Money, med school, and mouth pain

I'm over two weeks with Invisalign and I've gotten used to them. They don't hurt any more and I'm actually beginning to prefer to have them in. With them in, my front tooth gap is closed and my teeth look shiny and glossy from the plastic veneer, and the scratchy button are protected. I put in my new tray next week so it will be interesting to see if they hurt again from another adjustment.

This is my last week of acting up in high duties and on the weekend I do my taekwon-do competition. After that, I'll be just going back to regular tkd training for my next belt grading, hopefully netball will begin again, and I can begin preparing to return to study.

I contacted OUM a few months ago about what to do with me, seeing my situation, and it was as if it was a bit too hard to think about that far ahead. So, next month, I will contact them again. When I know what I am doing (I return half way through a term and need to do remedial for neuro) then I can ask my previous mentor if she is willing to continue mentoring me. If she says no, I hope to get clinical rotations at her hospital so I can prove my worth once again and not completely lose the excellent contact I have for my possible future career. I hope to NOT do my first rotation there so I get some sort of experience in-hospital and not look completely clueless.

Samoa has finally opened their new training hospital and I can't wait to check it out.

I went through a period of about a week where I was meditating every morning and I had a lot of mental clarity and came up with some solutions to the clinical placements vs money problems. I am hoping to get in a least a few clinical rotations while still working full-time as an ambo. A year would be ideal. After that I will be refinancing for my last clinical rotations. I am therefore planning to either do overseas rotations/electives (4 weeks each) during my annual leave form work while still being full-time employed and/or after finishing up full-time and using some of the money for tuition fees to support myself OS. IF I left my trickiest placements (to obtain) and Samoa to the very end, I could rent out my house (ie move my stuff out and get the renter to cover my mortgage) and simply stay there seeing as Internship is guaranteed for graduates. I'd then stay on and work as a low-paid doctor over there - just enough to live reasonably comfortably in Samoa. The last piece of the puzzle is my pets. My bf can easily follow me (he's looking forward to living overseas for a year or so). I'll have to meditate more to come up with that solution for the pets. Possibly my parents would take my dog, ad the bf's parents take his dog back for a year, but I'd have to build and pay for a fence at my parents and more my dog interstate AND my folks don't really want pets due to wildlife and lifestyle but they might suck it up for a year to help me sooooooo I'm hoping the untapped powers of my subconscious can come up with something better.

If I had unlimited money then I'd have a lot more options. I could continue to have my boarder who'd look after my dog, but she alone doesn't cover the mortagage. I could possibly get a second boarder in, but then that's a bit of a long-shot finding someone appropriate but then again it is a possibility.

Every body visualise me coming into great amounts of wealth.

One good thing, apart from my epiphany, is that I will soon have enough money from my lovely tax return to cover my owed tuition fees at OUM! Hoorah. So back to the 12-month payment plan I go (hopefully).

Invisalign

I began my Invisalign treatment this week. Oh boy!

So my teeth, cosmetically, aren't that bad. But I don't like them. I had braces as a teen and over the years they have changed. I am about to click over to 35 and I feel my teeth age me most of all. And maybe my weight (I'm still a BMI of around 23. So healthy but not lean but I think I look reasonably fit and healthy). My bite is quite narrow, I have an over-bite, some lower crowding, an uppers gap, and my bite at the back is off and feels uncomfortable. Anyway, it's pretty much nay going to get worse so I decided to fix it now and not wait until I've finished med school (the original plan, for everything, is to defer all major expenses until this time).

It's taken a few months to get my first tray due to needing to get an intial consultation, seeing my dentist for a check up, getting the moods done, and then finally getting my "buttons" (small attachements points for certain teeth) and then first tray fitted.

Oh my word - the pain. They say the first few days of each new tray is painful as that's when the most amount of pressure is exerted. I've had to take pain killers and eat soft food.

The other thing is, with Invisalign, you're supposed to only taken them out for a total of an hour a day to eat, and you must brush and floss before replacing them. They're also a bit difficult to take out. All this combined means I'm only eating my 3 square meals a day. No more snacking, you're not allowed anything but cool water while wearing them. So, I'm thinking, will I lose weight? Firstly, I love to snack. And it's from hand to mouth without stopping to consider. My main meals are usually pretty good. Fruit from breakfast and lunch and a low fat cooked vegan meal for dinner (think steamed veges and rice with a tomato-based sauce) or a leafy green salad. Secondly, because of snacking my main meals aren't always that big. But the last few days with Invisalign they have been. This is what Doug Graham recommends in 80/10/10.

I'd love to get leaner for taekwondo competitions in the next few months.

Also, Invisalign makes your mouth dry and causes some pain to the tongue and gums due to sharp edges. This makes fruit smoothies and mashed veges very appealing. I'll see how I go next week when my teeth adjusts.

My boyfriend likes them. He says they make my lips more pouty. My friend at work though I'd had a lip-job done lol. You really can't see them more any more than half a meter away (normal personal space)' although I do have a slight annoying lisp atm.

I thought sleeping with them in would freak me out due to the choking hazard, but they are well and truly stuck onto my teeth due to the buttons. They take a fair bit of effort to get them out. Hence, no snacking, I don't mind brushing but I hate taking them out.

I found warm water from the shower/bath helps sooth the pain and actually I will take them out and brush them in the shower from now on as its more comfortable on my teeth. I've used some bi-carb soda to clean them (they discolour easily) but I've heard that soaking them in white vinegar works well, so ill try that when I get some vinegar!