Choosing Joy

Last night was a tough one. My jaws were hurting a lot from having two molars extracted on Friday and the pain medication wasn’t helping alleviate it much. I went to bed around 10:30 p.m. and dozed off about an hour later. In the wee hours of the morning, my pain became more intense and I got up to take another pain pill. I read the bottle before taking out one pill and saw the directions said it was okay to take 2 if necessary. I was afraid to take more than one. Codeine and I don’t do so well together and even though this was a synthetic form of Codeine, I didn’t want to chance it. I took the pill and went back to bed. Around 3:00 a.m. the pain had come back and I knew it was too early to take another pain pill, so I took an Advil. The combination must have done the trick because I fell asleep and didn’t wake up again until 8:00 a.m. 

I went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for my husband. I drooled as I made him boiled eggs and toast. Although it wasn’t a fancy breakfast, it was real food and I sure did want some! The last solid food I’d eaten was some mashed potatoes and I was really hungry. With the two gaping holes in my jaw, I knew it would be asking for trouble if I ingested anything other than liquid or semi-solid foods. As I opened the fridge, I looked at my choices: Boost, Jello, Greek yogurt or pudding. Nothing appealed to me but I made my selection and sat down at the table to pray. I thanked God that I had something to eat and I decided I’d better be happy about it.

Perspective changes everything. I could have decided to moan and groan complaining about my situation and my pain. Instead of focusing on the bad things, I chose to focus on the good things. One good thing about not being able to eat right now is knowing that I will eventually lose weight. If I don’t ingest calories, I won’t gain weight. My grocery bill will be much smaller. I won’t be able to eat solid food for a month or two. Feeding one person is much less expensive than feeding two.

When I do heal up and get fitted for my bridge, I’ll be able to make up for lost time and one of the first things I’m going to eat is a big slice of cheesy, vegetable pizza! I never thought I’d be one of those people who kept their teeth in a glass of water by the kitchen sink, like my grandparents used to do…looks like I shouldn’t have laughed so quickly in the past. And Polygrip…that’s another story that I see it in my future. I’ve definitely learned never to say never.

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