(no subject)
Feb. 24th, 2011 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Libya: The rebels keep gaining ground and a majority of the country is now in rebel hands. The Government really only holds Tripoli and a few other Western population centers. Gadhafi is not allowing us to evacuate stranded Americans. No clue about other stranded non-Libyans.
* Hawaii has legalized Civil Unions.
* Three days ago, I nearly walked the black cats in the front yard. (The weather was right when I left for errands, but it was raining when I got back). Today, squirrel valiantly waded out into the snow to see if the car could make it off our street. The road was so slick, it was clear it would end in a ditch if he tried. Ah, Washington weather. I could only cancel my appointment and hope the closed the office, as medicare does not cover bills for snow cancellation. Me hobbling on icy, snow covered hilly pavement for a mile each way with my crutch to catch a bus is a recipe for another broken leg. Damn.
* What's the deal with me and food? When I was little, I tended to throw up if I was forced to eat the traditional big breakfast. It's nott that my mother didn't try to do the nutritionally sound thing, but given my morning queasiness, she eventually gave in and let me have things like cheese and crackers, which would stay down. I'd get hungry well before lunch, but it was the lesser of evils. From about seventh grade on, I'd hide a small snack in my locker and eat it between classes. When I was younger, I was SOL.
Several factors were involved. 1. I have a lot of food allergies. These are not anaphylactic shock close your throat and die allergies. These are give you flu symptom allergies. When I was a kid, it was comparatively mild, lasting only a few hours. Now, a pork poisoning is 1-3 days of misery. Eggs are about a day worth of misery. (I can generally deal with say, the amount of egg in a single piece of cake or donut, but fried or scrambled eggs are right out). Now, imagine what a classic egg and bacon breakfast would do to me. 2. I inherited my Father's tendency to ulcers and related stomach acid issues. This sort of thing gets worse on an empty stomach. If I'd last eaten eleven hours before, it is no surprise I woke up queasy, then couldn't handle a heavy meal or even a bowl of cereal. 3. One of the effects of my brain wiring is a strong sense memory, and a sensitivity to scents/tastes. For example, to this day, I have trouble eating Muenster cheese because when I was a toddler, my Mother fed me a burnt grilled cheese sandwich made with Muenser. No really. The memory of the taste is so strong it taints the completely fine food I'm eating now when I smell muenster. We wwere poor, and especially towards the end of the month, the food was often not particularly fresh, and I could taste it days before anyone else. Also, if something was wrong with it, it could be weeks or months, or in extreme cases years or forever before I could force myself to eat whatever it was again. Making me eat it would lead to vomiting. Remembering eating it could lead to vomiting. Again, I can handle certain kinds of off better than others. 4. Because of my sensory wiring, it's very easy for me to forget to eat, since I tend not to notice I'm hungry. I also have trouble noticing hunger through nausea.
The first two problems got much worse after I left home. The third is about the same or slightly better. The forth is much worse. I also have medications I can't not take that rip up stomach linings. I've been ulcer free a little over a decade, but for a while there, I had them often, and even got to do the middle of the night emergency room visits, barium milkshake, serious ulcer stuff.
All of these factors have created life long difficulties with actually eating. I do love hot spicy foods, but I'm not so good with bland. (Yes, I have grown fat since I became sick. This is because of the whole not being able to move around much thing, and medication side effects. People often look at me and make judgments about my food intake that have nothing to do with reality. I drink very little soda, my fast food intake is Dairy Queen a couple of times a year, I don't eat most snack foods, and the few I do eat are only a couple of times a year, most things Americans like fried I bake out of preference, etc..)
My ulcer is back. Most of the ulcer foods I normally eat are forbidden now for medical reasons, which is causing issues. On the other hand, with the new medication combination, there's a sweet spot in the middle of the night when I'm actually hungry and not queasy all at the same time for several hours. I'd actually forgotten what that was like, to not have to fight past the nausea to eat.
The ulcer has forced me to change up my med schedule, so I now have seven batches a day instead of the usual six. I keep forgetting the morning anti-nausea pill and end ending up horrified by how icky I feel before I remember. Doh!
