Five Hundred More Days to Go?

Day one with braces wasn't bad. That night for dinner, I ate soup that had noodles and meatballs. It was canned soup, so the meatballs and noodles were pretty soft, and it went well. I also ate a bunch of banana cream pudding. By a bunch, I mean a whole box. I think that's four servings, but who cares? It was fantastic.

So, flossing - wow. I mean, WOW. It took me 30 minutes to brush my teeth and floss that first night. I have to thread the floss behind the arch wire (the horizontal wire that goes across the front of my teeth and is mounted to the brackets by tiny rubber bands) and floss the tooth, then pull the floss out, go to the next tooth, and re-thread. Not so bad in the front, but when you're trying to hold your mouth open, lips back, and thread floss behind a wire on your last molar, it's a little tricky. I definitely want to be doing this, too, since bad oral hygiene with braces will leave marks on my teeth.

So, I woke up on day two and was thrilled that I had been able to sleep well. The only problem was that I couldn't chew. Not at all. My bite surfaces are so tender that I had to mash my scrambled eggs to the roof of my mouth with my tongue before I could swallow. And then, when I brushed and flossed, a disgusting amount of egg came out of my mouth.

I've spent the last four days eating yogurt, applesauce, and pureed soup (butternut squash, tomato, carrot, creamed corn, etc). Last night I spent a few hours completely lusting after the smorgasbord of sushi and sashimi that was spread at Trinity's birthday party. I did manage to have a few bites of white king sashimi, but it was a bit of a waste on me. I made major damage to the pot of miso soup, though!

Conclusion: so far, so good. I've been getting great positive reinforcement from everyone, and no one has decided I'm such a dork that they can't be my friend anymore (juvenile but very real fear).

Oh, and it's -10 degrees outside. Braces make my mouth very, very cold when I'm breathing with my mouth open!