Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Do not try this at home!

I guess I was becoming too confident about my syringe eating technique. I decided to take it a step further by creating a meal (kind of). So I cooked oatmeal and yogurt on the handy in-room mini coffeemaker. Then I took a syringe bite.

What I discovered was that, instead of going into my mouth, it just put up a big wall of oatmeal paste outside of 1/2 of my mouth, thereby blocking off 1/2 of my airspace. So I then proceeded to frantically spit and brush the stuff off of my teeth and onto anything I was wearing and the floor. Very attractive move.

We are now returning to our culinary favorites and letting oatmeal retire for about 8 weeks, unless it's been blenderized beyond recognition.

--K--

Lots of good advice

I really need a book called, "What To Do If You Break Every Bone In Your Face and Have to Get Back on Your Feet in a Hotel 1000 Miles From Home." Not having this item, I've been asking for, and receiving, tons and tons of useful advice.

Such as? How to use wax to keep the pokey jaw wires in place. Making sure that I let the doctor know I'm not able to breathe at times (turns out that's common and my mouth will adjust to the wires and my nose will stop swelling soon. Scary when it happens though!). What pain meds are more or less likely to make me sick. My dear friend David reminded me that I have to be *past* the trauma to be dealing with POST-traumatic stress.

Everyday is a very slow start. Today we had the usual hour of squirting down a yogurt. Then Jake washed my hair because I can't get the bandages on my face wet. He has really been an amazing friend and partner through all of this!

We then went to the facial surgeon's office. He cleaned out my nose. It hurts like heck, but feels good to breathe for awhile afterwards. I go for another of these treatments on Friday. He and his staff are very knowledgeable and gentle. He also has a very funny sense of humor, so as I'm crying through the procedure, I'm laughing at his comments.

We then ran a few more errands, including getting copies of my medical records from the hospital. I went too long without food and pain medication and did not feel too good when we got back. I was shocked to find out I've lost 10 pounds. Weird that it's possible to spend so much time worrying about putting on weight, and when you're sick, weight comes off and it's not desirable at all.

I've discovered food favorites at the moment are any juice, cream of broccoli soup, and this stuff called Muscle Milk, a high protein concoction that goes down pretty easily. Ice cream and smoothies are out because I don't like cold stuff against my teeth and I can't use a straw. This diet soda queen has had maybe one, if that, in the last week and a half. No interest. I have also stopped drinking coffee (stopped in the hospital and figured since I was already over caffeine withdrawal, why restart).

My room is crowded with beautiful flowers from friends and family. And my very special friend Yasmin sent me two stuffies...one Tigger and one that looks just like Rocky (I named him Rocky Jr.)...and a copy of her new book, "Enlightening the World" about the Statue of Liberty (Yasmin Khan). Check it out; she is an eloquent author.

--K--