It’s been one week since my gum-grafting surgery!

Things are moving along in the healing process as the bruises migrate down my neck. When Callaghan got home from work late this afternoon, he said that it looks worse than yesterday, but that’s, like, his opinion, man.

Here’s how the situation looked this morning less than five minutes after I woke up:

Post-op Day 7

The next surgery-related pics I’ll post will be of my actual gums, as some of you have requested. If the doctor lets me have copies of the “before” and “after” pics taken by his assistant, I’ll post those! I’ll see if I can include a selfie of my Frankenstein gums pre-suture removal, too.

There’s been no change in the pain these last few days, but I’m fine as long as I stay on my ibuprofen schedule. The bottle of oxycodone sits untouched on my dresser; I have no use for stuff that doesn’t work for me.

The one sensation that’s bothersome because nothing can alleviate it but time is the foreign-matter-plastered-over-my-gums one. (Not complaining. Just saying.)

As for the gym? At this point, I know that I’m not going to make it back to Body Pump this Saturday, as I’d hoped, or next week at all, for that matter. I’ll go back maybe the following week, which will be the last week of November, which will also be… Thanksgiving week. We’ll see. I just might wait until December to return to the gym, then, and you know what? I’m totally okay with that.

I’ve been working on home projects that’ve been nagging at me for months. Purging files, for instance. You know the feeling. You have copies of the taxes you filed more than 20 years ago just sitting in file boxes that are taking up space in your closet, and you spend months thinking I HAVE to go through ALL of my files and do a huge purge, and then life hands you a surgery, and your procrastinating ass is stuck at home looking at the files, and you’re out of excuses. It’s an awesome feeling, really. I’m getting so much done!

Food-wise, it’s all been good: every day I have a vanilla protein shake, a chocolate protein shake (both Vega); organic vegetable broth with whole grain Saltines for dunking, so they’re soft; organic vegan miso broth with tofu, green onions, and brown rice stirred in, so the rice is soft; plain, unsweetened coconut milk yogurt; and a smoothie made with frozen banana and berries; coconut water; chia seeds; and spinach.

The smoothie is where I get my fruit and veggies! I have a big spinach salad in smoothie form every day. The first three ingredients combined reach the blender’s halfway mark, and then I stuff the top half with as much baby spinach as will fit. It comes out like a super thick milkshake I can eat with a spoon, and it’s tasty! Callaghan enjoys it, too. We’ve cycled through daily smoothie phases before, and now we’re back at it. We fill our big Ninja blender to the top and share it.

I guess this counts as a change: I’m not hungry anymore. I still crave certain foods, but I feel satisfied and well-nourished with all the vitamins, minerals, protein, and complex carbs I’m consuming every day. I’m not lacking anything, and I look forward to the food I eat. After I get my stitches removed next week, I’ll graduate to chunky soups (lentil, split pea, veggie, etc.), so that will be different, yet.

And there you have it for today’s update. My stitches come out next week Tuesday, so I’ll post the gum pics that day.

Happy Friday Eve, my friends!