I didn’t get the stitches out on Monday. He raved about how quickly my gums are healing, and how well the tissue is taking, and what an amazing job I’ve been doing taking care of the graft…and then he said he was going to leave the stitches in for one more week just to be sure. When I shared this news, the first words out of both my mom’s and Chris’s mouths were, “Did you bite him?”

(Because of course I did bite my orthodontist when he’d promised me he would remove the braces I’d been wearing for two years, and then decided to wait another month. But I was 13. C’mon. The guy really should’ve seen that coming.)

I might have been tempted, but I’ve been unable to bite anything for the last 17 days. And apparently it’ll be at least another month before I’ll be able to use (or brush!) my bottom front teeth.

I suppose the good news is that he gave me the OK to eat anything I want so long as I don’t have to bite it (so at least I can have salt, spice and vinegar again).  But I am so sick of having to mince everything I eat. I have not had a raw carrot in over two weeks. The first thing I’m going to do when this is all over is wolf down a pizza and a bag of chips.

Sigh…