HAVING MY PORRIDGE AND EATING IT

I had my first bite of solid food at around 1030 hrs this morning after four days of fasting. It was just a simple butter bun, but oh, it tasted like ambroisia to me. Two hours later, I had some pork porridge. It tasted like those instant porridge mix and was cold, but did I care? It still tasted like heaven to me. And anyone who knows me well knows I HATE porridge. I used to say that I would rather starve than take porridge. I guess I had to eat my words as well as my porridge this morning.

There is nothing but porridge and clear soups on the horizon for the next week. I am not allowed to take vegetables or fruits (or any high fibre foods) for the next week fear of further blockage. A few years ago, this would have been welcomed news. I was one of your typical vegetables hating kids. But I am finding that I will be missing my greens in the next one week. What a turn around.

At any rate, I'm finally off the IV drip, a great blessng. Living with the IV has made for certain logistical problems, especially when using certain hygiene amenities. If I never see another IV needle, or any kind of needle for that matter, it wouldn't be any time too soon. Having small veins and lower blood pressure makes it difficult to get blood from me. Add doctors with bad aim, and I get bruises and pain galore. Nothing would ever persuade me to give blood after this, altrusim or not.

My one month medical leave is almost half over. I am not sure if I am closer to being reconciled to going back to work once the month is up. I am heartily sick of hospitals, pain and the feeling of having lost precious time in the last two weeks, and am definitely not envisioning prolonging my convalescence. Yet some part of me still wants to find some way to increase the length of my medical leave so that I don't have to go back to work for another month or so.

I refuse to spoil what remains of my "holiday" by dwelling on the negatives, so I herewith cancel all images of work from my brain and replace them with SimCity 4 and Carl's Junior Western Bacon burgers, which is how I intend to spend the rest of my convalescence. After I get over the next few days of porridge fest that is.