April Otwell
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Dentist and Orthopedic

9/28/2017

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Things have been crazy lately but guess what! There’s only 10 more weeks until my bladder augmentation surgery and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m so ready for this surgery so I can start wearing pants again and start tightening my abdominal muscles up! I’m so sick of my quad belly but right now there’s no use of trying to tighten the muscles back up because they will be cut back open in December for my bladder surgery. So until this surgery I just have to deal with it. I’ll go through my game plan on how I plan on doing just that after I’m all healed up from surgery.

Monday I went to the dentist to start the work on my teeth, the left side of my mouth anyway. I needed a filling as well as a crown. I purchased private dental and eye insurance through AlwaysCare for around $40 a month they, which all in all isn’t too bad. They paid for 40% of my crown and 70% of my fillings which even after I was left with a big bill of about $1000! Still I can’t imagine what the bill would have been if I had not of had insurance! So while the dentist was doing his work noticed that on one of my teeth I needed to have a root canal instead of just a normal filling because of the decay had gotten to the root of the tooth. I said okay but I’ve heard bad things about root canals; the pain is horrible, it’s a waste of money, the tooth will most likely need to be pulled later anyway and lots of other things. It would be over $1,050 for a root canal and that’s with my insurance paying about 40%! I’ve decided to just have a extraction done to pull the tooth. It’s going to be about $300 for the extraction. The tooth in question is the same tooth that I had to have extraction a few months back by an oral surgeon, in July I think, but on the opposite side of my mouth and you’ll never even see it because like the one extraction before it’s on the inside roof of my mouth. So on Wednesday of next week I go to have the tooth pulled and hopefully get my permanent crown put in. This temporary crown is about to drive me insane! When I bite down the temporary crown is the only thing that touches.

Tuesday I went to see Dr. Rogenmoser my orthopedic doctor who told me last year to wait until I got my baclofen pump in and regulated to start working on my feet. They are turned inward which is caused by a type of spasticity in a certain muscle in my leg. He looked at my feet and said that he could relax my foot alright but it would be very expensive. Botox is expensive. He wanted to try the less expensive avenue first to see how well it would do. He would inject 100 units of Botox into my muscles, the name now escaping me, on each side. So that’s 200 units of Botox on one leg! Medicare will cover a little bit of the expense so I’m reliable for about $100 a 100 units so in total it’s about $200 for Botox on one foot! I have two feet that are turning inwards. I’m not really sure if he’s going to do both feet right away or just do one at a time. I go back October 20th to get my injections after paying $300+ for the entire procedure, Botox included, and I’ll go back in about six weeks to check on how good it’s done. He said that I would not see Amy results for about four weeks because the medicine has to kick in and activate. If you look on the calendar six weeks after I get the injections will be the Friday of my surgery. We’ll have to plan around the surgery a little bit.

I’ll be finished with my web design certificate by November!! I’m so excited!!! I’m one more step towards my degree in graphic design!!!! I can’t wait to hang my certificate on my wall somewhere!!

My father is also hoping to be moved into his new house that he’s building himself by Christmas of next year which means I should be moving out into my own house around the same time! Hopefully by then I’ll be able to drive on my own. The goal now is to try to go to Houston in March, which gives me the three month I need to completely heal up from my surgery. I was hoping to have it done sooner so I could go sooner but things didn’t turn out that way. If the Houston area wasn’t hit by the hurricane I was going to try to go before this surgery but now I’m busy with the dentist and the orthopedic to get my feet done to be able to stand again.

Needless to say it’s been crazy and it will continue to be crazy around here for a while!!
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Dentist

9/20/2017

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I went to the dentist today for the first time since my abscess tooth was removed back in July, I was really nervous because I absolutely hate the dentist for some reason. Today wasn’t that bad if I have to amit honestly. I went in and signed in, within a few moments I was called to the back. I got settled in before we started getting updated x-rays and then the dentist came in and sing me. He said that I will need all four of my wisdom teeth cut out, one is completely turned on its side and he is not sure how it is not started hurting me yet. He said that I also have a very crowded mouth and that he recommended braces. I’m almost twenty three years old. There is no way I’m getting braces if I can avoid it. So I have decided to do some type of invisible aligners. I will also need two crowns and two more fillings. I have a lot of work to do to keep my teeth healthy so I won’t need anymore work done!! Wish me luck!!
I go back Monday to start doing my work and then Tuesday I go see the orthopedic to start the treatment plan to get my foot contractures gone. I’m on my way to standing finally!!
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Purple Hair... Don't Care

9/6/2017

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Labor day I went and spent four hours at the beauty shop to get rid of my beach blond hair and welcomed my purple hair. I try to go dark for my winter look so I tried out purple!!
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My Surgery is...

9/6/2017

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I traveled down to New Orleans a few days ago to see the other urologist that would be assisting Dr. Winters in my bladder augmentation. His name is Dr. Roth, a pediatric surgeon at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans. He was very nice and agreed with Winters' plan of surgery. He said according to his schedule it would be about 4 to 6 weeks before he could be able to do the surgery, and that was loosely based on his schedule alone not coordinating with a whole other schedule. One of his nurses called the next day with a actual surgery date. December 6! That's 13 weeks from today so I'll be counting down the weeks!!

Here's what I know.
  • My surgery will be December 6, 2017
  • The surgery will take anywhere from 8-12 hours
  • Recovery time is 3 months
  • I'll be in the hospital for 7-10 days
  • I will be admitted December 5
  • My incision will be from the top of my pelvic area to above my belly button
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    Author

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    Paralyzed from the neck down after an ATV rollover at 14, April Otwell is beating the odds the doctors gave her. She's a blogger, fantasy writer, college student, sugar glider guardian and spinal cord injury survivor.  She's even writing her first fiction novel!

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