Let me preface what you are about to see by stating that the following is clearly not expansion-worthy and that I sincerely hope you never have to experience a post like this from me again! Also, I do not advise that anyone follow my eating example ever … and especially not in this post, as it is obviously atypical. Also, I did not photograph all the water I’ve been drinking (the post is boring enough already!) but please rest assured that I am keeping hydrated 😛

To recap, I completed Saturday night’s “cleanse” fully determined to make the second time be the last time. There was no way I was going to even entertain the thought of using the two additional packets that the ER doctor prescribed last week. Since my body had indicated it wasn’t into digesting solid foods, avoiding another “irrigation” meant relying solely on liquids to begin my journey back to eating.

I started Sunday morning with a cup of scrumptious watermelon jello-water.

Jello-water was on the approved list of foods that the ER doctor handed me on my way out last Wednesday. I don’t know what jello-water is, so I made it up. My jello-water involved two cups of jasmine green tea, two cups of immersion-blended watermelon, and one Knox gelatine packet:



I sprinkled the contents of the gelatine package over one cup of cold watermelon; I boiled the other cup of watermelon with the tea. All got mixed and poured into a 13x9x2 pan to chill in the fridge.

(You know you’ve left the city when trees are reflecting in your jello instead of pigeons and cement.)

Anyway, watermelon jello-water (my preferred liquid breakfast) was born. I sipped every last bit of pulp from the cup and was on my way to the bus because life in Brooklyn was calling my name and I couldn’t procrastinate forever! I got home to the city and dove into a cup of the clam chowder broth my mom made (and sent back to NY with me!) from clam bake leftovers:

Mmm, dinner never tasted so good. I went to bed at 8 and slept until 6:30 Monday morning when I had to get up for work. A day of 100 calories (if even!) will do that to you.

I mentioned before that I was loosely following this plan for recovery, so my goal was to stick to liquids Monday with perhaps a bit of fruit thrown in there. I began the day with tea:



And rounded out my breakfast with more jello-water and prune juice diluted with water:



Lunch was wicked exciting (and, yes, worthy of the MA lingo influence) because I finally had a reason to buy something from the juice bar around the corner from the office (aka my fresh coconut supplier, aka the best-quesadilla-ever supplier as experienced through tastes of my coworkers’ lunches … sigh … will I ever be able to taste my coworkers’ lunches again?!):

I ordered the “Spritz It Up” with spinach, celery, ginger, and apple. Back at the office, I diluted my juice with water (thereby creating two juices and lunch for Tuesday, yessssssss!):

Also for lunch on Monday, I had more diluted prune juice, more herbal tea, and more clam chowder broth:



While leaving work Monday night, I had dinner, aka a life-changing experience:



Best pear ever … and also my first bit of solid food in over 48 hours. I made sure to chew thoroughly.

The energy from that pear kept me going for the next 12 hours! You can ask me how I was able to function after consuming so little, but I would not be able to give you an answer. This is all quite new to me. I tentatively continued my foray into solid foods on Tuesday, as I still was not quite convinced that my body remembered what to do with this strange thing called sustenance.

Tea:



Plus more liquid-esque items consumed in order of digestibility from easiest to hardest: watered-down prune juice, watermelon jello-water, and (something new!) a bit of thawed rhubard-blueberry compote from last week:



Lunch was an exciting packet of miso soup that Edward & Sons sent me a while back.



It tasted delicious, but I’m not sure how much stock you could put in my taste buds at that point.



I also drank the other half of Monday’s green juice:



(I did not eat that apple on the side. A mom gave it to me as I was leaving a visit earlier in the day, but I didn’t want to push my luck. I saved it for another time instead.)

I drank my lunch in the company of the ladies who had brought food to share as usual.



I refused the cheese, ate one grape, and told Maria that I could not rescue the other half of her banana. I almost cried.

Later, though, I got hungry (yeah, I don’t know why my stomach was not in a constant state of hunger, either) and went wild on a CSA apricot. It was so juicy and rich inside!



I kept telling everyone all day, if I do well with this fruit, I can have a salad for dinner tonight!!!!! I almost wrote a song I was so excited.

I had to stay super late at work Tuesday night for a visit, so I took my CSA peach with me for the subway ride home just after 7.



Nothing like being able to chew!