* I have a confession to make: I find Spider man boring. Yeah, I said it. Oh, I watched the cartoon when I was little; I went to see the Raimi films despite their flaws, because the casting made it worth it. The thing is though, I don't find the character or his adventures particularly compelling. I mean yes, the "With great power comes great responsibility" concept is an important one, but Spiderman's story just doesn't have that much to offer me besides that, all things considered. He feels like a relic of another era to me, a throwback to the nineteen fifties, when there are so many more interesting and dynamic stories to be told about other characters. I can't imagine spending money on the comics, and everything I've heard and seen about the reboot make me want nothing to do with it.
* Rachel Maddow on the ugly tactics Governor Walker plans to break the Unions:
* Rachel Maddow on Obama's decision not to defend DOMA:
* Hawaii has legalized Civil Unions.
* Three days ago, I nearly walked the black cats in the front yard. (The weather was right when I left for errands, but it was raining when I got back). Today, squirrel valiantly waded out into the snow to see if the car could make it off our street. The road was so slick, it was clear it would end in a ditch if he tried. Ah, Washington weather. I could only cancel my appointment and hope the closed the office, as medicare does not cover bills for snow cancellation. Me hobbling on icy, snow covered hilly pavement for a mile each way with my crutch to catch a bus is a recipe for another broken leg. Damn.
* What's the deal with me and food? When I was little, I tended to throw up if I was forced to eat the traditional big breakfast. It's nott that my mother didn't try to do the nutritionally sound thing, but given my morning queasiness, she eventually gave in and let me have things like cheese and crackers, which would stay down. I'd get hungry well before lunch, but it was the lesser of evils. From about seventh grade on, I'd hide a small snack in my locker and eat it between classes. When I was younger, I was SOL.
Several factors were involved. 1. I have a lot of food allergies. These are not anaphylactic shock close your throat and die allergies. These are give you flu symptom allergies. When I was a kid, it was comparatively mild, lasting only a few hours. Now, a pork poisoning is 1-3 days of misery. Eggs are about a day worth of misery. (I can generally deal with say, the amount of egg in a single piece of cake or donut, but fried or scrambled eggs are right out). Now, imagine what a classic egg and bacon breakfast would do to me. 2. I inherited my Father's tendency to ulcers and related stomach acid issues. This sort of thing gets worse on an empty stomach. If I'd last eaten eleven hours before, it is no surprise I woke up queasy, then couldn't handle a heavy meal or even a bowl of cereal. 3. One of the effects of my brain wiring is a strong sense memory, and a sensitivity to scents/tastes. For example, to this day, I have trouble eating Muenster cheese because when I was a toddler, my Mother fed me a burnt grilled cheese sandwich made with Muenser. No really. The memory of the taste is so strong it taints the completely fine food I'm eating now when I smell muenster. We wwere poor, and especially towards the end of the month, the food was often not particularly fresh, and I could taste it days before anyone else. Also, if something was wrong with it, it could be weeks or months, or in extreme cases years or forever before I could force myself to eat whatever it was again. Making me eat it would lead to vomiting. Remembering eating it could lead to vomiting. Again, I can handle certain kinds of off better than others. 4. Because of my sensory wiring, it's very easy for me to forget to eat, since I tend not to notice I'm hungry. I also have trouble noticing hunger through nausea.
The first two problems got much worse after I left home. The third is about the same or slightly better. The forth is much worse. I also have medications I can't not take that rip up stomach linings. I've been ulcer free a little over a decade, but for a while there, I had them often, and even got to do the middle of the night emergency room visits, barium milkshake, serious ulcer stuff.
All of these factors have created life long difficulties with actually eating. I do love hot spicy foods, but I'm not so good with bland. (Yes, I have grown fat since I became sick. This is because of the whole not being able to move around much thing, and medication side effects. People often look at me and make judgments about my food intake that have nothing to do with reality. I drink very little soda, my fast food intake is Dairy Queen a couple of times a year, I don't eat most snack foods, and the few I do eat are only a couple of times a year, most things Americans like fried I bake out of preference, etc..)
My ulcer is back. Most of the ulcer foods I normally eat are forbidden now for medical reasons, which is causing issues. On the other hand, with the new medication combination, there's a sweet spot in the middle of the night when I'm actually hungry and not queasy all at the same time for several hours. I'd actually forgotten what that was like, to not have to fight past the nausea to eat.
