No one really expected me to go all liquid all the way immediately, right?

Despite the drama, I don’t think I quite grasped the sincerity of the doctor’s warning that I stick to broth … until I had two full days of food sitting like a rock in my belly. I thought it would be enough to go healthy! Sigh, silly me. It all began on Wednesday night when CVS only had one of the prescriptions I needed: the one for nausea. This pill made me feel worlds better, so I took a very “flexible” approach to my recovery diet on Thursday. I began the day with black bean and prune oatmeal (no need for subtlety here) topped with blueberries and cinnamon:

The oatmeal consisted of 1/4 cup quick oats, 1/2 cup immersion-blended black beans, 2 chopped prunes, and 1 cup of water. It was delicious AND I felt proud of how well I was taking care of my tummy. On the side, I had the other half of the CSA scallion egg from Tuesday’s breakfast:



Once at the office, I worked furiously to try to catch up on work since the week had involved two sick days (and was about to include a planned vacation day on Friday). There was no time for morning snacking aside from a prune mocktail (Yasmin, were you serious about wanting the recipe?! It’s 1/4 cup 100% prune juice, soda water/plain water to taste, and two little prunes for garnish :-D) that I packed, not to mention that I was very mindful of the fact that I was not hungry. OK, maybe there was one little thing. Belkis had brought in freshly baked pineapple cake, so I took the teeniest sliver you could imagine:



And then I only had two bites of that! I felt so virtuous 🙂

For lunch, I had more matzoh ball soup.



(Oh, there’s the liquid!! I knew I could squeeze it in there somehow.)

Plus a few teeeeeeeeeny irresistible bites of my coworkers’ lunches, including fish that Belkis caught all by herself, one maduro, a slice of avocado, and red beans:



Now, all day at work on Thursday, everyone was talking about the cakes that had materialized in the office on Monday and Wednesday, the two days I happened to be out. Apparently, I missed some chocolate layer cake, Dominican butter cake, banana bread, more pineapple cake, and chocolate mousse cake. I was kind of relieved! Can you imagine the amount of damage I would have done to myself if I had been at the office instead of in the ER?!!! It seems, though, that cake was still on the ladies’ minds after the bounty earlier in the week, and Rosey and Belkis were on a mission to bring dessert back with their lunches. I was all prepared to ignore the cake that I just knew would be sitting on the conference room table right next to my desk all afternoon when they came back in with dessert of a different kind:



Phew!! It seems that all this fruit was cheaper than a slice of cake. Thank goodness for economics! I made myself a fruit salad bowl with watermelon, 1/2 banana, and grapes:

Later in the afternoon, I had an apple and a few apricots:

And one more minor minor unplanned indulgence when Rosalie got herself a piece of COCONUT tres leches cake and passed bites out to the rest of the office. She looked at me guiltily as she was cutting into it, and I replied: Pienso que esta bien y yo puedo comer un pedazo bieeeeeeeennnnnn pequeniiiiiiiiiiito. Pero si estoy en el hospital otra vez la semana que viene, no te preocupes. Voy a estar bien. And with that, I got my teeeeeeeeeny bite:

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, so good with the coconut!

From work, I went to my last class of the summer, where I continued to eat well-thought-out, albeit solid, foods such as CSA cucumbers and hummus, CSA salad, and grapes, cherries, and a baby plum. I downed the last cherry at 8:20pm, class got out at 8:50pm, and I zipped my way down to CVS so I could pick up part two of my prescription, aka the scary part, aka the colonoscopy-prep drink. I did not realized what an involved and time-consuming process this would be, and I think that it is safe to say the two hours from 12am to 2pm were two of the most miserable of my life! I threw in the towel when I had only finished 3/4 of the gallon because I couldn’t handle the taste or the experience for another second. Needless to say, my stomach was significantly smaller at that point, and I collapsed into bed a weakened shell of my former self …

The silver lining? That I do not actually have to undergo a colonoscopy (yet)! (And also that I had Friday off work!)

What is your most feared medical procedure?

P.S. Do you think I learned my lesson yet? Of course not! More to come …