What Tastes Good Blended (12.21.15)

Just thought I'd check in and give a quick update.  Chris continues to do well.  His exercises get easier the more that he practices them.  The morning session is always the hardest (because it's the been the longest since he's done the exercises and his muscles get tight), but it gets easier as the day progresses.  We had some friends in town visiting yesterday and he was up for about 5 hours of socializing - yay!  He was able to do two exercise sessions during that time, so he was able to talk freely for 30 minutes each time, which was great practice.  We were all laughing and sharing, but poor Chris - it's hard for him to smile and laugh and sometimes it's too much.  A highlight was when he got out my laptop and tried to get Microsoft Word to narrate his text (ala Stephen Hawking).  He could get the narrator to voice basically everything except for his text - it was awesome.  We would hear the laptop say "question mark" and then "period" but none of the text before it.  Silly technology!

Chris continues to experiment with different food choices.  I know he is hungry because he's always commenting on the food he sees during commercials.  He also weighed himself for the first time since surgery and he lost about 15 pounds.  Here is a summary of the food he's tried to blend so far:

• Tom ka coconut soup - he's had this a few times - a definite winner!
• Pad thai with chicken - he finished it, so I think it was pretty good.
• Slice of spinach and cheese pizza - he said it basically tasted like milk-flavored pizza.  It was just OK.
• Chocolate chip cookie and milk - he really wanted a cookie!  He looked at his glass after the cookie was blended and told me, "this isn't a cookie" :(  I still think he enjoyed it though.
• Potstickers - I'm not a fan, blended or not, but Chris seemed to like it.
• Veggie chili - He made a big pot of veggie chili in our crock pot and ate it for a few nights in a row.  He seemed to like it and all the spices.
• Potato soup - He liked it (this is a recipe we have even had before his jaw surgery) but had to water it down because it was too viscous.

We are going to try some ground beef and veggies in the crock pot today - we'll see how it turns out!