Soldiering on

5 months 14 days

Blogging steam is back, it appears…and so is my general enthusiasm for life. I was a little grumpy in the last post…which does happen to ordinary and otherwise peace loving human beings such as I— happy times and grumpy times are all part of life.

Interesting thing about this blog is that it’s usually quiet, then out of the clear blue it gets mad traffic. I am still yet to figure out the science there.

ANYHOO…

I had decided prior to my fifth appointment not to have any expectations.

As soon as I was propped on the dentist’s chair, the dentist-assistant, perhaps in his early 50’s (also mentioned in  http://gotbraced.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/introducing-pinky-braci-ani/) began to prepare to remove the elastics. That is when I noticed something on his arm.

“You have a tattoo!” I gasped in disbelief. He pulled back his arm to hide it. Too late.

Now, this guy is the picture of a pastor in a story book. A tattoo is the last thing I expected. And especially one shaped like a love heart with cupid’s arrow striking through.

“I was in the military in the seventies.  We did this for fun. I have them everywhere.”

The orthodontist walked in as the assistant told military stories.

It was back to work. Mouth open, elastics removed. Hooks screwed loose and then voila. They removed the arc wire!

“Will I brush my teeth?” I asked eagerly.

“You brought your toothbrush?” the orthodontist asked.

“Yep.”

And that marked the end of that idea. Needless to say, there was so much to do; I didn’t get to brush my teeth.

In between putting a new arch wire, and cutting it to fit, conversation ensued.

“So where did you grow up?” asked the dentist.

“Mombasa.”

“Haiya, so you went to school  there?”

“High school was in Nai,” I said.

“Which one?”

I told him. 

It turned out we cleared high school the same time. He went to a high school that we interacted with much, back in the day. This is like WAY WAY WAY back. (Hyperbole is allowed in blogs, is it not?)

No wonder he had this young-ish thing about him.  

There was much —“Did you know so-and-so?"   — that went about after this revelation.

Back to braces….(and more recently rubber bands)

I have worn rubber bands for more than a month. I have also discovered that nearly everyone so far that I know; who’s had or has braces, wore rubber bands at some stage in their treatment especially towards the end. And the way I thought it was such a big deal. It was breaking news!! *sigh*

I seem more aware of the rubber bands than I did before my fifth appointment. I try to stretch them for fun. The other day, I opened my mouth wide to try and snap it to show off to my workmate. They took forever to snap, but when they did it was PAINFUL.
The other night I wore two - to speed things up a bit...It was the classic case of lock-jaw..not felt that tight in my life. My head spun from the pressure!No more double-double- for this here lady!

Oh, and I can play a melody too!! Well, not a real melody but it does make a stringed-instrument sound, it does! Oh oh and most of all I always eat with them. They snap 80% of the time but that does not deter me. The motto is “stay or snap but no taking out!.”
I nearly forgot to mention, there's absolutely no scarring with the rubber bands. It holds those offending teeth so tightly together they have no opportunity to go near my delicate inner cheek! WoHooo!!

My fellow bracefaces friend (both former and current) all think I must be in the last stages for my orthodontist to have me wear rubber bands. I am trying not to get too excited about this. Trying not to think about the possibility that it could end sooner than I imagined.... just in case it doesn’t. I want to leave room for that. I crush easily,  you know, I need to create soft landing way in advance. Meanwhile, I soldier on!

So my birthday is coming up soon. In 4 days…Yay!! This is a special and very significant birthday J. And I plan to do a very special blog. Look out!!

(Still clueless about  how many) days to go