Answered Prayer and Why I'm About to Look Very Different

 

It's amazing what nice weather and a trip to the park can do for one's spirit!

Landen and I went to the park with some friends this morning.  The temperature?  47 degrees.  But you wouldn't believe how warm 47 feels after our long, long winter we've been having.  So, while a trip to the park when we're not shivering is an answer to prayer, I received another very shortly after I shot this picture.

I got a call from Jon with some amazing news- the surgeons office called and said that insurance has approved my surgery!   Praise God!  After months of claims and denials, they've finally agreed to help us pay for this necessary (not cosmetic, like they kept claiming) surgery on my jaw.  

We've been praying specifically for this for such a long time - or for complete healing- because it seemed like an impossible situation.  I was faced with the decision of waiting this out, with the indefinite result of my jaw breaking itself because of all the bone degeneration and loss of ligament that has a occurred, or find a way to pay for a $100,000 surgery that insurance  most likely wouldn't help with.  So, we took a chance, a leap of faith,  and started the treatment that would lead to surgery, and we did this knowing our chances were small that insurance would pay, but trusting that God would somehow provide.  

And, giving all praise and thanks to Him, He did!  He's provided.

We are still faced with the portion that insurance won't pay (at this point, we don't know how much that will be), but I'm also trusting for this to be worked out as well.

And I wrestled with whether or not to post the predictive pictures the doctors made and sent to me.  They include the before and predicted after pictures of my face after this structurally changing surgery and I decided that I couldn't.  It makes some of my facial shortcomings painfully noticeable and I'm just not brave or strong enough to do that just yet.   Maybe someday after this is all done I'll be brave enough.  :)

I will, however, tell you that I'll have a much stronger jawline with much more open airways and  healthy joints that will lessen my sometimes very painful and long lived headaches.  I'll also have less of my gummy smile and more of a natural one.  

I struggled for a while with this inevitable change,  knowing that I'd be changing the health of my joints for the good, but also the structure of my face would be different than how I was made, different than what God originally gave me, and different from how my family and especially my kids have always known me.  

However, over time I've come to embrace it.  I know that this will make me healthier, able to breath better, and possibly easier on the eyes!  Ha!  And when all is said and done, I'll have (if I remember correctly) 16 screws in and around my jaw. Yikes!

If you'd like to read about the beginning of my TMJ story, click here.

P.S.  I'm linking up to Things I Can't Say today!  Thanks, Shell, for hosting a meme where I can pour my heart out!  :)