Recap of the Past Month

A few weeks ago we decided to go to Yuma to visit our friend from college, Cynthia. We had a great time catching up for a few days. There is an awesome kids park that apparently kids help to design. Its a huge castle with just about everything included. The kids loved it!

Conner loves to swing

He thought the monkey bars were pretty cool too

He's already doing pull-ups

He thinks he's all that whenever he sleeps on his back

We went to a fall carnival put on by some big church there. We were debating on whether to do that or go to the river and I'm so glad we ended up going because I really wanted to do some kind of pumpkin/fall activity with Conner and it ended up being the only thing we did. (I was planning on taking him to one in Prescott but we got asked to speak in church last minute and spent that day writing talks instead of enjoying the fall fun.) Conner likes anything outside so he had a great time.

Benson, Conner and Kaylee

In the hay maze

Conner is thinking, "Why the heck is this thing white!" Because he knows all the colors ;)

We also went to a camel farm but didn't have our camera for that one. The boys fed some goats, I couldn't believe that Conner didn't even care when the goat ate right off his hand. However, he did NOT like the honking geese. Thanks for the great visit Tolmans!

Next came Halloween but you wouldn't know it at our house. Neither Cade nor I care for Halloween, but I was going to try to get into the spirit of things for Conner's sake. But then it didn't appear that there would be a Trunk or treat, our friends cancelled their party, and I wasn't about to take a kid who can't talk trick or treating so I decided not to buy a costume for him. At the last minute though the trunk or treat was back on so figured I would put a costume together. The day before Halloween I tried to put 2 different costumes together but they didn't work out. I had to work Halloween so I figured Conner would sleep right when we got home and I could get my final idea ready. Unfortunately he didn't cooperate and refused to take a nap until 5 (and at that point he desperately needed it) and the trunk or treat was at 5:30. Cade was out of town and there was no way I was going to deal with that beast by myself so I let him sleep right through it and never even got a costume together to take a picture.

Then came my gum business. As you may recall my gums are super thin and have receded alot. The periodontist had informed me that I needed to get gum grafting done on 10 of my bottom teeth immediately, basically all the way across except for the molars. Normally they take the tissue from the roof of your mouth to put it on your gums but he said I didn't have enough there either. So they got it from a cadaver!! So disgusting. I mean this isn't something you don't see or feel, its in my mouth, where my tongue touches. So right this moment I am licking part of a dead body. (P.S. Thank you kind soul who donated your body.) Anyway, the procedure ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be. The good thing about using someone else's tissue is that you don't go through the pain of having it taken off of yourself. It only took about an hour and a half and after many numbing shots (which he said I tolerated very well ;) I was good to go. They didn't tell me what they were doing so I'm not totally sure. All I saw was the assistant suctioning out blood for the first half. Then I saw the periodontist lay a rectangular piece of white tissue down and he started sewing. By the time it was done the dead tissue was already red again. The whole thing is really pretty weird. I asked where on the body the tissue comes from, but the periodontist said they don't tell them anything about it or whether its from a man or a woman so there isn't any bias. I'll put on some pictures since I have had requests, they aren't disgusting but a very ugly view so don't scroll down if you don't want to.

What is that, a horse? No, just me pulling my lip down to show my huge teeth. My gumline is a few millimeters lower than it should be.

This is right afterwards. My mouth is completely numb and I wasn't supposed to pull on it at all so I couldn't get a great view.

It was funny on the drive home because I looked down and my shirt was soaked. I had been drooling buckets and had no idea because I was so numb.

Just some blood accumulating later in the day.

I was on a "no chew" diet for a few days. I couldn't believe how fast I got tired of that. I don't care much for yogurt, oatmeal, or soups so after one round of each of those I had had enough. I have a new respect for the patients that I see that are on puree diets. I'm still on a soft diet for another couple of weeks and just keep dreaming of eating pizza. Its crazy how much you want something just because you can't have it. Besides the food, the recovery wasn't bad at all. I only needed pain meds the day of, after that it just felt like muscle aches but not actual pain.

And now my mouth looks like this. What a nice new gumline for a mere $7200, Merry Christmas to me. You can see all the stitches between my teeth, I'm still waiting for those to come out.