I got home just after 8:30 and really had no indication at that point that my body was fulfilling its requirements for digestion (aside from my extreme state of shrinkage and utter lack of fullness). I threw caution to the wind with a green leafy CSA salad with romaine, arugula, basil, a few pieces of broccoli, baby bok choy, and cucumber:

(Oh right, I also had a prune for an appetizer. And more tea for dessert.)

I savored the salad over the next hour while I finished up more mountains of work:

Yesterday morning, I downed some more “everyday detox” tea and then walked over to my doctor’s office so I could finally meet with my PCP. She referred me to a gastroenterologist just as I had hoped, so immediately following the appointment and a nice full breakfast of watermelon jello-water enhanced with actual watermelon chunks, I systematically worked my way through the list of providers with my insurance until I found one with an opening in the afternoon. I zipped up to work for a couple of hours (and more tea and water) and then headed back out for doctor #2.

I told my whole long saga to the gastroenterologist, including all of this liquid. He said, And you’re not hungry? I said, Are you kidding? Of course I’m hungry!

I gave my best I’M STARVING AND I NEED FOOD NOW face:

(Look how gaunt I got!!)

With that, the gastroenterologist did a quick exam and told me to stop over-thinking everything. He explained that, as there was nothing in my body and I was in no discomfort aside from my hunger, I should return to living my normal life. If there is an underlying problem that caused all the intestinal drama, it will come back when I resume my regular lifestyle, at which point I should schedule an immediate appointment with him. I amended his recommendation to continue eating the way I normally would to include a “within reason.” I have a feeling my nonstop unreasonable over-eating somehow led to all this … and I would much rather never have to go back to the gastroenterologist! The subway ride back to my office after that appointment may have been one of the happiest rides of my life 😀

In conclusion, I am beyond awed at my ability to survive through three days with hardly any food entering my body. After I ate that first pear, all of my strength came back miraculously. Honestly, I only ate what I did on Tuesday because I thought I should and was worried about how little I was taking in. I was shocked that I wasn’t ravenous and unconscious the whole time … but I guess that had to do with a combo of my body adjusting to starvation rations and my very present fear of having to do another round of irrigation. I now know that it’s okay to feel a little bit hungry sometimes — waiting for food won’t kill me. Also, I am now confident that I could survive with no food in an emergency situation … as long as I had some jello-water handy!

And there you have it: my life on liquids.

If you had to pick one food item that defines your diet this week, what would you choose?

Saturday morning arrived, and with it came the knowledge that all the food from the day before was still sitting heavy in my stomach. Not cool. I started to understand why a gradual reintroduction to food via liquids would have been more beneficial than a full onslaught of fiber. I had no time to dwell on this understanding, however, as the clambake (the reason for my trip in the first place) was fast-approaching!

I grew up in New England and have experienced my share of seafood, but I have somehow avoided taking part in a clambake before this. When John offered to get me a ticket, I jumped at the chance!

The process was fascinating. There was this above-ground oven of sorts:





With a big pile of seaweed:



As the layers were removed, here’s what was underneath:



Mmmmm, full belly or not, sweet potatoes make me so happy!

We found ourselves a spot amongst the masses:



And dug into our first course of New England clam chowder with Boston brown bread:



I usually prefer the broth-based chowder, but this one was so light and not sickeningly creamy at all! I ate it all except for the potatoes (and it was mostly potatoes), which I gave to mom.

The brown bread was so tasty, yummmmmmm.



It looked to be straight from the can and delicious 😀

Mom and John tucked right in:



Next, servers came around and dropped the steamer bags onto everyone’s plates:



A bag of veggies and a bag of clams:



I took my time unwrapping everything because I like the work portion of my meal to be concentrated in the beginning so that the actual eating process can be relaxing.

Good-bye steamer bags:



Hello sausage and fish:



Hello stuffing:



Goodbye cornhusk:



Goodbye corncob and shells; hello perfect plate, ready to eat:



By the time I started eating, mom was into the middle of her meal:



(It looks like so much more food when all the shells are still there!)

Mom and John filled up fast:



But they forged ahead bravely:



I ate everything on my plate except for a few clams that I shared with the others. This meal was one of those absolutely perfect summer moments. All of the food had the essence of ocean since it had been baked/steamed on top of the seaweed.

Dessert was obvious:



Yes, I was stuffed. But I was also happy.

