Mango Madness

My wisdom teeth don't exist, I guess that's not so strange. I am also missing my second molars on the bottom- okay, maybe that is a little weird and according to my dentist something she has never seen before. Apparently when you bite down and your teeth don't have anything to hit they continue growing, therefore I'm slowly turning into a backtooth vampire. You can't tell just by looking at them but on an X-ray those back top molars look like they are the overbearing father to the rest of my teeth. I had talked to my dentist about implants (not the silicon kind) but since my mouth seems to be the same size as a ferrets', I didn't have enough space on the bottom to put them in.

I decided to just yank the suckers out. My panic stricken self went in on Tuesday and all the anxieties I managed to muster were numbed by a few shots of Novocain. I have three tattoos and I was deathly afraid to get my teeth pulled. Despite the stomach churning cracking sound I heard and the dull pressure to my jaw bone the actual process only took about three minutes. The recovery however took much longer.

My mom's contraption to ice my face with total hand mobility

I thought missing wisdom teeth was a blessing in disguise since I would never have to get them pulled but obviously the dentistry deities had a different plan for me as did my fragile stomach. Tuesday I came home and seemed perfectly fine besides the red soaked gauze pushing my cheeks out to look like a chipmunk harboring acorns. At night, the pain spread like the Black Plague and I turned to my PRESCRIBED Vicodan and 800 mg Motrin. I woke up the next morning to my room spinning and a nausea that slapped me in the face every time I sat up. I became well introduced to my bathroom floor. Apparently my body couldn't handle high doses of medication. The downside: now the only thing to relieve the stupefying pain in my mouth was regular old Aleve but the upside is now I know I will never be addicted to painkillers. 

I quickly took to the habits of a narcoleptic and floated in and out of sleep (and nauseousness). The sun kissed color I had worked so hard to attain this weekend rushed from my face and the thought of food actually disgusted me (which rarely if ever happens). I couldn't chew the normal queasiness quieting staples like crackers and toast. But don't feel too bad for me, I had all glorious soft delicacies at my finger tips- pudding, ice cream, mashed potatoes, all things loaded with sugar and carbohydrates and also all things I couldn't keep down.

My saving grace: my mango madness smoothie. I combined fresh cut up mangos, a handful of over ripened strawberries, a heaping spoon full of Hagen Daaz All Natural Mango Sorbet and about a half a cup of Almond Milk and sent it for a spin in my Magic Bullet.  

Obviously smoothies are interchangeable based on your palate preference but this one seemed to work for me. It was light and refreshing and my stomach accepted it. Plus it is loaded with nutrients yet low in calories. Mangos contain 80% of your daily Vitamin C intake and the Mango Sorbet is only 150 calories for a whole cup. I would suggest this smoothie even if your not experiencing extreme nausea and you aren't missing a total of eight teeth. The only positive spin I can put on this experience is I found a new go to breakfast smoothie and the scale says I lost three pounds.