Liquid Food Log

I had the two wisdom teeth on my right side taken out on Tuesday. There was a lot of unexpected suffering post-facto, which I’m attempting to document here to save someone else from this poor misery (or myself when I get the left side removed).

The food

Day 0 - ie surgery day

Immediately after the removal I went and got ice cream. This was a problem because

  1. I don’t consume dairy.
  2. I hate ice cream But I went to Lick and had their mango sorbet and found immense relief. I also ordered two boxes of Noto dairy free ice cream (French vanilla, and double chocolate) for home.

Meal 1: Tomato Gazpacho. I owe it entirely to Ankur, who, despite knowing each other for seven years and being best friends for three, cooked for me for the first time ever in the making of this.

Meal 2: milkshake - sweet melons, chikoos, oatmilk.

Day 2

Meal 1: Ragi ganji. (this recipe is a little complex, but for my version you just dissolve the ragi flour in a small amount of water and heat it in a large amount of water to create a slurry. Can be flavoured any way you like, similar to an oatmeal).

Meal 2: Ragi ganji + bottle guard juice

Meal 3: Cold miso soup

Meal 4: A strawberry/banana/oat flour smoothie that Devanjal brought me.

Meal 5: The last bits of ragi ganji.

Day 3

I woke up in so much pain and needed to eat something immediately so I could take my meds.

Meal 1: protein powder + water + ice

Meal 2: banana + strawberry + oatmilk smoothie I made for myself inspired by my friend yesterday.

Meal 3: this is where I hit the jackpot. Food is very important to me, and I vary flavours and textures very often in my everyday meals. Not being able to do so has been such a toll… until I made this soup. I’ve been craving khao suey, so I made a broth flavoured like it.

It look longer to write out the ingredients list than to make this meal! And it satisfied me so completely. I am so proud of this for myself - that when I have a craving I am able to make it happen for me. Past Tanvi did a good job - learning about flavour profiles, stocking pantry, learning to prioritise her feelings. Making this dish, to me, was a radical act of self-care.

So of course I told three friends about it and invited them over for dinner and made real khao suey for them. Substitutions because vegetarian:

While they ate this dinner, I had Meal 4: Half a banana smoothie that Devanjal got me as thanks for dinner

After this meal and this group hang, I had a second wind - so I ended up working from 11pm to 4am, so I needed another snack (and another painkiller) at 1am.

Meal 5: protein shake

Day 4

Also woke up in lots of pain. No new things today - repeats of ragi ganji, banana smoothie, etc. But there were other highlights.

I ate a semi-smushed food! I ate some plain cold oatmeal with (you guessed it) oatmilk. I ate about 1/4th of a cup and mostly smushed it against my palate instead of chewing, but it provided a very necessary boost to my confidence.

Day 5 (the day I published this)

I visited the dentist again today and was encouraged gently to start introducing semi-solid foodsback into my diet. So I’m thinking of doing this via idly dip, overcooked noodles, and more oatmeal. I think I’m still going to avoid anything with hard bits or crunchy small pieces for another week or so. I drank my ragi ganji at room temp and not ice cold today. Baby steps.

The recovery

I was told I could start eating warm and semi-solid food post 24h after the procedure, but I was in too much pain and discomfort to be able to trust that. I’m glad I took it slow. I also iced the side of my face for about 36 hours post procedure, but I don’t know how much good it did me.

Because I was entirely on liquid food, it was much easier to take care of my mouth and the sutures. I didn’t actually brush for the first three days - I could barely open my jaw enough - but I did use a medicated mouth wash on days one, three, and four which helped with making me feel better about infection possibility.

Other things:

  1. I made sure to add huge blocks of ice to every drink.
  2. Nothing I ate had any kind of chilli/hot spice in them.
  3. Because I was eating such light food, I didn’t need the Pan D even though I was on very strong antibiotics.

Shout out once again to Past Tanvi who indulged in a then-partner’s desire to drink lots of ice water and bought this set of silicone trays for large ice cubes. I probably went through 36-40 cubes over the course of those four days. I also have never drank this much ice water in my life (I don’t like the cold! I carry a flask around everywhere! I have a sensitive throat.)

Before the procedure, I didn’t realise how much pain I would be in and therefore completely failed to plan for most of it. Luckily, Ankur and Calra really came through on Day 0 and work was flexible enough to allow for wfh and strange sleep schedules (one of the pain meds made me really drowsy). But this whole experience really made me realise how self-reliant I can be, and how good the systems I’ve built for my life are. I’ve always been fairly independent but I’ve really craved nurturing and care when I’m sick (like most people) - maybe next time I will feel better about taking care of myself. It’s also worth thinking about which of these systems are a function of living at home and which of these I can replicate when I’m travelling - for when I spend more time on the road and invariably catch a fever or two.

I do have to get the left side set of teeth removed but I think it’s going to be a while before I schedule it…