Mom and I did a mini photo shoot. John started out as our photographer, but we didn’t love any of his shots:



He resigned as photographer when we kept making him take “one more.” We resorted to my old friend, auto-timer:



Much better 😀

We headed home, and I napped some more. When I was still full a few hours later and well-aware of the three big meals that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in my digestive tract, I decided it was time to take the medical advice seriously. And I also realized why Dr. Eddie had prescribed me four packages of the colonoscopy prep drink-from-hell. I got some liquid meals ready so the liquids-only rule would be easy to follow on Sunday, and I bravely set to work conquering round two of my cure-Sarah’s-intestines mission. I made it fun this time with a fancy lemonade dispenser (top right, chilling in mom’s produce-packed fridge) and a fancy juice glass:



And I set about systematically slamming one cup every 10 minutes until that whole effing gallon was gone. Pleeeeeeeease let it be the last time — I can’t go through this again!

To increase my chances of success this time around, I decided to pretend I had just completed a super expensive celebrity cleanse and had to reintroduce solid food accordingly …

Have you fasted/cleansed before? How did you manage the return to real food?

I got up on Monday morning at 7, after just five hours of sleep, because I had big plans for a 9:30 bus to Providence. I’d been planning this trip for a couple months in order to attend a clam bake over the weekend with my mom and John (stepdad). Excellent timing, right?

I still felt sooooooo weak from the previous night’s events, and I was not particularly optimistic about my ability to survive a 4-hour bus ride. I was afraid of what might happen if I ate anything, but I knew I needed some strength. I cooked 1/3 cup plain instant oats in 1 cup of water and added tiny bits of cinnamon, ginger, and honey. I dragged myself to the subway and nibbled on the oatmeal as I made my way up to Port Authority.

Somehow, I survived the bus ride (and even squeezed in a little nap!), and my dad and Rae Ann (stepmom) picked me up at the terminal and deposited me at my mom’s house, where mom greeted me with a tour of her dehydrating adventures.

How jealous am I of my mom and her fancy kitchen appliances???!!! She has four dehydrating trays and usually has them going simultaneously since she has been experimenting with all manner of produce in there. The picture above is of cherries, and this one is watermelon:



Oh my goodness, why don’t people sell dried watermelon? This was insanely delicious. And there was kiwi:

And finally a veggie selection of zucchini, carrots, squash, green pepper, and red pepper:

The red pepper tasted like candy. Again, I’m so jealous! Mom does them all until they’re crunchy, so she has these teeny jars of crunchy fruit and veggie crackers tucked into every little corner of the fridge. I told her that I’d take the dehydrator off her hands if she got bored with it. She laughed at me. Hmph!

These little snacks were all well and good, but I was fully ravenous at this point, as my stomach was e-m-p-t-y. Mom seemed to think that it would be fine for me to have veggies (and she would know!), so I split the rest of my CSA salad (yes, I brought it on the bus with me so it wouldn’t go bad in NY this weekend) with her, and she supplied us with cabbage slaw, garden tomatoes, and two eggs each for topping.



I felt rejuvenated and satisfied after this salad, enough so that I turned down mom’s grape nut pudding for dessert! Knowing exactly what was in my belly (since I was starting from scratch) was an interesting experience and definitely made me think twice before adding more unnecessarily. I was also able to turn down the pudding because I knew that we had dinner plans. I wanted to get as hungry as possible before eating again! Instead of dessert, I curled up on a bench in the kitchen and passed out for the next hour and a half.

At around 6, my mom, John, and I headed to my dad’s house for a cookout with dad and Rae Ann.

While dad manned the grill we had some nibbles that involved crackers, peanuts, tabbouleh, and cheese …

… and admired the patio decor:





I kept my wits about me and had just one (aren’t you proud?!) cracker with tabbouleh:

Plus two more spoonfuls of tabbouleh straight:

And a fresh orange mocktail:

(Fresh squeezed orange juice from 1/4 orange, soda water, water, and an orange slice for garnish.)

Dad took a break from the grill to hang this candle chandelier and toss a box of matches to me:

I’m very good with a match:

Everyone pitched in with the food distribution. Mom passed out the corn:

John sliced the bread:

Rae Ann handed around some corn holders:



And I concentrated on my plate:

Be still my heart, look at all that char!! We had olive oiled corn, Rae Ann’s salad, grilled carrots, and pork tenderloin with applesauce. (As you can see, I snagged the two most burnt ends of the pork. You know how I love my over-cooked animal products :-D).

