Pre-Thanksgiving update (Too Much Information alert)

I warned you.

Thanksgiving is on Monday (I remind my American readers that I live in Foreign Country). The federal election is on Tuesday (ditto). But Tuesday is special because that's the day some of my sutures come out.

I had oral surgery on Tuesday. Periodontal graft. They took a chunk out of the tissue over my hard palate (for those who care from somewhere inside of my left upper first bicuspid (at least that's about where the sutures are) (that's 24FDI or 12ADA) and grafted it into place around the lingual (inside) base of my left lower first molar (36FDI or 21ADA). Where I had a weird, slit-shaped recession (the periodontist thinks it was my old toothbrush, which had a rotating motion, abrading into my gum over time).

So the upshot is, I've got sutures all over the left side of my mouth, I'm not allowed to chew on that side for a month (which is the only side I can chew on, so scr*w the endocrinologist and nutritionist, it's gonna be a lot of rice and mac-n-cheese this month--as my GP said 'well, you gotta do what you gotta do'. But on Tuesday the upper sutures come out which are the ones that are really bugging me.

The lower one, on the other hand, has a very long end that actually extends above my occlusal line. I'm wondering if I tore something out. But since nothing hurts, or even is sensitive, I'm not worried about it. We'll let the periodontist worry about it on Tuesday.

So in the end, I skipped yoga on Tuesday night. I was warned not to do any exercise on Tuesday. And since I still seem to be oozing from somehwere (rusty stains on my tongue and around my lips when I wake up) I think Down(ward facing)Dog and forward folds are off the table for a while. On the other hand, it's Saturday noonish, and I'm enjoying some yog(o)urt with fake bananas Foster sauce on it for brunch even as we speak.

Thursday I had may annual physical. Things are fine, or at least nothing new is obviously popping up, and everything else seems to be under some kind of control. But. At this exam, I had my first, well, "That" exam. Most men over 50 will know what I'm talking about. Under 50 but with family history might. Under 30, you know nothing.

Now I've been dreading this. Not that I'm squeamish or particularly sensitive or afraid of anything 'down there'. But I don't see 'down there' as a prime recreational area. And contrary to what some may think, 'in there' is completely unknown territory for me.

Turns out, not so big a deal. Turns out 'it' isn't even that far 'in there'. Certainly not as far as I thought it was. And 'it' seems to be healthy, which apparently makes the whole thing very quick and easy. The exam I mean. So in the end, not so bad. Not that I want to make a habit of it, but I can cope.

So as long as we're tlking about 'down there', I'm going in for a colonoscopy (and gastroscopy, which frankly freaks me out more) at the end of the month. As I may or may not have mentioned anywhere, my last set of blood tests indicated some weak anemia (low hemoglobin, high iron bindability or something like that), so I was off to the GI guy to make sure I'm not bleeding somewhere important. So he wants to check me out, stem to stern as it were. Which I know is unpleasant, but I figure it's not a big deal. I mean if Katie Couric can do it, on televison no less, I can cope.

What I'm not looking forward to is the prep. Which involves only two days of dietary restriction and, um, pharmaceutical help cleaning everything out. But that sounds like the part of the process that is going to be the least pleasant. I've been advised to back off some of my meds so I don't go hypo(glycemic) and need to eat something at the wrong moment.

But October is turning out to be a Festival of Unpleasant Procedures.

For that reason, I've just decided to not put up an October spectrogram (for those of you who care). I just can't spare the time to think about it right now. I've got things half set up, so I can probably finish that for November, but I'm not pushing myself.

I probably should be--it's good discipline--but this month is not shaping up to be much fun.