Sunday, March 04, 2007

Successful Surgery and a Bit of Sunday Cooking

After what I’m told was a successful two hour surgery and bone graft, I am home and relatively comfortable. This recovery is not nearly as awful as the last one, even though this one was more extensive. Perhaps the techniques have evolved or my periodontist is just more experienced. My parents took excellent care of me this weekend, Chase was a huge help to me today, and I had lots of calls and emails from friends. And of course, thanks again to all of you for your well wishes, sympathy, empathy, and sound advice.

I have been eating soft fruits (fresh mango!), oatmeal, mushy lentils, Amy’s soups, and some pureed cauliflower I made last week. Everything has to be room temp, and it’s still quite painful to eat or drink anything. But I have been off vicodin since Saturday afternoon and hope to stay off. I have to take xanax before bed so I won’t clench, and then there’s 2 antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory to take for another week. This is what I see first thing every morning and last thing before bed …..




The roof of my mouth feels huge and very hairy with all the stitches, and my speech is a bit lispy. I have a just a touch of a cough left over from the flu, and I’ve finally gotten rid of a monster headache, which I think is from the 20 shots of novocaine! My dad told me I have a dead guy’s bones in my mouth now. I said that’s better than a dead cow’s bones. I guess I mean that. I believe in donating organs, and not that I know anything about it, but I think my body would prefer human rather than animal parts in it.

Enough of that, and on to food!

Chase came over this afternoon and went to the store for me and made the most awesome Tofu a la King! He made a simple white sauce, then seasoned it and added in the tofu and a bag of frozen peas and carrots. I made his favorite English Toasting Bread to serve it on. Some like to serve it on rice or noodles, but it’s great over homemade toasted bread. We made a salad with the arugula from the farmers market, steamed broccoli, and for me – boiled to mush sweet potatoes from the farmers market. I had a little of the sauce (it was really excellent) on the sweet potatoes, and I did get a couple of broccoli trees that were very small and soft. I was so happy!









Chase thought you would like to see some different table angles. I guess he thought you’d enjoy seeing how much we mess up the kitchen on Sundays.








I did feel like baking cupcakes this morning. My nephews from Alabama are coming to visit in a couple of weeks and they are crazy for cupcakes at the moment, so I thought I had better start practicing. Good thing I have I have a copy of VCTOTW! Today I decided to bake Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes because I had 4 farmers market oranges left. Of course these cupcakes did not disappoint. I made orange flavored cupcakes (Isa’s cupcakes turn out perfectly every time)….





orange pudding to fill them with…..





and orange buttercream frosting. Yes, these were soft enough for me to eat. And they had vitamin C!








Thanks again SO MUCH to all of you for helping me through my “ordeal.” I’m quite tired right now. I’ll be staying home tomorrow for one more day of rest and catching up on home things, and I’ll be by to visit your blogs then.

16 comments:

Candi said...

Diann, I'm so glad you are home and recovering nicely! You deserve those orange cupcakes after all you've been through!

You're lucky to have your family helping you out so much. Chase is so sweet to make you that Tofu dinner!! It looks great.

Wishing you a fast recovery!! ;)

Sheree' said...

I was so happy to see your post. I was a bit worried and am glad you are doing better. Your food looks fantastic and Chase did a great job on the dinner. I love the cupcakes. Keep getting better everyday.
Glad things are better than last time! :o)

bazu said...

I'm so happy that you are home, feeling better, and that the surgery is behind you. You are still eating well! I giggle at how much this reminds me of my own dental ordeal in January- my jaw was really sore so it hurt to open my mouth wide enough to eat, so I had to kind of suck and slurp everything. So comic and tragic at the same time!

I hope you're enjoying your relaxation day, and thank you once again for the oat muffin recipe

Emmy said...

I'm so glad to hear your surgery was successful :) Oh my goodness...20 shots of novocaine. Wow! The food looks great, especially the cupcakes. Yum!

Anonymous said...

wow so much medicines, but im so glad you dont feel as bad as the past operation! im glad you are recovering well.
i admire that even like that you cook! amazing!

thanks for answer my question about the carrot hearths.

Twisted Cinderella said...

I am glad that you are home and recovering. That food looks amazing.

Kati said...

So glad to hear that your surgery went well. I think I'm having a little sympathy pain after reading about your 20 shots of novocaine!

That tofu a la king looks divine! My mom always made biscuits to eat with chicken a la king - it used to be one of my favorite meals, but I haven't had anything like it since being vegan. Thanks to Chase for the inspiration!

Those cupcakes look perfect, too. I'm glad you were able to eat one!

Mikaela said...

Wow! Already back in action - good for you :)

erica said...

so glad you are feeling better!

The last pic of cupcakes looks like clouds raining pudding. Well, to me it does :P

scottishvegan said...

So glad to hear that your surgery went well and that you are on your road to recovery. And I am glad that you are still able to eat something yummy! Your cakes are so nicely decorated…I wish I was as talented with the piping bag!

Amey said...

Hi Atxvegan,
nice to see that you are at least up and about enough to bake bread and make a batch of cupcakes!! :)

I've been thinking about you, so I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. I hope your last day of rest served you well and that you feel ready to return to work

Thanks for sharing the cupcake info, those ones are definitely on my list. I think that orange pudding looks fantastic!

Dori said...

I'm sorry to hear of all the pain you are in right now, but it sounds like you are moving towards a solution with it. Your family sounds like they have done a good job of taking care of you, that is better than the food! Although the food looks pretty good. The muffins are quite a nice way to get vitamin C!

urban vegan said...

Here's to a quick recovery. Thank god you're able to eat those cupcakes!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you survived the surgery. Any dental work is nerve-racking to me.

Way to go Chase on the meal. It looks great from any angle.

funwithyourfood said...

It's great to see you're eating so well.. Feel better :)

Teddy

vko said...

What a delicious meal that Chase made for you!

And I can't believe through your pills and ordeal, you still made some gorgeously yummy cupcakes- though should definitely ease the pain.