talking like my normal self again! Fingers crossed!!!!