Greetings to Friends of Dave and Jody!

I'm Pat, one of Dave and Jody's friends. I volunteered to set up this blog so that all of us can be kept up to date as Jody works her way through the replacement of her TMJ joints in the months ahead. You'll also be able to leave comments so you can show your support.

I was going to call this blog "Jody's Terrible Adventure" but then kept thinking we don't want to keep repeating Terrible and thinking of it as such. So Jody's going to do this surgery, get through it with flying colors and be rid of migraines, pain and be able to chomp an apple with her mouth wide open.

The procedure has already begun with fitting Jody with what she calls her "hot pink braces." She's even photographed them and as soon as she familiarizes herself with how to post and upload a photo to this blog, we'll all get to see them.

So the first step is that these braces will put her jaw into the right position, hopefully in time for the surgery now scheduled in Dallas for July 26. The details of this surgery are not for the squeamish or faint of heart, so I'll leave it to Jody to describe.

Of course, every cloud has a silver lining -- including this one. One of the byproducts of the operation is that the patient gets the equivalent of a mini-face lift so we're counting on the disappearance of at least 10 years. That would only be fair, and Jody promises before and after photos.

Other good news is that the doctor has done this surgery 800 times so he knows what he's doing. And Jody really likes him as well.

I've set this blog up so that Jody and Dave can both post so I'll bow out for now and turn the electronic mike over to Miss Hot Pink Braces herself aka Jody.