Day 7 - Good Progress

Last night was the first night I didn't take any hydrocodone!! YES!! I still couldn't sleep for a while, tossing and turning, but the pain was not bad enough that I needed to take it to sleep.  I visited the surgeon this morning and he told me my progress was great! Woohoo.  It was the first time I had gone out in public so I definitely felt odd, and it didn't help that I wasn't able to speak.  I have been trying to "talk" a lot, but communication is very difficult, and I'm not confident that people will understand me.  I wore a mask out just to let others know that I am "sick".

The swelling is still there, and I haven't seen a significant difference.  I'm starting to become self conscious about it so today I looked up natural anti-inflammatories.  I was going to go buy some tumeric pills, but then I realized ginger is high in gingerols which has lots of anti-inflammatory compounds.  So rather than paying $13-15 for a bottle of pills, which I'd have to really contemplate how to break up and take, I decided to chop up some ginger and drink it with my tea, juice, and ginger-ale.  Yes, putting ginger in ginger-ale tastes so good!! I didn't see any immediate changes, but I'm going to keep doing that daily.

I tried eating mashed potatoes today with no success.  I feel like others have had enough room between their teeth, or space in the back molars, but I definitely don't have much space.  When I tried to syringe the mashed potatoes, it ended up just getting stuck in my cheeks. So I ended up eating miso soup broth, my usual juice, AND dun dun dun.. In-n-out Neapolitan shake!  I could only eat like a quarter of the cup, but it tasted really good and I need the calories at this point.

The doctor said he will loosen the rubber bands next week, woo!

Take-Away:
1) Swelling will depend on the person, but you can take anti-inflammatory medicines or foods that are known to help swelling.
2) Liquid diet meant truly liquid.
3) Finding enough calories in food is difficult.
4) Can't wait till these bands are off!