Big bummer talk

Well, I'm going to be a drag this morning.  I'm just putting it out there.  I am 6 days post-op from gum surgery, and it's making me miserable.  I knew this surgery would have a painful recovery, but I heard it passed quickly - like maybe 3 days.  Well here I am 6 days later and I'm still not right!  The roof of my mouth no longer feels like it's on fire, and my face is no longer painful to touch... and only slightly swollen, but my whole mouth just aches.  It's that feeling like I have eaten a bunch of candy and it's all stuck in my gums and between my teeth and I need to floss super bad (or that I've neglected flossing for a long time and then flossed too hard)... but I can't get rid of that feeling!  I hope this is just a normal reaction, but if it wasn't for the steady stream of my Ibuprofen 800's, I'd be in tears all day :(  I thought I was on a turnaround yesterday, but with the aches I had last night and this morning I realize that was not the case.  I woke up pretty sore again this morning, and sure enough, a half hour after I took my meds I was feeling a bit better.  Note to self, get prescription refilled!
 
I think the even worse part of this is not just the soreness, but it's the major crankiness I am unloading on the family.  My poor family.  I just don't feel like doing a thing and I snip at everyone.  blah!!!  Oh, and this is all perfectly timed to happen just when I was starting back on running.  Running... my sanity saver.  Well, it used to be.  Now it just fills me with frustration because I am winded by jogging a mile, and all that bouncing around feels like crap on my mouth.  waaaaaaa  Yes, this is a pity party.  Feeling bad for me yet?? 
Here is a poor quality shot of the roof of my mouth after surgery.  This is the "donor" location where they removed my skin.  Ouch!!!

One slightly good thing is that I get to eat a lot of ice cream.  That makes me feel better.  However, I think it is also adding to my waistline.  The last time I ate a bowl of ice cream every day was when I was pregnant!  Here's the collection I have waiting for me in my freezer...

So to combat the weight gain, I have been biking still.  Getting up early to bike... that is getting harder every morning.  5:50 is really freaking dark around here now.  And cold.  It was 50 this morning.  ugggghhh  It takes me about a half hour before I am getting into my workout and then I do enjoy it by the time I get home.  So there is a bright side of that early morning gig.  Even though my hands barely functioned until I got out of my hot shower.  Guess I need to take a pair of gloves with me too.  I got some cool pictures of fog this morning....

One morning I had a group of 5 deer just standing in the field watching me!  I know this is a terrible picture, but it was dark out, and I had to zoom in on my iPhone.  But trust me, they looked pretty awesome in real life. :)

 

I look like a super Tour de France cyclist, don't I??  Safety Sam, that's me.  I especially like how I can't smile properly due to my swelling/loss of full muscle control on the right side of my cheeks.  UGH.

So there you have it.  Feeling pretty sucky and down and out these days.  However, they say writing is therapeutic, so instead of spending more time whining to my family members, I am getting it out of my system so one day I can look back at this and laugh at how I felt.  I hope that day is soon.  I can't wait to be spending my morning working up a sweat running on the towpath, and enjoying a feeling of accomplishment.  It's funny because as I listen to my iPod during my bike ride, I can remember every long run I was on when I heard a specific song.  Especially the one which got me through a lot of my training for the marathons and the actual races this past spring:


And my current favorite, which really speaks to me about my comeback to running in the near future...  for the rest of this negativity, this too shall pass.