Gum Grafting.

Check out my toothy grin! (or growl)

I am so nervous! I wandered Walmart this evening (because if you want a nice relaxing place to go, it would be Walmart) looking for baby food type stuff that I might want to eat over and over again. My surgery on my gums is tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. I have several areas where my gums have been worn away and receded. One area is particularly severe though where I have worn away all my gum tissue and I am in need of a gum graft.

For those of you not familiar with the procedure, they will take some connective tissue from inside the roof of my mouth and graft that tissue into the gum surrounding the tooth that has no gum. There are some other particulars that you probably don't want to know about, but you can easily find them by googling gum graft if you are curious.

I think I am the most nervous because I am not quite sure what to expect. As fun as this procedure sounds, I am thinking it is really going to be quite painful. I will find out as time goes. I have been looking for some positive things about this upcoming event. Here are a few...

• I get to taste Matthew's baby food. YUM! I wonder how much salt and butter I will need to add to the peas and green beans to make them taste like real food.
• The weight loss prospect is there... I could loose a couple pounds if I don't eat too much ice cream or pudding.
• I can pretend I am on one of my favorite reality shows, Survivor. They eat very little and still make it just fine!
• Great excuse for ice cream, and slurpees, and icees. (Where is a Jamba Juice when I need one!!! I would kill for one now!)
• I get sympathy from my kids!
• I won't gain any weight over Thanksgiving!
• They say it will help 'remind' me not brush so hard or grind or clench my teeth as much.
• I don't have to brush my teeth for at least a week! (my kids would think this is one of the best ones.)
• I don't have to floss for a long time either.
  
• My wonderful visiting teachers will bring us dinner for two nights! (hey, I won't be able to eat it but I won't have to fix my family dinner either. Maybe I can blend it up with my little hand held baby food grinder and eat it that way.)

See there are lots of good things about this! The best one is probably that if I am lucky, I will get to do this all over again in 6 weeks, and then in another 6 weeks, and then in another 6 weeks! Sounds like about 6 months of fun to me!

I deal with stress a lot better when I can find humor in things. Here is a really funny blog about what someone else says his gum graft felt like. I really laughed... You may think it is funny too. (or you may think I need to find a better way to handle my stress) :)

http://mehling.org/archives/000045.html