The Braces Journey

Today we began a loooooonnnnggg journey with Hanna. We have already had many appointments to get things planned out and to get insurance to pay the bills so that Hanna can get her face put in order. Yes her entire face is going to need work done. She needs braces first then there will be surgery on her jaw and palette. The entire procedure with take at least four years to complete. In that time there will be more appointments then I ever imagined one kid could go through but we have a great team of dentists and surgeons working together to get us where we need to be when this is all done.

Today they started putting the braces on and put some spacers in the back of her mouth. there were lots of tears and she was squeezing my hand so hard that I thought it might fall off but we got it done without putting her to sleep which was a major time saver and less medication for her too. For once she really wanted me to be there and hold her hand, usually she is pushing me away. She chose hot green for the color of her braces (that is what we call Hanna green as it is her favorite color and she always chooses it). Now she does not like the feel of the stuff in her mouth. She has so many sensory issues so this will be a hard one for her. She also can not pick at them because if she does not leave them on then we will be going back to redo what we already did. Since she really does a lot of picking at things I am guessing that we will be redoing work along the way.

This little girl has so many issues that getting her face to look as beautiful as we can will take that social pressure off for her. (It is sad that how people look is that important but it is)/ The fact that things are so out of order is very much affecting how she chews her food and this is a major part of the speech impairment that she has. We will do whatever it takes to get this all done.