For dessert, we had watermelon and cantaloupe:



But I was too full for it again! After a couple hours of chatting, though, I detected some space and had a few forkfuls of cantaloupe before we called it a night and headed back to mom’s house, where I literally collapsed into bed for what felt like the 10 millionth night in a row. Who knew that a day of sitting, eating, and sleeping could be SO draining?

In which situations are YOU most able to honor your fullness?

P.S. The last hurrah (for real this time) is coming up next …

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 …

Thank you all for your comments, suggestions, and concern after my last post! I promise I didn’t intend for it to be such a cliffhanger. The post was getting unwieldy, so that seemed like a good breaking point, especially since I knew the somewhat anti-climactic outcome already. Forgive me!

So … the ER. Are you ready for a long story??

I’ve lived 7 blocks away from NY Methodist Hospital for four years, though I’ve never actually had occasion to go inside. The hospital recently renovated the ER — I remember the endless construction outside — but I was definitely not prepared for what I saw when I entered!

This is a hospital??? It looks like the atrium of a Floridian resort!

The peaceful serenity of the lobby clearly impressed me. Even when I walked into the ER waiting room, things seemed quite orderly, not overly-crowded, and well-managed. I estimated a two-hour wait at most and checked in. Even though I was obviously still functional and not in the midst of anything resembling a life-and-death situation, I decided the wait would be worth it to get to the bottom of what was going on. I hadn’t slept since Friday night — before all of this began — and I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping Tuesday night anyway!

Ummm, my two-hour estimate was way off. Apparently, the good people of Brooklyn decided that Tuesday night would be the perfect night to partake in “real” emergencies. As ambulance after ambulance poured in, those of us who had walked into the ER with “fake” emergencies were forced to wait. And wait. And wait.

It was my lucky night, though, because a woman and her three-year-old sat next to me, and the little girl started yammering away in Spanish about how she didn’t want to sit down even though mom kept telling her to. I jumped in and started chatting with the little girl in Spanish and soon moved onto the mom … who told me she was from Peru!!! We spent some time reminiscing and Spanglishing … and I knew I was in trouble when she said she had been waiting since 6:30. (I got there at 9:30.) And she was actually in pain when she arrived — tears streaming down her face, body in a sweat! So, my planned two hours became five hours waiting in the emergency room.

I finally got called in at 2:30 am, at which point I was shown to a cot and left to wait some more for a doctor. I had my book with me since I had come straight from class, so I read until my eyes started to close. I was so excited to be falling asleep (finally!!!), that I put the book down and curled up on the cot and entered a lovely deep slumber for about two minutes … until tall, dark, and handsome student Dr. Joel appeared to make my acquaintance. Suddenly, I did not quite mind the wait!

Joel inspected my abnormally-expanded belly, tested me for pregnancy (ummm, everyone since triage had been trying to tell me I was pregnant! I was like, nooooooo, you don’t understand, it’s just not possible. Oh honey, it’s always possible. Except when it is not!!!) and confirmed that I was not pregnant, and brought in a real doctor to help him because my symptoms were abnormal. They decided to give me an anti-nausea pill, test my blood, hook me up to an IV for hydration, pepcid, and pain-killer, and do a CT scan to rule out appendicitis. All of this planning took place around 4:30 am, and Dr. Joel let me know that I’d be there for a while because, even if things were running smoothly and on schedule, I probably wouldn’t have the scan until 8:00. There went my dreams of making it into work on Wednesday. I called the office to leave some messages that I would have to take another sick day.

Shortly thereafter, I entered the segment of my ER stay that I will term the fluid vortex. My right arm was attached to the IV to provide me with more hydration than one body could ever need. At 5:30, Dr. Joel delivered 900mL of some substance that I also had to drink, in its entirety, to prepare for the CT scan.

Dr. Joel apologized for the wait, but I told him it was fine since I could use the forced relaxation. He looked at me like I had 12 heads and said, Ohhh man, you have trouble if you think this is relaxing! The first 19 or sips were manageable thanks to the Crystal Light fiesta in the bottle. As I explained to Dr. Joel, I could pretend I was drinking a mojito in my lounge chair on a tropical island. He replied, Suuuuuuure, minus the Baccardi. I half expected him to bring me a shot after that. No go.

