The quest for whole grains

24 Apr

In the nearly three weeks since my injury, the one thing that I’ve been completely unsuccessful at getting into my diet has been whole grains. The day after my surgery, I had my failed attempt at oatmeal. A little less than a week later, I dropped some fine cracker crumbs into soup, only to have them expand after absorbing moisture. For dinner today, I made an attempt at something that I really thought would work, but I was disappointed.

I made some whole wheat couscous and added a few spoonfuls to some vegetable broth, hoping to just drink it like a soup. The couscous seemed to get through the straw without any trouble, but most of it didn’t get past my teeth. I made a brief attempt at trying to blend the stuff before giving up and pouring it down the drain. I still have quite a bit of couscous left, but it’ll have to wait in the refrigerator  until I can open my mouth again.

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Caught up

23 Apr

I’ve managed to finish all of my problem sets, with the exception of one due tomorrow that I expect the whole class will be handing in late. At the beginning of the week, I wouldn’t have believed anybody telling me I’d have caught up by now, but some of the five problem sets I’ve finished the weekend have been easier than I expected.

This, of course, means that I should finally get around to writing about the first two weeks after the accident.

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Level five vegan

22 Apr

I now have five different kinds of dairy-free milk in my refrigerator: soy, rice, almond, hazelnut, and oat. I’ve used soy and rice for a long time, and have tried almond a few times, but hazelnut and oat are new to me. I actually don’t think I’ll buy either again because they’re more expensive and don’t seem any better. Almond milk has really grown on me over the last few days.

Incidentally, I refer to these milks as “dairy-free” rather than the more common “non-dairy” because the latter term has been corrupted by the milk lobby. Unfortunately, “dairy-free” isn’t perfect either, but it hasn’t been explicitly corrupted.

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Jury Duty

22 Apr

I was summoned for jury duty today, but it turned out that they didn’t need any jurors today, so I didn’t even have to show up. I had considered getting a medical excuse, but I seeing as I taught last week, it didn’t seem like I really needed to be excused. Even though I have plenty else to do, I almost wanted to go to see how they’d react to me showing up with a wired jaw. Many people have told me that lawyers don’t like to have mathematicians on juries, so I didn’t think there was a real chance of impanelment.

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I’m not sure why I do these things to myself

22 Apr

I went to a panel discussion earlier on food sustainability as part of Earth Week. Of course, food is the last things somebody who can’t eat for another eight days needs to hear about. Actually, the discussion itself wasn’t too bad in that respect because much of the discussion focused on some of the less appetizing aspects of food, but it didn’t help that they served vegan food there. I’m fairly used to going to events with (non-vegan) food and not eating, so going to an event with vegan food when I couldn’t eat was perhaps a little bit masochistic.

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The return of somewhat normal conversation

21 Apr

My speech has improved to the point where I can sometimes carry on a one-on-one conversation without feeling a need to explain my injury to the other person. If I need to speak loudly for whatever reason, it’s still pretty obvious that something isn’t quite right, but I can now speak at a more-or-less normal volume without feeling overly self conscious. This allowed me to finally pick up the pay check that’s been waiting for me since the beginning of the month and drop the course I’ve been planning to drop since the injury.

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An unexpected consequence of a liquid diet

21 Apr

I went grocery shopping earlier and purchased oat and hazelnut milks, several soy yogurts, and a few cans of low sodium soups. The result was that my grocery bags were considerably heavier than the bags I’m used to carrying when I’m not recovering from injury. If I have to stay on the liquid diet even after going wireless next week (and I still have to check with the oral surgeon to see if this is the case), my arms may actually have to get some serious exercise.

After the semester ends (or sooner, if I should catch up with school work), I’ll probably try to start cooking again, even if just a few soups. This will cut down on the amount of liquid I need to carry.

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Milestones

19 Apr

Today marks a couple of milestones. Roughly half an hour from now will be two weeks from the time of my accident. Early this morning was the halfway point of my time having my jaw wired shut. For the most part, the recovery is going better than I expected. I certainly wouldn’t have thought that after only two weeks, my face wouldn’t have any scars or scabs. There are a couple of spots that are a bit pink, but the most noticeable change is that I still haven’t shaved my chin near where I had stitches. The abrasions on arms, legs, and hands are healing, but a bit slower than my face.

I still have to get to work on writing about the last two weeks.  Unfortunately, I’m badly behind in my schoolwork.

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Introduction

18 Apr

Just under two weeks ago, I fell off of my bicycle and sustained a number of injuries, the most serious of which was a mandibular fracture. I plan to use this blog to share various musings related to these injuries, as well as things I’ve learned that might be helpful to other people in similar situations.

At various times, it may be helpful for a reader to know that I am a vegan and a graduate student in mathematics. I suspect that anybody who knows me and finds this blog would recognize that I am the author, but I don’t plan on identifying myself at this time.

Obviously, I’m getting something of a late start on this blog, with the accident nearly two weeks behind me already. I’ve been meaning to start this blog for some time now, but life has been busy. I have quite a number of entries that I’d like to write, and I plan on back-dating some posts according to when I first thought to write them.

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A culinary success

17 Apr

For dinner today, I had a smoothie which I might actually want to make again after I’m able to open my mouth again. Then it won’t be a meal, of course, but it was really quite good. I didn’t write down exact amounts of ingredients, but I’ll call it a Peanut Butter Apple Cinnamon Smoothie. I made it by blending a So Delicious Cinnamon Bun soy yogurt with a few tablespoons of peanut butter and maybe 1/3 cup of applesauce, a little bit of soymilk, and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. After that was all blended, I added more soymilk until the volume was about three cups, and blended some more.

The smoothie felt as though it was just thin enough that it could pass through the straw, and the flavor was really very good. Something about the flavored soy yogurt made it particularly so.  The peanut butter has plenty of fat and protein, so it was nice and filling, too.

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