back up and at'em

it's been a mixed bag of weather since my dental surgery last week.

some of you have asked in email what kind of surgery i had. well, i had the not so good kind. as in, having the last 12 remaining teeth removed from my mouth. yes, Pioneer Preppy, you can now call me toothless Joe (beat ya to it - bahahah!)

being only 45, having absolutely no teeth and requiring dentures seems pretty young. but some backstory here - when i was 11 months old and fell down concrete stairs strapped in to a walker...that banged up my head and teeth quite a bit. breaking my nose over 13 times over the next 20yrs rattled not only my head but also my teeth. up until then tho - still had all of my teeth.

then about 6 years ago, i was carrying a shovel, a hoe, a bucket of rocks and some other stuff out to the garden and tripped and landed on a paving stone. on my face. clear knocked out 3 teeth, went to the dentist and he removed 9 more. so i got partials. the problem is tho, that i am a grinder. i grind my teeth 24/7 hours a day. even in my sleep. and as i don't sleep with my partials in - i was double grinding. i had to go back several times to have my partials refit as my own teeth were being ground down so much and i finally got to the point where i decided i wanted the rest of the teeth out and get full on dentures. i found a really good dentist who agreed that i was just going to keep having problems with my original teeth for the rest of my life and that all these years of grinding could be the reason why i have such regular headaches and migraines. with no teeth to grind - my headaches/migraines might stop. oh Halleluja!

as well, i found an excellent denturist who asked me how long i could wait until getting a mold done. i said "buddy, i live in the middle of nowhere. i need teeth for july 27th for the fourchu reunion...until then i can run around nekkid and toothless and no one would be the wiser!". he was thrilled. he said that making dentures is an art, but also "a Game"! he was very excited that i could wait so long as he explained that most people have problems with dentures because they get fitted too quickly. he wants to see me in mid-april to check up on my healing. but jambaloney is amazed at how fast i am healing! i was on the phone with my sister c the afternoon after i got my teeth out and she couldn't believe that i was talking as clearly as i was. and everyone of our friends knows that i am out of commission and will not be attending functions for the next few months because if the denturist wants to wait until end may/early june to do the actual fitting - i am all for it! and although i have been in pain - my head has not been pounding this week. my jaws ache and my gums hurt but my head is not pounding!

i already showed you my nutri-bullet which has helped so much in my healing process.

i would call it my bestest frenemy as i have been drinking slurpies, smoothies and juices all week - and i am "food chewer"!

then after a few days i was able to move on to baby food strained pears, apple sauce cups and baby ancient grain cereal - baleck to all of that!

finally i moved on to some home-made pureed soup.

that's jambaloney's soup with the delicious cilantro. mine was just plain old pureed soup.

jambaloney was being really sweet saying how much he loved eating smoothies and pureed soup. but don't worry, i made sure to feed him good.

and then today, kids, oh thank heavens - i was able to take all of the ingredients in my delicious homemade salsa and turn it into this:

i know eh? not quite a smoothie or a juice, not quite a pureed soup or an apple sauce - but something that tasted LIKE FOOD!

and tonight for supper when jambaloney is enjoying lebanese hamburger rice and crunchy veggie salad, i'll be enjoying this:

sauteed spinach with a ton of butter and then pureed - deeelish!

anyway, just wanted to let you all know how things are progressing here. jambaloney is at work onsite tomorrow - he didn't go in to work last week because he wanted to be sure he was here with me. but the swelling is gone down, i didn't get any bruising except for in the actual holes where the teeth used to be and the smallest holes are pretty much healed closed. the molars will take another bit of time, but i've been doing pretty well all things considered, finished my antibiotics and haven't really needed my pain pills for the past day. i'll take one if i need it, but only if i need it.

hope this wasn't too much information but i just wanted to let you all know that there are circumstances whereby if your teeth are constantly causing you trouble and you are constantly having to get crowns, fillings, bridges, partials - and for those of you lucky enough to afford implants - hey that's great. but there are situations that sometimes it's best to just let go of those teeth. it's each individual's circumstances that matter.