Where my problem began!

At 15, I had a seizure down some steps, and BAM! My jaw dislocated there and then and has been problematic ever since! The picture is a few days after the seizure, my face was a bruised and swollen mess and as you can see, my jaw clearly isn't where it is supposed to be!

 
I was referred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital and that first night in A&E was hell! They tried to relocate it with gas and air but the pain was too great and they couldn't do it so they sent me home, I was told to come back the next day to see someone from the Maxillofacial Department. The next day I met a consultant; Mr Cooper, he examined my jaw and basically said that I would have to wait for a surgical slot. This was in June 2007 and the operation was scheduled for August 2007, two months to wait in pain and unable to eat!
When the August date arrived, I was booked into Alder Hey to have arch bars fitted so that they could wire my jaw into a fixed position. This was their first attempt at keeping it in place, the bands weren't strong enough so it was still dislocating...

Attempt number two was a lot more bands, this made it difficult to breathe and even harder to get food through the bands, I resorted to sticking chocolate buttons down the sides of my mouth and letting them melt :)

Unfortunately, these bands weren't strong enough for my dodgy jaw and after sneezing one evening towards the end of August, my jaw dislocated causing the bands to snap and the arch bars to come loose from my gums.

I went to A&E when this happened and they decided that the only option was to give a local anaesthetic and take the arch bars off as a temporary solution. However, I panicked when they brought the needle towards my face so I was told to attend the clinic the next day...
After seeing my consultant again, he decided to book a theatre slot and to fit the arch bars again, but this time wire them together with metal to prevent the bands snapping.
After this operation, the wires were left on for 5 months, which meant I couldn't eat my Christmas dinner and lost a lot of weight, but in January 2008 the metal was cut off and I was able to open and close my mouth again! After a minor operation in the February to remove the arch bars, everything seemed settled and I was happy with the results, but this wasn't to last...