Today! Today was the big day! And -oh!- how glorious it was to finally be freed from this jail cell that was made up of the elastics that tied my jaws together.

I could hardly sleep from all the anticipation surrounding this great un-tying. Instead of waking up at 9.15 as set by my alarm clock, I woke up around 8. Before I knew it, it was finally 11 (actually 10 minutes past that), I was in the dentist's chair, and a few snips of the scissors later, I was free! No more elastics forcibly clenching my jaw tight, no more bite guard crowding my tongue in! No more! My mouth felt so empty all of a sudden, but the feeling of fullness was not one that I would miss. Ever. The dentist also removed the stitches on my cheeks, which didn't hurt as much as I had expected it to.

And then I was off into the world, free as a bird.

My first thought post-elastics was of food. It had also been my last thought before the jailbreak. And also my only thought this past week.

I wanted something fried.

And so my first solid bit of food in more than a week came in the form of fish and chips from the hospital kopitiam. I reckon I had been a bit too ambitious, since I'm supposed to be on a soft-chew diet for a couple more weeks. But what the heck. Imma aim high and see how far I get.

Quite unsusprisingly, it wasn't very far. Less than halfway through eating the fish, I surrendered. It wasn't that I was full. Far from it. My jaws just couldn't open wide enough to admit more than a quarter of a fork of fish, and it had to be a very flat piece of fish. The lower jaw ached each time it had to open to its maximum cm-and-a-half. And it wasn't used to being in this new position, so it had to labour to chew that very small piece of fish. Eventually, I just got too tired of eating the fish. So I tasked my dad with finishing up my fish and chips, and got myself a cuppa frozen yoghurt instead. MUCH more manageable (although I still had to take very small spoonfuls).

Afterwards when I met Hanif, I managed to surprise myself with how hungry I was. We had agreed to share the mentaiko omu rice at Liang Court because I felt like I probably wouldn't be able to eat even half of it. But, lo and behold, I put away about three quarters of it. The egg was soft enough and the rice small enough for me take small bites quite easily. And I even felt hungry for more. MOAR FOOD! It was as if the dragon that had been starved for a week was suddenly released from it's cage into a forest teeming with abundance of food (which was exactly how I felt at that time).

And so, I went in search of more food, and came up with a cheesecake and a frappe from mcdonalds. Finally. Satiation. Bliss. Fulfilment. Even if the jaw hurts, Fina can and will eat. No need to stick to a porridge and soup diet. Thank goodness.