- wish i could spin some yarn ... would be a good way to release tension in my jaw. i promise this makes sense, really ... i think spinning yarn is one of the most stress-relieving things i've ever done. and speaking of stress ....
- TMJ dysfunction treatment is going well ... chronic fatigue and general feeling of crapiness has eased quite a bit thanks to the meds, hate being on meds but i like feeling well so i'm dealing with it, who would have guessed all that ickiness was due to my handling stress by clenching/grinding my teeth??? i've also been able to cut way down on the coffee consumption. muscle relaxer at bedtime is my best friend right now and the anti-inflammatory has the wonderful side effect of easing my ankle pain along with all the pain in my face, neck and jaw. now if i could just keep with the mushy food diet. what a serious pain in the arse. apparently you can't put your jaw in a sling (who knew right?) so the time to heal is three to nine months depending on the severity and your discipline in keeping with the treatment plan. so far i've had my bite adjusted, had a new night guard made (turns out my old one was making things worse due to a bad dental treatment ... long story that makes me grind my teeth just thinking about it) and have been on the meds for about three weeks. i'm really trying with the diet too. much more difficult than i would think. everything i eat is supposed to be the consistency of cooked pasta or softer and not make me open my mouth very wide. no subs, no apples, carrots, corn on the cob, gum, chewy stuff, etc. oh yeah, and i'm supposed to reduce my stress and better manage my physical reaction to stress.
- Houston is back in speech therapy two days a week and i am back to keeping them home those same two days a week. i decided i might as well keep them home a little extra while i can. our life is going to change drastically come september 2nd. he has to be at school before 8am. we are usually getting out of bed at that time. yikes! i am and will always be a night owl. somehow i'm going to adapt. so as i was saying, therapy ... he really likes his new therapist and gets all excited about going to see her and we're looking forward to seeing where he is in another couple months before school starts.
- Brody has had a total language explosion over the past couple of weeks. absolutely amazes and amuses me. he's already putting together two and three word sentences. this just thrills me to no end. i know it's totally normal but we never got to experience the development of language like this with houston. we used to joke when brody was a baby that he would grow up and teach houston how to talk. i thought we were joking. while houston's articulation problems have improved, i'm already hearing brody say words that houston doesn't know how to.
- brett and i actually went on a date last week thanks to Papa & Miss Nancy and had the best dinner we've had in a really long time. mmmmm ... wine, fried mushrooms, crab stuffed tilapia, wine, hot fudge sundae .... oh yeah ... we ate it all! it was such a great night. oh the things you take for granted before you have kids. also made me realize that we really should do that more often. even if we just go get coffee or something. so nice to be with brett, away from the house, the kids, the business ... just be the two of us together as friends where we can talk about whatever we want to and not have to worry about diapers or dishes or clients or deadlines or bills or anything that we don't want to think or talk about and not be interrupted in the middle of it all. i almost forgot how peaceful that is.
- piano playing is not as frequent as i would like although i'm pretty darn happy about what i've managed to teach myself so far. i'm having a blast with the Laurie Berkner songbook and our Sandra Boynton book. I've decided that in my next life I want to come back as someone who writes, sings and performs silly children's music. That would totally rock.
and on that note i'll leave you with a pic i took of a salad i made for dinner last week. just because it's my blog and i can do that sort of thing. shhhhhh ... just don't tell my oral surgeon that there's something on this plate that's harder than cooked pasta consistency.
one more thing, thanks for all the emails/comments/ideas/offers about my last post. who would have thought a yogurt maker and a dehydrator would generate that much chatter!?!?! i even have a dehydrator on its way to me. it's almost like blog post= magic. post and "poof" ... free dehydrator being sent to my very own doorstep. :)
