New Job :)

I'm delighted to report I am now back on my 2 feet and will have completed my first week of my new job tomorrow. I'm loving the challenge so far and have really settled in already.

Today I put in my 3rd set of aligners, which I will wear for the next week. They feel a little bit tighter now tonight, naturally enough, but by tomorrow I won't even notice them. The girls in the office only noticed I was wearing them today when they saw me take out of the box after lunch. Below is a picture of me heading off to work and wearing my aligners of course! It's like a "first day at school" picture. My Mum insisted!!

According to the pedometer on my phone, I have gone from taking an average of 10 steps a day over the past five weeks to 10000 steps a day now that I'm working! So at only 9pm, it's bedtime for me!

Goodnight all!

Call me Grace!

My recovery since the accident has been going really well. I am walking without the crutches now. All sympathy and breakfast in bed is well and truly over!! Sitting around all day doesn't really suit me anyway. I'm delighted to be back on my feet. I have also had some extra motivation to get back up and about as I have been offered a 3 month contract as a speech and language therapist in Naas Hospital. Although it's a short contract I'm absolutely delighted to get the chance to gain some postgraduate experience. It also means I don't have to leave the country just yet. My family are very relieved!

A few days ago I had my appointment with Ace Braces to get my next 8 sets of aligners. Again, I will change each set of aligners every week so in 8 weeks I will go back to Ace Braces to assess my progress. At this stage I am so used to wearing the aligners that I barely notice they're there. Sometimes, when I'm talking, I notice that my mouth becomes quite dry when I'm wearing the aligners. This is a very minor inconvenience to have to deal with, though, in fairness.

With the accident I didn't get a chance to share photos of a job I did in the Shelbourne Hotel in August. It was definitely one of the highlights of my modelling career to date. I had the huge honour of modelling one of Grace Kelly's original dresses from the Newbridge Silverware museum. I doubt Grace Kelly had Invisalign but Rachel Kelly does so, as always, I wore the aligners for the whole evening and nobody passed any remark on them!

Still Smiling!

I have just had an eventful few weeks to say the least! I started a new part time job in an insurance company but unfortunately this was cut short as I was involved in a car accident on my way to work the week after I started. Luckily, though, I walked away (not literally!!) from the accident relatively uninjured.

I have a few fractures in my spine and a fractured shoulder but they are healing very well and I am starting to get up and about again thank goodness. My poor little car, however, is gone to Dacia heaven! But most importantly I don't have any permanent injuries and all of my lovely new smile is still in tact. All of the nurses in the hospital were intrigued by my Invisalign aligners as they hadn't seen them before. They are definitely a great conversation starter apart from everything else!!! 

Thank you Ace Braces

My new bedroom!!! 

When I was in hospital I received a beautiful orchid from Ace Braces, which was such a lovely surprise.  They have also been more than accommodating in letting me rearrange appointments. I am now wearing my 8th set of aligners. I have 8 more to go after this. To be honest I found it difficult to wear them as much as I should in the hospital as I was totally bed bound and couldn't get up to brush my teeth as much as I usually would. Now that I'm home, though, it's been much easier to put the aligners back in after meals. I am being extremely well looked after here! My parents have put a bed in the sitting room for me so that I don't have to go upstairs! I have watched almost everything on Netflix at this stage so if anybody is looking for recommendations just give me a shout!! 

The Refinement Stages

I don't know where the time goes but I am now wearing the 3rd set of aligners in this refinement stage of my Invisalign treatment. As I am now changing the aligners every week, they have been feeling a little tighter than previous ones. However, I've had the nurofen on standby each week and it hasn't been sore enough to take one yet! The headache of job hunting, and completing paperwork in preparation for emigration has been much worse! I thought emigration was the easy option. I thought, throughout college, that if I couldn't get a job in Ireland I would just get a cheap flight to the UK and get a job there. How naive of me! I've been told it will take at least 4 months before I'm even registered to work in the UK. For the moment, though, I'm not getting disheartened. I'm using this time to do everything I wanted to do when I was stuck in the books for the last 4 years. I went to Lisdoonvarna last week to visit my friend who is a resident musician in a hotel there for the summer.  Anyway, how could I not stay positive with this new smile!! :)

An update on travel, graduation and the final Invisalign phase

Firstly, sorry about the lack of updates here in the last month. Since my last post I have been to Thailand and back, I have graduated, started a new job and I have started into the last phase of my Invisalign journey.

I will spare you from hundreds of holiday photos but Thailand was truly amazing. You can't really go wrong with a bungalow on the beach, sun all day long, and amazing food and cocktails for a euro! When we were there we also went elephant trekking, zip-lining in the jungle and we learned how to cook like the Thai people. On our last day in Bangkok we visited a huge market, which spanned over 27 acres. I wish I had a picture of me trying to pack my backpack before home that night! Luckily they weren't as strict on the baggage allowance as Ryanair! 

 

 

2 days after I arrived home, I graduated from college. I am now officially a speech and language therapist! We had a lovely day and the sun shone all day, which is very unusual for Galway! I'm sad to say I won't get a job in Ireland for the forseeable future, which is a shame given the huge demand for therapy services here. However, I have applied for some jobs in the UK and I am hopeful that I will get work there soon. In the meantime, I have started a new waitressing job. I had forgotten how long and tiring the hours are but, at the same time, I'm grateful to have something to keep me busy for the moment. 

 

During this time I had been wearing my Invisalign aligners at night to keep my teeth in place as I waited for the next sets of aligners. Yesterday, I was back with the lovely people in Ace Braces to get started with my new aligners. I will have 16 more sets of aligners but I will now change them once a week, rather than every 2 weeks. This will speed up the process so I will be completely finished in no time. I got the attachments put on my teeth yesterday and I am wearing the first set of aligners. The attachments are slightly bigger this time but still very invisible. It will take me a couple of days to get used to taking them in and out when I'm eating and having hot drinks again. 

I'm off to work another 12 hour shift now so I better go and get a good strong cup of coffee into me! Enjoy the sunshine this week if it comes! 

Happy Birthday to me!

The celebrations continued this week as it was my birthday and I also found out I passed my final exams. Best birthday present I could have asked for!

My birthday meal

I also had my appointment with the lovely people in Ace Braces since my last post. I got the attachments taken off my teeth and I am absolutely thrilled with the results so far. Now, there are just a couple more refinements to be made to give me the absolute perfect smile. This will require wearing a couple more sets of Invisalign aligners. I got some more impressions taken and they have been sent off for the last few aligners to be made. In the interim, I am aligner free during the day and I just wear them at night to hold the teeth in place until I get the next aligners. I keep forgetting that I don't have any aligners to take out when I eat and drink now! I had become so used to it.


I am heading off on my travels to Thailand for 3 weeks in 10 days time. I will try to refrain from posting hundreds of holiday photos when I come home!!

Another reason to smile!

I have so much to smile about this weekend, apart from it being a bank holiday! Yesterday I handed in my thesis, which means no more college for me! I'm not really sure how I feel about this yet! While the exams and thesis have meant days of hibernation in my room, I've loved my time in Galway. Now, the daunting task of hunting for a job begins... But first, I am taking a well deserved break and I'm heading to Kinsale for the weekend with 9 girls from my class. To say I'm excited would be an understatement!

My Invisalign journey may also be coming to an end quite soon. It only seems like last week since I started! I am now wearing my 12th set of aligners and I'm loving the results so far. My classmates hadn't seen me for a while until yesterday and they couldn't stop complimenting my smile! I have an appointment in Ace Braces next Tuesday to assess my progress and decide if further aligners will be needed to make some extra refinements. Exciting times overall!