At my appointment on Friday with Dr. Desa, he encouraged me to ramp up the chewing and work on my range of motion, so Friday night I had pizza and Saturday I had steak. OK, it was teeny tiny pieces of steak but nonetheless. Ah, progress. Unfortunately my poor tummy wasn’t prepared for the pizza… if you’re not there yet, please proceed with caution when you add things back into your diet!
I had my 4 week checkup with Dr. Engel (Dr. Desa’s partner) on Wednesday and he told me to start leaving my rubber bands off during the day and to start incorporating soft foods in to my diet. I wasn’t sure, so I thought I’d better wait…about 15 minutes or however long it took my to drive to the grocery store and order a slice of meatloaf and two big scoops of mashed potatoes and mac’ n’ cheese from the deli. I ate it in my car in the parking lot, covering myself with towels and using the mirror on the visor for aim. This was not because I was super starving, but because I didn’t have time to go home and eat before driving back across town for dance practice… Got about half the meal down and thought it was best to stop so I didn’t hurt myself during rehearsal…but even though I wasn’t super-full, I also forgot what a number a drastic diet change can do on your digestive system…from 4 weeks of completely liquid diet to a big meal of meat and starches…the rumblings began! Eek. So, if you find yourself in this position, take my advice, and go slow!
The nice thing was that eating only half the meal, I had leftover for work the next day. Mmm…
The bills have started rolling in. My insurance has picked up 90% of the hospital bills, but have yet to approve the surgeon’s charges…hopefully we can get that resolved soon and without too much grief – I just don’t have that kind of change laying around.
Last night as I lay awake due to the rapid fire of nerves in my cheeks and chin, I wondered what it will feel like with the inside of my mouth wakes back up. I didn’t realize that my palate and gums were numb until I put food in my mouth and noticed that I couldn’t feel it and didn’t know if I was trying to chew the food (a small piece of cheese in this case) or my cheek. J Well, of course, no sooner do I have this thought that I learn how it will feel. Like a spider crawling across the roof of my mouth! Eek! I guess the nerves there are rousing themselves now too… Progress, yes…pleasant, no.
I became so fed up with the liquid diet yesterday that when I swung through Sonic to get a shake, I also grabbed some tator tots…which I then proceeded to break apart, flatten, and stuff into my mouth, only to push them around with my tongue until I could swallow them. Oh, the salt was so good… J
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