SICK

There's nothing quite like a good old fashioned stomach bug to push the needle down on the scale.  Once again proving that when the going gets tough, Nan gets sick, I had a brutal twenty-four hours.  But when I climbed on the scale, there it was: five pounds down!  Yes, I know its all water but there is still a psychic kick.

Several years ago, I got a parasite from eating South American raspberries (me and clusters of people in a few key cities at the same time, according the New York Times) and I lost eight pounds overnight and ended up in the hospital with several bags of IVs running in me. That particular bug came and went, every three weeks, lasting a few days each time, for the next several months, decreasing in severity till it went away. The cumulative impact was about fifteen pounds of actual weight loss without trying at all. It was the stomach pain that kept me from eating, as well as an inability to actually absorb any food before it passed through me. On my second trip to Zaire, HS was laughing at how much I ate but I had a secret - nothing stuck with me for more than a few minutes.

This time, I don't know if it was something I ate or a bug going around. No-one else in the family has had it (yet). I ate separately from them for the twenty-four hours preceding the collapse. One thing I've read that rings true: we have a deep aversion response to whatever we eat just before getting sick. Clearly protective in nature, it kicks in even if there is no real connection between what you ate and what made you sick. Sadly, I ate a fancy prepackaged salad and a frozen spinach curry just before being stricken - I won't be going near those for a while.

Now the stomach is smaller and things still hurt a bit. Today I had a grand total of about 600 calories of bland food, and kind of think I'd be more comfortable if it had been even less. My ordinary food groups and choices go by the wayside - whatever I think I can handle is allowed till I'm better.