Due to the events chronicled in my last post, I am currently wearing my retainer.

It kinda hurts.

By kinda I mean kinda alot, but still better than braces ever were.

Ow.

Dr. Pain

Today I did something I haven't done in almost two years.

No, not updating my blog.

I went to the orthodontist.

I was just supposed to get a wire on my back two molars fixed or removed.

And despite me being a 20 year old woman and supposedly done with treatment, they managed to make me cry in just ten short minutes.

Lady, I KNOW you did NOT just suggest I get braces again just because my tooth moved a couple of millimeters off of "perfect". You people had eight years to mess with me, you are done now. And don't give me this "Well OBVIOUSLY it doesn't seem to bother you, but it drives ME crazy looking at it knowing you had braces. And it doesn't seem that we can get you to wear your retainer." I don't care if it drives YOU crazy.

Look, you're new and you don't know me the way that the people I saw all those years do. You don't know how much more I went through than can be recorded on a chart. You didn't see how I followed every instruction to the letter to try and get out faster. Whole lotta good it did. You didn't see me crying in the car on the way home after most of the appointments. So don't act like I'm some unruly child who can't obey their parent, and don't patronize me.

For those who think I'm overreacting, imagine having a palette expander glued into the roof of your mouth and having to crank it wider every day. Imagine relearning to swallow and talk, and spending the first couple weeks being physically unable to eat enough to satisfy your hunger. Imagine begging your mother in hysterical tears to have them take it out, but all she can do is cry with you because she knows it needs to be left in. Then imagine having the people who did it to you PROMISE it will be six months but quickly have that turn to over a year. And that's only ONE of the appliances I had glued into my mouth over those eight years of treatment. Then imagine how you would feel if after enduring that, trying to keep your eyes on the prize, and finally earning the end result of a beautiful smile, they tried to drag you back and glue some more crap in your mouth.

It really makes me angry that even though I KNOW they can't do anything without my and my parents permission, they can still upset me this much.

GAH.

/venting.