Sips 20 through 8000 made me wish I were dead. The flavor of whatever chemicals were lurking in the background became wayyy too prominent, and my already stretched-to-the-limits belly was having trouble accommodating all of the IV drips plus the mojito. I requested permission to move and wheeled my IV tree with me down to the hall to the bathroom. I’ve always wanted to walk around with an IV stand. I felt like I was in a movie. So far, my ER experience had provided me with a Floridian hotel atrium, a Peruvian nostalgia session, a future husband an attentive doctor, mojitos on a tropical beach, and a movie star experience. Could it get any better?

It could. Every time I drifted off to sleep, I’d be gently awakened by the soft footsteps of Dr. Joel coming to check on me and make sure the nurse was keeping me supplied with the pain meds via drip. I told him that he had very reliable footsteps. I think he was not sure what to do with that comment.

I drifted off between 6:30 and 8 (score!). When I awoke, the staff had undergone a shift change (unscore!). The new crew was very pleasant — just not as attentive or as charming. Nurse Jason came to let me know that the CT scan tech was getting set up and would come retrieve me when it was time. He arrived around 9:30 (hey, my 12-houriversary since arriving!) and offered to wheel me in my cot to the scanner. I politely declined movie star opp #2 and decided to walk. After the scan, I was delivered back to my cot, where my phone was waiting full of well-wishing voicemails from my coworkers. Rosey even called to ask if I needed someone to come down from the office in East Harlem to keep me company and bring me food. Awwwwww, not to beat a dead horse, but I have the best coworkers ever. I assured them I was fine and being well-taken care of. Erin Gunn even called, in the midst of her work flight from SLC to NYC being delayed because it was struck by lightning, to let me know that she’d come keep me company when she got into the city if I wanted her to. I felt so lucky all around!

I was back in my cot after the scan by 9:45, but then no one came to check on me or update me for ages. Eventually, I saw Nurse Jason walking by outside my “tent” (no wonder I felt so at home!) and called out to him. Do you know what is happening to me next? Nurse Jason asked if I’d had the CT scan yet. Nearly two hours ago. He let me know that someone would share the results with me when they came in. Thanks.

Around 11:30, Dr. Eddie came in to introduce himself and apologize for his prolonged absence. Dr. Eddie let me know that he’d be back in five minutes with the results of my blood tests and the scan. I was a fan of his action-oriented timeline approach. Twenty minutes later, Dr. Eddie returned to tell me that my blood was perfect and that chances were slim to none that I had appendicitis. The scan results were still unavailable, but he’d let me know when they came through. Excellent. 12:00 … 12:30 … 1:00 … 1:30 … I started to get hungry because I had not eaten since my six servings of Stacy’s pita chips over 12 hours earlier. I went back to wandering the halls with my IV stand (hooked up to another bag of water) in search of Nurse Jason or Dr. Eddie to find out if I was allowed to eat. I couldn’t find them, so I begged a guy I found behind a desk to help me. He found Dr. Eddie:

Dr. Eddie: I bet you want to go home.

Me: Yes, please. But also, can I eat?

Dr. Eddie: Oooh, good question. Because if you have appendicitis, you can’t eat.

Me: Do I have appendicitis?

Dr. Eddie: Hmm, hold on a minute. Eddie makes phone calls. No one answers. Give me 15 minutes, and I’ll let you know.

The man behind the desk connected me with a tray of food and let me know I could keep it in my room in case I got the go-ahead because he didn’t want the food to run out before I got some. Hallelujah! My dream meal:

Errrrrr. Beggars ….

Eddie came in right when he said he would to let me know that I did not have appendicitis. Good, but I’ve been nauseous and in pain and unable to sleep for four nights! Eddie went on to explain that my troubles were due to intestinal issues and prescribed me a couple meds to take care of it. How glamorous.

And that is the story of how I spent 17 hours in the ER to be prescribed laxatives. OK, not laxatives. But colonoscopy-prep medication (which might be worse) and more chemo-inspired anti-nausea pills. I am also under strict orders to moderate the expansion. Uh oh! Expect to be seeing lots of broths for a while. I’m a sucker for fun, so I went straight to CVS to fill the scripts and pick up necessary supplies for a year’s worth of prune “mocktails” because I never want to go through this again!

This one does not so much remind me of a mojito. But it was still tasty!

And then I settled down for a peaceful night’s sleep … finally.

What has been your most embarrassing diagnosis?