The ulcer has forced me to change up my med schedule, so I now have seven batches a day instead of the usual six. I keep forgetting the morning anti-nausea pill and end ending up horrified by how icky I feel before I remember. Doh!
* I have a confession to make: I find Spider man boring. Yeah, I said it. Oh, I watched the cartoon when I was little; I went to see the Raimi films despite their flaws, because the casting made it worth it. The thing is though, I don't find the character or his adventures particularly compelling. I mean yes, the "With great power comes great responsibility" concept is an important one, but Spiderman's story just doesn't have that much to offer me besides that, all things considered. He feels like a relic of another era to me, a throwback to the nineteen fifties, when there are so many more interesting and dynamic stories to be told about other characters. I can't imagine spending money on the comics, and everything I've heard and seen about the reboot make me want nothing to do with it.
* Rachel Maddow on the ugly tactics Governor Walker plans to break the Unions:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Rachel Maddow on Obama's decision not to defend DOMA:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 05:27 pm (UTC)I also have a digestive situation as a result of the infection I had that makes it difficult to keep down a lot of foods on an empty stomach, sometimes even "safe" foods like oatmeal. I'm also supposed to eat every 3-4 hours. Greasy food, like bacon and eggs, hashbrowns or french fries, make me sick about 85% of the time, no matter how empty my stomach is or isn't.
While obviously we both have "special" medical conditions, I can't help but wonder if maybe our society's view of food is really part of the problem here, too. Like, seriously, pancakes and waffles are not breakfast foods -- they are desserts! And wouldn't our kids be a lot healthier if they could snack throughout the day instead of gorging themselves (on, I might add, greasy cafeteria food, for many students) at pre-appointed times?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 03:11 am (UTC)That heavy meat, greasy diet is one of the many results of the Great Pestilence in England. It is essentially a legacy of the famines of the early fourteenth century followed by the sudden death of a third of the population letting people eat as much prestige foods as they wanted as the food supply did not shrink as fast as the human population.
Fun fact: this is also why the middle class started wearing underwear.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 08:24 pm (UTC)re Spiderman: I liked JMS's take: Spiderman wasn't accidently bitten - Anansi has plans.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 03:13 am (UTC)Anansi has plans.
Snerk.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 03:21 am (UTC)I agree that most breakfast foods are desserts.
I eat oatmeal. Which is, weirdly, more like beans than like other grains in terms of its nutritional qualities. Oatmeal cooked with dried blueberries and a bit of honey in it is about as sugary a breakfast as I can stand. Pinto beans and cheese is good, too. I used to have that on a tortilla, the cheese melted on top.
The best breakfast is a piece of baked salmon. Well, for people who, unlike Gwyd, eat that. Yesterday I ate leftover spaghetti for breakfast.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 08:17 am (UTC)These days, I have to wait and hour or more to eat after I get up because of the med schedule, and since no one is looking I tend to eat dinner type foods. I am most likely to eat breakfast foods with my last eat with food meds of the night.
I'm a big fan of the oatmeal/fruit combination, though I know it's a bad blood sugar choice. (No blueberries for me do to childhood oversaturation.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 09:18 am (UTC)I actually do this thing where I cook oat groats. I don't understand instant oatmeal, since cooking oatmeal to the chewy underdone way I like it doesn't take that much longer than boiling water anyway -- I throw oats and water in the pot and let it go, and don't wait for the water to boil first, and I cook it at a hard boil, too.
Not only does instant oatmeal have a disturbing texture, the overcooking makes it too easy to digest, so it not only spikes your blood sugar, it doesn't leave you feeling full for any length of time. In my opinion the biggest pleasure of oatmeal is that a relatively small amount of it leaves you feeling full for a decent amount of time.
I use dried cherries instead, often. Or other dried fruits, or fresh fruit when I have so much that it doesn't seem like a waste to cook it. I just don't especially care for raisins in oatmeal.
It's supposed to be terribly good at lowering your cholesterol, I'm a bit surprised your docs aren't suggesting you eat it all the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 10:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-26 08:38 pm (UTC)Depending on how hard you boil it and how much water you use it'll take longer and give you different textures of porridge. I like it chewy like that. It's supposedly better for you that way, both in terms of cholesterol and glycemic index.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-26 08:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-27 04:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-28 12:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-28 03:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 05:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-26 02:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-26 03:05 pm (UTC)