Making a List and Checking it Thrice

I like to be prepared. Perhaps more accurately, I don’t like being unprepared. Maybe it’s my inner girl scout at work, but whatever it is, means I like to be ready for any situation I might come across. When my husband and our friends vacationed in Cuba a few years ago, it was joked that any minor medical emergency could be dealt with my rummaging through my luggage. Not entirely untrue… we did use some of my mini-pharmacy to take some packing from stitches out of a friend’s chin. That same vacation I found it took some mental preparation to leave our room without a sweater, “just in case”. Being an east coast gal, I am always leery of weather claims that insist I would be warm enough without a jacket or sweater. At an off-roading event last spring, our friends played a game called “Did Beth Bring It?” to try and come up with an item that I didn’t bring. When you’re spending 3 days camping and playing in the woods, it is good to have a handle on things you might need for repair/comfort!

In anticipation of my upcoming surgery - 2 weeks, 3 days but who’s keeping track? - I have been thinking a LOT about what is to come. What to eat drink. What can be blended, what shouldn’t ever be blended (I’ve been advised a Big Mac is a tragic blender meal). How long till I am sick of Boost/Ensure? I have freezer bags with cubes of blended berries that I strained the seeds out of (shut up, I am not a keener) and look forward to adding those to the smoothies/supplement drinks I’ll be eating drinking.

With that being said, I’m going to miss food. I love to eat. I am a texture eater too, so not being able to chew is going to be a pretty big thing to adjust to! So I have been keeping a list… a list of things I love that I want to make sure I eat before my surgery. As my time gets closer, it is becoming clear I need to make a strategy for when I am going to eat these foods. Hubby is going away the weekend before my surgery, so we can’t have any special meals together that weekend. We are going out this weekend for my favourite breakfast though, eggs benedict. The thought of the Hollandaise sauce makes my mouth water even as I type this.

So while this whole braces/jaw surgery journey is about to come to a peak, I can’t help but think longingly about the future as well. A future that includes raw carrots and broccoli, pistachios, crisp apples, caramels and burgers/pizza/sandwiches that I can chomp into without spending the following 20 minutes fishing bread/dough out from between my brackets.

The worst is yet to come, but the best is just beyond.


.