Day 15/ Serious Sleep Issues, Bite Changes, and Foods to Eat and Avoid.

Man I'm tired! The last four days have been horrible for sleep! I keep waking about a zillion times a night due to various issues. I clench my teeth and grind them a lot when I sleep. My bite is changing by 1/2 a mm each day, and the prongs that protrude from the RPE appliance are now in direct contact with my bottom front eye teeth. They are very sharp and I have awoken several times the past few nights seriously scraping my bottom teeth against them. I half expect to find grooves in my lower teeth, as these little prongs are sharp! If I'm not grinding, them I'm clenching my teeth really hard, and since my bite is out of whack right now it is very uncomfortable when I do this and totally wakes me up. I also have to apply wax to my upper rear top brackets as the hooks keep getting caught in my cheek and waking me up. As if all of this isn't enough, I have the sleep apnea issues too! So if I turn onto my back while sleeping my jaw recedes and blocks my breathing passages.

Since the SARPE, I have not been able to use my sleep apnea appliance (as expected) and I have not been able to use the rubberbands on the brackets in my mouth either. Even though both the OS and Ortho said this added pressure from the rubberbands would not create a problem, they just really are clueless about this whole procedure. Mostly because they have never had one! They can say that something is fine, but not having experience with this whole thing they really don't have a clue as to what it feels like, what is uncomfortable, and just all the contradictions that go along with it. When I use the rubberbands I can seriously feel the pressure in my palate and sinuses. It is not comfortable at all, and therefore not a viable option for sleeping. I will not be done expanding for another 4 days, and then I will have a few months of healing left. I have decided that I need to look into using a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine for a few months til I can go back to using the rubberbands. I have an appt on Wednesday next week to pick one up and learn how to use it. As much as I really don't want to have a mask over my face blowing air down my throat at night, I also can't continue to go without sleep. My insurance is going to cover the cost of the machine so I won't have to pay anything which is nice, and as much as the whole idea of this machine repulses me, I'm also rather looking forward to it as I just want to be able to get a good nights sleep again. I will keep you all posted as to how that goes. Cross you fingers that it will work for me, as if not I'm not sure what we are going to do, this is sortof the last resort, until my lower jaw advancement is done.

One positive thing I have noticed in the last day or so is that my bite is finally starting to line up with my lower teeth. Even though I feel the prongs from the RPE when I bite down in front, I can also feel that my back top molars are now connecting with my lower molars in a much more functional way, AND on BOTH SIDES! I have never had a bite that connected on both sides so that is sortof cool! I have noticed that a couple of my upper teeth are rotated a bit inward and will need to be rotated out a bit to be straight and line up completely, but all in all I have been pleased with the expansion progress. It is still difficult to chew things that are hard. I eat mostly soft food, or things that can be softened by mashing them around. When I eat meat or things that are chewy, I can feel my palate move. It is a pretty creepy feeling and sometimes gives me a headache so I just stick with foods that are easier to eat. My diastema is not getting bigger either. It has been holding at 3mm even with expansions so I'm hoping it will continue to do so, and come back together quickly after we stop expanding.

Here are some of the foods I have found to be compatible with the SARPE and the RPE:

Pancakes (these are awesome! Filling and easy to maneuver around)
Pudding
Potatoes (white or sweet, soft boiled, hashbrowns, mashed, or baked. French fries are difficult)
Eggs (just about any kind, fried need to be cut up good so they don't get caught in the RPE)
Spaghetti (cut up into small bits and eaten with a spoon) or just about any other kind of Pasta (particularly good with cream sauces or ground meat sauce.)
Hamburger patties (cut up small)
Link Sausage (cut into small pieces)
Chicken (soft, cooked in the crockpot is best)
Tuna (mix with mayo and pickle relish, great protein and easy to eat)
Surimi or artificial crab meat (mix with mayo, cut up small. Great source of protein)
Salad (is remarkably easier to eat then I had thought it would be)
Soup (just about any kind, as long as ingrediants are cooked til soft)
Bread (soft french bread is good. Do not eat the crust, as its very hard to chew, and gets stuck easily)
Blueberry muffins (Made from a box, are easy to eat and taste good with little effort.)
Smoothies (Fast, filling, nutrition, easy to drink, and doesn't require a lot of effort.)
Macaroni Salad (ok, can swallow mostly whole if necessary)
Taco Bell Chicken Quesidilla (I was able to eat this pretty easily. It took a bit of manuevering but I got it down and it tasted pretty good)
Cheesecake (yum this is an awesome food to eat, and tastes even better because you don't have to work too hard to get it down)

Things not to eat (I will keep adding these as I find new ones:)

Corn (OMG this stuff is really scary! stay away from it, big time choking hazard)
Bacon (too hard, hurts to chew)
Spinach (gets stuck everywhere)
Spaghetti (long that is not cut up, gets caught and is a choking hazard)
Hard vegetables (just hurt to chew)
Chips of Any Kind (to hard to chew, and since you can't feel your upper teeth they can really poke and cut you up)
Breath mints (hard to control and again a big choking hazard)