Help please!!

I am so hungry!! I cannot eat anything that is chewable so basically I am on liquids. I have been eating a lot of soup and pudding that I do enjoy. But I am so sick of all of it too. My nice mother has made me homemade applesauce and cream of wheat every morning which is nice, but it is getting old fast. I just ate refried beans out of a can, and enjoyed it, that's how desperate I am! I do not know how much longer this is going to go on but it stinks!

(keep in mind I am lactose intolerant, so milkshakes and ice cream are out--no fun for me)

The Results...

Well, the surgery is over, well actually it was over on Friday afternoon, I am just now up to writing about it a little. I am still lying in my pajamas on my couch 3 days later with liquids, drugs, and stitches, but the worst is over and I am relieved.

I appreciate everyone that prayed for me and has written me because I know it helped. The surgery itself was very long, 3 hours, and more intensive than originally planned (kind of the theme of this whole saga). The abscess was more spread out than they could see on x-rays and actually went all the way to the tip of my chin and spread out width length under other teeth that they were also unaware of. But they believe they removed it all and I feel like my surgeons did such a good job and I really appreciated their attentiveness, kindness, and humor throughout the ordeal.

I still am pretty shocked that they don't put people completely under for this sort of thing. I've had a lot of dental work done so I'm not a wimp but it was a pretty horrific experience to be awake for. Lots of blood, lots of cutting, and lots of just awfulness in general. And it is quite the strange experience to have your mouth stitched through the front (under the teeth) all the way through the back and out again--while you're awake!

Anyways, enough of that. I wanted to post a picture of all of my stitches but I realized it was just plain disgusting and nobody needed to see that. But I do have a swollen jaw and I talk funny around these stitches. Also, I'm so hungry! Liquids are fine but they are getting old fast, luckily I like soup and soup likes me. I am very thankful for good friends who have brought me flowers, gifts, cards, frozen hot chocolates, and lots of hugs. I'm also very thankful for my parents who have taken very diligent care of me fixing all of my liquids and keeping me straight on the ridiculous amount of bone vitamins, steroids, antibiotics, and painkillers I am on. I feel like our kitchen table is now a pharmacy, but I'm thankful for those painkillers let me tell you!

I will continue to update as time goes on. Hopefully I will get my stitches out on Thursday and a good report from my first checkup. Thanks again for everyone that prayed for me or contacted me in some way. It has meant a lot.

Surgery Day--Friday

Tomorrow at 1pm I am having my surgery. I am very happy to be getting this over with but I am also fairly nervous. Hopefully it won't take more than an hour and I will be left with stitches and new jaw material. The other concern I have is that I have to be awake for the procedure, I would rather be under, but it will probably be better this way.

Pray that I will be calm and tough. That everything will go smoothly and that I willl recover quickly!

Cousins galore!--last Florida installment

Probably the biggest draw to Florida and the best part of our trip was visiting my extended family there. My dad's youngest brother and his wife live in Brookesville, FL out in the country in the most beautiful part of FL in my opinion. I have 5 boy cousins there consisting of a youth pastor married with 2 children trying to head to the mission field in China, a state trooper--married, a college wrestler, and 2 high school footbal, wrestling, track studs. They have also been favorite playmates of my brothers and I growing up and I always took care of the younger boys--yes I changed Zack's (the youngest) diapers and it horrifies him to this day! Robbie (the oldest) has 2 little ones named Kenny (2 years) and Lydia Ann (almost 1). They are super special to us and we enjoyed them thoroughly. It's always a good time when Pritzs get together.

Ybor City--Cuban Paradise

Tampa is a surprising boiling pot of cultures and I very much enjoyed getting to experience a few of them. My parents lived in Germany for a number of years after they got married in the late 70s and my dad lived there as a child as well so I've grown up with a lot of German influence, particularly the food. We love German food and often have some type of sausage, bread, red cabbage, and sauerkraut for dinner. We ate a meal at Mr. Dunderbakt's--a great pub/restaurant near my Grandma's house and we definitely indulged ourselves and felt it in our stuffed tummies for the rest of the day.

Another super cool part of downtown Tampa is Ybor City. This is a Hispanic conglomerate. It is where lots and lots of cigar factories were once booming and now it's more of culture and food paradise as well as partyville at night. We enjoyed Cuban sandwiches and yellow rice at Hugo's and then walked around enjoying watching an old man hand roll cigars and seeing all of the beautiful architecture surrounded by palm trees. It is definitely a colorful part of town and I am sure if we would have stuck around til the sun went down we would have seen an even more colorful crowd--but I don't think my 86 year old grandma was up for that!

Tampa Bay, Yay!

My parents and I just returned from a fun vacation/visiting family in Tampa, FL. I wanted to post while I was there but my grandmother's computer was just a little too archaic for my taste and I had opted out of messing with my trying to bring my laptop along. So that is why I have been gone for the last week and am just getting around to posting several posts all at once.

The first full day in Tampa we headed across the bay in St. Pete to the beach at Fort DeSoto where we have always gone growing up and with all of my boy cousins. It was a gorgeous day, just enough clouds to keep my skin from frying and warm enough that the water felt delicious!

Autumn. Otono. Automne.

Top 10 things that I am happy about/looking forward to/thankful for (in no particular order):

1. It is finally starting to be fall in Oklahoma! My favorite season. Today was downright blustery and chilly. I wore a cardigan...it was heavenly.

2. Friday is my 24th birthday, sounds so bizarre to say that number, wow.

3. This weekend is JBU Homecoming and I am looking forward to many fun friends and sweet reunions!

4. My surgery is less than a month away.

5. I am going to Florida for a week in 5 days!

6. My cold is so much better and may be gone in a few days...God bless Theraflu!

7. I got to talk to my good friend Pepe on Saturday all the way from Guatemala (who ran a marathon the next day, no big deal.)

8. I am receiving so much love and fun from caretaking the Freeman kids this week--they are a true joy in my life.

9. I thank God that my friend Micah's life was spared in a very serious motorcycle accident last week and that his injuries are so minor in comparison to what could have been.

10. I get to see two of my dear housemates this weekend at Homecoming and I am more excited about that than I can put into words. I love and miss 340!

To close I will include a picture of me and the 340 housies last fall in our Halloween costumes. We love playing dress up and apparently never grew out of our American Girl Doll obsession...