It's Time!!!

<------ Attractive, Right?! Not...

  I just got this in today! I was very scared about this whole situation. This is what it looks like and where it goes, as you can see. 

 I was in the waiting room, scared to death and I felt like I had butterflies in my stomach. They called my name. I went into the room and saw the chair that I was supposed to sit in. They had me sit in the chair and lean back. The lady took my spacers out and tried on my expander to see if it fit on my teeth. She had to adjust it a little bit to make it fit right. Then the orthodontist took a look at the fit of my palate expander. It fit wonderfully. Then the lady took it out again and this time she grabbed the cement and told me how bad it would taste and I was feeling JUST GREAT. She sprayed the cement into my back molars and you should have seen my face when I accidentally tasted it. Boy, did that taste gross! Then she put the palate expander into the top of my mouth and a wire to go across the bottom of my mouth. Then I had to go wash my mouth out afterwards. Then she showed my mom how to turn this key thingy-ma-jig in my palate expander. Then, we went home. 

I had a VERY HARD time swallowing and talking. I cried a lot when I couldn't swallow. I also had a lot of spit coming out of my mouth because my mouth was still getting used to it. The orthodontist says it can take 24 hours for your salivary glands to stop going crazy. My mom and I played some games and watched a movie to get my mind off of the horrible subject. It took a lot of practice to learn how to swallow for the first 24 hours. Eventually I was able to drink a smoothie and eat chicken noodle soup and applesauce.

The sides of my cheeks hurt for a while and were annoyed by the brackets on my molars.

What really helped me through it was the fact that there was another blogger out there who is named Colin. He helped me realize how you're not the only one out there who is trying to go through this.

So, if you have a palate expander, just be sure not to give up on the first day. Say, "I will conquer this device. I will not let it conquer me!"
 
 

This is a bag that they sent home containing all the stuff that I might need.

This is what was in that bag sent home.  As you can see, they gave me toothpaste, wax (for putting on the brackets so they don't hurt my cheeks), floss threaders for when I get my braces, floss, a baby chapstick, a little brush thingy-ma-jig for cleaning out my expander, and a toothbrush.  I already have an electric toothbrush.

This is the weird key thingy-ma-jig.  My mom sticks the pointy end into a little hole in my expander and turns it to make it expand.

This is called a sand dollar. I earn it by wearing this T-shirt to the orthodontist and having clean teeth.  If I collect enough sand dollars, I can earn prizes like pizza and movie tickets.

This would be the free T-shirt. They had a lot of different ones to choose from.