Dental care

I'm sorry that your mom won't get a dental extraction. ...but it might be best if she doesn't. There are complications that can occur if she doesn't take care of it properly, like rootrot, I think it's called that. It comes from sucking with a straw.

If your mother is losing weight, give her Ensure. My m-i-l wouldn't eat some meals last year and we gave her Ensure. It takes the place of meals. She was having a hard time swallowing.

Also, you can try Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It has the same effect, but probably better tasting. The Ensure doesn't taste all that bad, but I didn't like the taste that it left in my mouth. My s-i-l, who's a nurse told me about CIB and vanilla ic.

If she doesn't totally take care of that now, eventually she'll be too down the road to handle anesthetic. See sep thread about this,...and also to have dentures made and fit. My mom can't have her dentures replaced because the skin on the palate of her mouth is loose from bone shrinkage. It's an hour a day at least fussing with her top dentures, the bottoms were eaten by her dog ten years ago.

Anyway, protein drinks. At Costco I was looking at Ensure cartons and glanced at the next row of boxes, bodybuilder's drink at 20 grams, low sugar. Wow, I was reading the label when a hunk pulled out a carton of the next drink...30 GRAMS PER 8 OZ. One needs about 45 grams per day, and with milk and yogurt, that worry is off our list. This drink is chocolate, delicious. I mix it third coffee, third milk and third protein drink, add a few drops of mint extract or orange extract. Mom chugalugs this and keeps giving me the cup to TRY THIS, IT'S DELICIOUS! Oh, this makes a chocolate mocha. It has some fiber in it and other vitamins of course.

the name of this miracle, low sugar and low fat, is Premier Nutrition Protein HIgh Protein Shake, Red and white box. each is 11 oz bottles, about $24 for 18 of these. 1 gr sugar, lor fat 24 vitamins and minerals.

The next challenge is fiber, adding it to yogurt concoctions. I add ginger snaps (check label), stewed prunes, fruit, mixed with yogurt with one of those stick wand blenders. So easy to clean and it really does puree anything. So far, Mom thinks this is heaven. Some yogurts now come with fiber, 3 gr per usually.

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OMG I just came from moms house and she broke off one of her front teeth. She kept trying to show it to me and I couldn't see it, then all of a sudden I looked up top and there it is GOA. She asked me to go to the drug store and see what I can get to fix it. I told her I think she needs to go to the dentist and I don't know anything that would work for that.

Here she has a tooth on the bottom that she plays with all the time, it's been loose for 2 years, and it's still in place and then the one at the top falls out. I asked her what happened and she said she bit down on some crackers and there it went. Gosh I didn't even know it was loose. She asked for a mirror and I gave it to her. But it's on the side that was affected by the stroke and that side of her face is still a little distorted so it's really not noticeable. I told her that you can't even see it. She did seem to be bothered by it.

My mom was not one who would easily go to the dentist. When I moved back to Cali from D.C. I looked at her teeth and asked her when was the last time she'd been and she said about 5 years. I immediately made an apt. then I had to make her keep it, and she didn't even want to get the deep cleaning. She's always had great teeth, and believe it or not she still has, well with the exception of a 2 teeth partial in the rear, all her teeth.

I guess it will be hard now for her to go to the dentist, I'm figuring she won't even attempt with all the medicine she'd need, they may clash with the medicine she takes on a regular basis.

I wonder how long it took her before she realized that tooth had come out.

Pamela, I would have gotten my digital camera out and snapped a picture up close of her smiling, gaping mouth and showed it to her. Print it out BIG, and then see what she says. :)

Girl at this point it seems too much of an ordeal to make her smile. A little lifeless today. I didn't stay, only took a Valentines Day gift.