The Sick and Deflicted

When I was little, I would bless the food at a meal, and trying to follow daddy's example of praying for the sick, I would ask God to bless the "sick and deflicted". Well, I've been deflicted, afflicted, whatever, this week.

I have had the distinct pleasure - nay, the privelege - to go through this week with SIX canker sores in my mouth. As I read through the first two chapters of Job earlier this week, I found a bosom companion. Seeing as how I had no clay pot shards with which to scrape myself, I tried other homeopathic remedies:

Rinsed with Dr. Tichenor's antiseptic {It burns us, precious!}, rinsed with salt water, and even swooshed yogurt around in my mouth. My mother keeps telling me to try buttermilk. Uh, no.

Nothing brought lasting relief. The salt water alleviated pain for the longest stretch, but also left a foul taste in my mouth.

Hormones are so lovely.

As of today, I have four left, and they are gigantic doozies. We menu plan early in the week, and do all our shopping on one day. It saves the gas of multiple trips for random items. I was so looking forward to some good ol' burgers from the grill later in the week. That was last night's menu. Alas, I did not get to enjoy them. I ate so slowly, and pushed everything to the roof of my mouth with my tongue. (Most of the sores are around my bottom jaw.) I wasn't thinking about the rich taste of the beefy goodness. I was just thinking about how I never before noticed how sharp the edges of grilled meat feel in the mouth. I picked at the spicy tater babies that accompanied the meal. The texture and spices were almost too painful to bear....almost.

Lunch at school today will be a couple of cartons of chocolate milk. I just don't think I could chew anything else. My kingdom for a Smoothie King!!

Still.....all this hormonal upheaval is a good sign that this month's round of treatment is doing its job. I've noticed temperature spikes. I'm just hoping that they're not the signs of any of these sores getting infected. Like I have said before, ovulation and pregnancy symptoms overlap so many other health conditions that it's hard to disseminate. And yet, even in the intense pain that I am in, I am so hopeful, so optimistic, and have a new set of baby names all picked out. Our church secretary is praying we'll have twins. Anything to keep from having to go through this mess again!

Anybody feel like bringing me a Smoothie for lunch? Seriously.