RAY'S REPORTS

This is gross. This is my mouth. That is the roof of my mouth and my upper teeth. It’s hard to see exactly where in this photo are the problem areas because it such a mess in there. On my right side, I have a cracked tooth where pieces of teeth and pieces of filling broke off last week while I was in New York. Since then it has been hurting. You can see where a tooth has already been extracted. It’s next to that. A few months ago my dentist said I would be needing a root canal right there. She also said I have big cavity on my left side and if we don’t fix that one soon, it will be need a root canal as well. That one also had some pieces break off and it left really sharp edges.

I used to joke with my friends and chew food with just my front teeth saying that’s how I have to learn to eat since all my other teeth will be gone. Why would I even joke about that because now look at me. I always had teeth problems and I always would neglect the problems till its too late.

The pain comes in waves. Mostly right side, but both sides. I have been through pretty much every kind of tooth pain before so my tolerance levels are high. I also know how to handle it. Keep it clean, floss that zone, swish with coconut oil to kill bacteria. Once the pain is gone, your chilling. Eventually the tooth will die and then you wont feel anything. Sometimes the tooth will just abort itself or you can go get it extracted which is way cheaper than fillings, root canal, implants, etc.

But last night it was hurting pretty bad. I bummed myself out. I can’t afford to go to the dentist right now and even if I could they would most likely extract those teeth and I can’t afford to lose any more teeth. You can’t see it that well here but I lost a bunch of teeth on the bottom row. I can go on and on about bad habits. But now is time for some big time power moves. Long term power moves. I wanted to post this photo for 1. accountability and 2. progress reports.

I stayed up late reading about reversing tooth decay and remineralizing teeth. I had heard of it before and the first time I researched I even switched to all natural products and started the coconut oil stuff. That was years ago though and very casual. This time I want to incorporate the diet and all the supplements. I ordered the book and some other things on amazon today. I went and got bone broth and probiotics today. Today is day 1 of no grains and supposed to be no sugar but I had some fruit. I had a salad for lunch and I chopped up a whole cucumber and threw it in there. And not even 24 hrs into it, my tooth feels better.

Anyways, this diet I think will help with another problem I got going on, an auto immune disease called lupus. I have a stack of books and have read a ton about healing but I have not fully committed even though I do believe it can help me a lot. It’s tough to change everything at once. And it’s tough doing it solo. This rotten tooth is motivating me more than ever though and it feels good just thinking about it. People have successfully cured their teeth problems and avoided extractions. People have also rid themselves of all symptoms of auto immune disease. All through diet and using food as medicine. I wont delete this post. And I will make more reports as we go. I need your support. Thanks in advance.

I went to New York again for the annual New York Art Book Fair. It is always fun, stress, overwhelming, lucrative, and necessary. I love it. I posted most of the photos on the Hamburger Eyes insta (@hamburger_eyes) and my insta (@rays_reports) and I was going to repost them here but nah. Here’s just a few extras.

This year we got a little piece of wall. I was psyched to hang up some of my laser pages. This is my favorite jam right now. There is a quote my Daido Moriyama somewhere that says something like, “My work isn’t finished until it is on a printed page.” I fully relate to this and it sums up my whole game pretty much.

Near the Moma there was a strike happening.

We were coming home from a bar and my brother and I started snapping this bush. Some guy walking by was saying that these flowers are only open because of the full moon and that by morning time they will all be closed up. I didn’t believe him. These are just Morning Glory flowers right? They open regardless of full moon and some are day time and some are night time. Right?

This is what it looks like from behind the table in a rare moment of not helping someone or answering questions.

Dave is making breakfast.