I got an unexpected break from the norm about a week ago when I was summoned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital last Thursday for an initial checkup in relation to the much anticipated, but still very daunting, orthognathic surgery planned since 2009. After the nightmare with the dentistry bill (which I'm still extremely pissed off about), I was initially given a date of November 2nd to undergo the surgery.

Today I received a phonecall from the surgeon. He advised that they had a cancellation and they wanted me to come in tomorrow, have my orthodontist fit the surgical hooks to the braces this afternoon. My boss almost strangled me with the amount of backbending she had to do to get me 2 weeks of unpaid leave (yes, unpaid x.x).

Essentially, what the surgeon is going to be doing is cutting and separating my mandible (the lower jaw, chin, teeth and all) from the joint, pulling it forward, and fixing it in place with a few plates and screws. It's an excruciatingly painful, risky, and face-changing process, which will mean I'm off solid foods for 6 weeks. Having the surgery now means that it won't cut into MiDFur, but it's already thrown me out of routine.

For the 2 weeks I'll be out of action, I'll be in all sorts of pain, and struggling to consume and live off nothing but yoghurt and ice cream >.>. I've also been told of risks ranging from relapse to infection, to permanent loss of feeling in my chin. I'm scared shitless, and having the surgery happen on such short notice isn't helping me.

That said, the surgery isn't likely to kill me (hopefully), so I'll be back to normal in a few weeks. I have a lovely ram face (that's you,  leafian) to keep me occupied for the time being and lots and lots of ice cream to snack off ^_^