Today I filmed myself explaining the current situation with my gum-graft surgery recovery thinking it would be easier than writing about it, and it quickly turned into this:

I decided not to publish the video, but I did get something out of it: the photo I’d choose if I had to pick just one to sum up my homebody self. I was wearing a pale shirt because I’d just come in from outside where I’d been cuddling with a dirty white stray cat. Wet spots where I’d spilled water on myself. No make-up. Octopus. You know.

It seems I spent more time in the video talking about this octopus than I did about my recovery progress. Clearly, when the question is gum-graft surgery, the answer is octopus.

That aside, I did manage to end up with enough of a video that I could grab a couple of relevant screenshots.

Yesterday was my two-week post-op appointment. Most people at this point would be healed enough to have their stitches removed. I left the appointment with my stitches still in.

–The doctor had reminded me that I’d taken longer to heal the last time I had a cadaver tissue graft, and it was because autoimmunity tends to complicate things when the body is trying to accept foreign material. Sure enough, this is the case again. The stitches will need to remain for another two weeks so the graft can take.

–This means that I’m still very limited in what I can eat. Mainstays of my current diet include thick plant-based yogurt and fruit smoothies (I make them so thick they’re more like froyo), protein shakes, applesauce, velvety soups, and No Sugar Added ice cream. I also try to make spinach smoothies so I can drink fresh greens. We have these scrumptious sugar-free plant-based dark chocolate peanut butter cups that are amazing, so I have one of those every day, as well.

–No working out or lifting or doing anything physical for the next two weeks. I can take short, slow walks, but nothing more than that. The doctor explained that the tiny blood vessels that are trying to form and bind the cadaver tissue to my own tissue are very delicate, so even slight elevation of my heart-rate and blood pressure can burst the vessels and drag out the healing process even longer.

I’m trying not to feel super dismayed; the doctor did say that I’m about 80% of the way there. I just have to sit and rest and do mostly nothing for a little while longer.

My nutrition is solid, but I miss the biting-into and chewing part of eating.

All things considered, I have no reason to complain. Autoimmunity is what it is, and it could all be so much worse! I have it good! It’s nothing less than a privilege to be able to have these surgeries, at all. I’m endlessly grateful for having what I have.

That’s it for updates on the surgery, friends. Things are going well on the healing front, just slower than what my impatient Aries-moon ass would like.

May this post find you all doing well! See you next week.

Also, OCTOPUS.

the end