Happy Friday! I just had a cup of coffee! For the first time since last Friday.
And I am now in the awkward position of trying to write a food post after a week of almost comically violent food poisoning, in which I not only didn’t eat supper, I didn’t eat anything for three days, and for the rest of the week, just bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, Gatorade, and Coke Zero, and literally not one other thing. Well, except for one ill-advised bowl of oatmeal, but that hardly counts, because its stay with me was so brief.
But I had coffee today! It was a little scary, and it hurt a little bit, but I drank the whole thing. Amazing.
SO, here’s what some of us ate this week:
SATURDAY
Saturday I think Damien made burgers. I got sick Friday evening and by Saturday I was absolutely zonked and could barely think over the sound of my teeth chattering.
SUNDAY
Sunday I don’t know what they had. Very focused on trying to persuade my stomach that water was nothing to be afraid of, but no dice. Had to use labor and delivery breathing to get through the night, and I was starting to wonder if I should go to the hospital, because I was starting to be alarmed at the sheer ferocity of the way my body was behaving. Crazy.
MONDAY
I think pizza rolls? I don’t know. On Monday I could focus my eyes and shuffle around a little, which was exciting. I think it was Monday that I suddenly remembered Imodium exists, and started the BRAT diet.
TUESDAY
Tuesday they had hot dogs, and I was most definitely feeling better. I slowly and laboriously put together an Instacart order for the rest of the week, ate some toast and chewed it forty thousand times per bite, and then went back to bed.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday I felt quite a bit better and even went outside for a bit. Tried not to weep over the state of my garden and especially my poor peach tree, which I had started culling and didn’t finish, and now I’m very afraid it’s going to split under the weight of all those peaches.
Damien did a whole bunch of culling for me, and I hope that will save the tree! I did a little weeding.
I ordered a few Southwest chopped salad kits and two bags of frozen chicken strips, and served that with spinach and some kind of orange dressing. I had rice and a banana.
THURSDAY
Thursday I felt significantly better, and spent the day resting up for the evening, so we could go to the NH Press Association awards dinner. Damien won FOUR awards. Four!
He had chicken piccata, butternut squash ravioli, rolls, and cake. I had a bottle of water and two rolls. The kids at home had deli sandwiches and sweet peppers.
FRIDAY
The kids asked for ravioli, even though I warned them it was going to be hot. Maybe they will eat frozen ravioli. They used to eat frozen peas and mixed veggies when they were little. I myself intend to stay with BRAT at least through today! Maybe I’ll have frozen BRAT for a little treat. But I am feeling so much better. And I had coffee!
SO, WHAT DID I LEARN? Because there always has to be a lesson.
Number one, people with chronic illnesses are my heroes. It was just so demoralizing to be in so much pain and to not be able to do anything I wanted to do, and to have to constantly argue with myself that I really am sick and really cannot just get it together and get some stuff done. And I knew it was just a temporary thing, and I would get better! I am just in awe of people who suffer every day and still manage to talk about something else sometimes.
Number one, ever since Ozempic and all those type drugs started making the headlines, I’ve had this little voice in my head like, ,. . . . maybe. . . . maybe . . . But it has completely shut up. I’m genuinely so glad for people who need those drugs, and for whom they work well, but that is not me. Newp.
Number three, I forget what three is for. Oh, I need to chew better.
Sorry, this was a completely unedifying and disgusting post, but I truly have nothing else going on right now. I have so much catching up to do, and I’m so tired! But very grateful to my family, especially Damien, who not only took care of everything and everybody, but constantly reassured me that I wasn’t exaggerating or just trying to get attention, and that I should just rest and recover.
Oh wait, number four is I lost nine pounds. I know, blah blah blah all that matters is your health and so on, but I’ll tell you what, I really try not to squander golden tickets. I’ve got a full week of portion control, zero snacking, and prudent and careful food choices under my belt, and I am gonna do my best to maintain that while gradually reintroducing actual food.
And that’s-a my story!
For hopefully never needed future reference, water is the worst thing for your stomach when you’re nauseous. I don’t know why, but a lovely nurse when I was pregnant and in the hospital with kidney stones and I tried ginger ale for the first time and didn’t throw up again.
It’s because water has no sugar or eletrolytes in it, so your body has to work harder to absorb it. The salts and sugars give your body something to “grab,” which makes them easier to keep down.
I am so sorry to hear about your awful week! Food is an everyday pleasure – hopefully at least three times a day! You are so right about those suffering from chronic illness being heroes – imagine dragging yourself out of bed every single day knowing you probably won’t feel that great but you need to get stuff done just the same, somehow. Congratulations to Damien and to you for surviving! Hope you are fully back to normal soon so you can enjoy food again without worries – yeah, yeah, in moderation, of course…
Alas, that strategy didn’t work for me after my April food-poisoning-or-maybe-just-norovirus bout. Several days after I felt just about better, it was like my body took inventory and was like, “Waaaiiiittt, we’re missing like four thousand calories here.” And so I got really hungry all day, and I think into the next day, and didn’t end up with any net weight loss anyway, womp womp. But I hope it’s different for you!
And sorry, that was supposed to be a comment farther down, on the illness-as-weight-loss-kickstart phenomenon. But you probably got that!
So glad you’re on the mend. (And congrats to Damien!)
I have comically low blood pressure–as in, at the doctor’s office they’ll take it and it will be 110/60, and they’ll be all impressed, and then get those little worried creases over their eyebrows when I mention that is high for me. Lately I started feeling really tired after eating, and my fingernails started turning blue and tingling after meals, and my son who is studying to be a nurse took me aside and kindly educated me that large meals can cause low blood pressure, and when your fingernails turn blue and tingly it means your body is desperately trying to get oxygenated blood to your heart and brain, by sacrificing the extremities. We took my blood pressure and it was 90 over 49. Ooops.
I said, “So…maybe eat smaller meals?” and he nodded sympathetically at me, as one does to a 51 year old idiot who needs to stop matching her teenage and adult sons’ portions at mealtimes.
I started today and had SO MUCH energy after lunch it wasn’t funny. The cat kept staring at me, because I was cleaning the bathrooms during what is normally our nap/rest time. So my portion control has been decided for me.
Isn’t it a relief when you start feeling better after feeling sick? There’s a particular gratitude that wells up in my heart when I finally start feeling better.
Good to hear you’re recovering. 🙂
That is definitely not a fun week. I feel here I should tell you that last August I got a severe intestinal something that rendered me unable to eat anything for three days, and to eat very little for a week after that. And then I just . . . kept not eating as much (tracking it with a free online calorie counter) for six months. I lost 30 pounds. Not that I advocate illness to kickstart a diet, but I did find it much easier to not have that initial period of hunger when portions are cut. I was just so happy I could eat ANYTHING that 1500 calories a day seemed luxurious.
exactly. I wouldn’t have chosen this route, but if that’s where I am, I’ll take it! Congrats on the 30 libs!