Big Girls Don’t Cry

Camped out in front of the computer most of the day until I have to get ready to go to my second job (night job). Had a bowl of instant oatmeal for breakfast and two turkey quedasillas filled with tomato pico de gallo and guacamole (remember, Thanksgiving was just a few days ago and we aren’t close to consuming all the leftover turkey!), washed down with a caffeine free diet Pepsi. Oh, and a grilled cheese, cheddar on stone ground wheat.

Another day spent at work. Ugh. I had ginger snap cookies for breakfast with coffee. Reni says ginger of any kind is good for me. Then for lunch I had a tuna sandwich and a cup of sugar-free jello. For dinner, Robert had me drive to Jack In the Box for a hamburger. I ordered two grilled chicken pita snacks for myself. Then I found two stale donuts in my office up here and washed those down with a cup of coffee.

I’m just going to combine the three meals into one day since I spent most of the day at the office anyway. For breakfast, I had coffee and some sugar-free chocolate pudding. Lunch was a turkey sandwich. Hey, what do you expect two days post-Thanksgiving? Also had some Argentinian ding-dongs that a co-worker brought. They were pretty darn good. Washed that down with more coffee.

For dinner, I met my friend at a local Mexican seafood restaurant and had camarones al mojo de ajo (shrimp in garlic sauce) over spaghetti noodles and chips and guacamole. And a huge glass of iced tea.

I’ve been absent from this blog for awhile. There are several reasons. One or two might just be excuses. First, I continued to feel worse after my endoscopy/colonoscopy on August 19. Then Houston (where I live) suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Ike in mid September. And, frankly, since I’ve been so sick with whatever the hell this is that’s got a hold of me and won’t let go, I can barely do my jobs (my legal secretarial job at night and my web design work during the day). Plus, my husband has his health issues which I’ve had to deal with.

The doctor has ruled out celiac disease and gastroparesis and is convinced I have IBS and gave me some new medicine last week to take. He assured me I would see results and there would be a difference. So far, I haven’t seen one and it’s been five days. I’ll give it two weeks. Meanwhile my friend seems to think I have some kind of food allergy, possibly brought on by stress and urged me to resume this diary so that I can document what I eat and isolate the problem. So…

I’m baaaack. And more desperate than ever before to solve this problem. I’ve been very sick for five months now and something is not right here.

I roasted a hen in my new (to me anyway) clay cooker. The hen was huge, and I had bought some fresh rosemary sprigs at the grocery store that day along with some lemons. I cut the lemon in half, squeezed it all over the top of the chicken and put the halves inside the body cavity along with some of the rosemary and a few cloves of garlic. Roasted it in a hot oven (475 degrees) for two hours. It came out nice and crispy on top. But because it was a hen, it seemed tough. I could barely manage to eat a leg and nibble on a wing for dinner. I had also made fresh mashed potatoes, also seasoned with the mashed garlic pods from the chicken. And my usual salad (field greens, garlic croutons, avocado, cherry tomatoes, shredded parmesan and Ken’s buttermilk ranch dressing).

It’s getting boring, but not really. Tuna sandwiches (the last of the tuna), Cheetos, and sugar-free Cherry Jello. Washed down with Diet Lime Pepsi.

Woke up starving. Having Chappell Hill sausage links, scrambled eggs, toast with butter, and hot cinnamon tea.

We had a late (7:30PM) dinner. It was leftover roast pork which I’d made last Sunday to tide Robert over while I had my fast for my colonoscopy. I sliced it, and put it in a pan with some barbecue sauce and some sliced onions and heated it on very low heat until the onions were soft. I then put the mixture on a toasted sesame seed hamburger bun. Sloppy Joes, I guess, huh? More Diet Lime Pepsi and hot warm wash cloths all around afterward. I managed to spill a blob of barbecue sauce on my white top.

Lunch was another tuna sandwich on toast with provolone cheese, a handful of Cheetos cheese puffs and some more Diet Lime Pepsi. Robert and I were decadent and devoured our ice cream treats I had bought the night before when I walked across the street to the Fuel Depot to buy a carton of cigs for him. He had the Nestle Ice Cream Cookie and I had the BlueBell Great Divide ice cream bar.

As hinted about yesterday, breakfast was steak tacos with sliced avocado and grated cheddar cheese, washed down with a Diet Lime Pepsi. I also had several cups of coffee with my favorite hazelnut coffee creamer.