Semi-solid kind of life

I went to see Dr. Q again today. Nothing new really to report. My swelling is still going down. Since I still do not have feeling in my cheeks and upper lip, he told me that I really need to get exaggerated and aggressive with my facial massaging and exercises. When I exercise my lips, it needs to feel like I'm really stretching them. Great, like I don't get stared at enough in traffic! People catch me making weird faces all the time. I'll do my exercises anywhere! So, the big news is that I have graduated to semi-smooth food. I can have anything that is ground up like meatloaf, spaghetti, etc. I confessed that I had eaten chicken enchiladas yesterday and before he could give me a hard time, I explained that I thoroughly mushed it up with salsa and didn't chew AT ALL. I told Michelle that Clay thinks he catches me chewing all the time but I haven't. Tonight was the first time. I overcooked the meatloaf a little (due to checking up on my blogger friends) so it wasn't that easy to chew anyway. I'm still taking it slow and I bought a ton of veggie burgers today since they are rice based and really soft. I've found that all the tofu products are really easy to eat. I bought the ground "meat" and put it with okra, tomatoes, and rice in the blender for dinner the other night. I couldn't tell the difference at all and it wasn't greasy like beef tends to get. I thought that I should just add red pepper flakes and hot sauce to all my blends to give them a little kick and all I got was a weekend of heartburn! Oh well, it did make it better though. Another tip that others have mentioned is to buy a baby spoon. My mom brought me one about two weeks ago and that thing is getting a workout. Its much easier than trying to cram a regular spoon in your mouth and it fits between my bands at night. It is great. I highly recommend getting one. I'll post new pics tomorrow. I look plain worn out today. It was a heck of a Monday.