My Super Foods: Rice

Click the link to go to a page about sticky thai rice, from top left clockwise, it’s sticky thai rice, Japanese short grain, and then thai jasmine rice. I prefer short grain rices.

It may seem like an obvious boring one, but rice really is brilliant. And on it’s own, simple. Simple enough for stomachs and guts which are recovering it seems. And it’s so versatile in it’s uses. Think of how many dishes rice is used in. You have your basic currys, chilli’s, your fried rice, rice pudding, it’s used to make cereal even! You can have it with stir fries, you can put it in omelette’s,  you can even make it into soup. And fill it with meat and wrap it with leaves. It’s seriously brilliant. And sushi! How do I forget to mention sushi?

How much is too much?

Looks a little dry compared to the one I mashed up, but this looks like it lacks butter…

So I’m testing out how much I can eat without making myself physically sick. And what things I can eat right now while on TPN. Since I don’t actually need to eat. I could just… not. I could just drink. But I can’t not eat… I like eating. It’s yummy. So last night I decided to try a baked potato. Potato didn’t bother me before anyways.

On the Fourteenth Day… GIVE ME SAVOURY SNACKU’S!!!

Past 3 days I’ve been craving these. Now I’m not sure my mouth knows what it truly wants… it wants savoury that’s for sure…

So the Fresubin didn’t sit well either. Made me feel sick, gloopy, painful. I seem to have had no luck with the EN feed things. Even though before I was drinking Fresubin exclusively for almost 2 weeks, at great gloopyness and pain mind you… didn’t seem to help at all really.
NG tubes apparently don’t work for me either…

The Eighth Day – The End of Elemental 028

So I threw up the 3 Elemental 028’s I drank from 9am to 2pm-ish. Not sure if I drank them too quick or if soluable paracetamol would have reacted with it. But either way, they weren’t sitting well regardless and drinking 8 a day just to maintain my current weight… which is underweight anyway, was ridiculous. At 250ml each. My only two options now are either going back on Fresubin and getting 6 down a day, or an NG tube. Which I’d much rather avoid to be honest…

Bad things I do.

It seems like almost every time I’ve in hospital I end up buying things(usually clothes) online. Even though I won’t get to use/wear them til after I’m out. But I held out for 3 days this time. 3 days. And it might have ran out of stock… and the other one was just cheap and nice…
And I’m allowed to wanna look like a doll sometimes. And this gives me an aim to get back to a more normal weight too. Since right now they’re probably *slightly* too big for me… though one is definitely too short, so I’ll be needing an underskirt/mini-petticoat or something. Just for common decency. Or a pair of shorts or something…

The Sixth Day… of No Food – Torturous delicious smells…

I smell roast potato’s… and gravy… and meat… I can smell everything…

I’m on the 6th day of no food. On the Elemental 028 Extra liquid diet. And it’s roast day on the ward… so all I smell is deliciousness… Technically it was Modulen I started on Tuesday, but that didn’t agree with me, so after 2 and a half days of that they decided to try me on the Elemental 028 Extra stuff. Which has settled day, after the first day of normal food pains after just two 250ml cartons… how liquid can cause the same amount of pain as solid food I don’t know. But it did. But the next day I kept on, managed 3 cartons through the day, 2 of which were watered down and some suggested. Seemed to help. Unlike the dietitian’s and doctor’s instructions, you’re not meant to go right onto the full 7-8 cartons a day, you’re meant to build up to that over a week. So why the hell they were trying to force feed me that much right away I don’t know. Probably because I’ve lost so much weight and haven’t gained anything since coming into hospital… but really… you’d think their medical knowledge would extend that far. Even the nurses seemed shocked at the number I was told I had to drink… They all feel sorry for me, as do the staff who come round asking what people want for breakfast/lunch/dinner. They’ve learned to avoid me… and just give me sad looks instead…

Modulen – Milk of the Demon Spawn

So 3 days ago I was put on Modulen to see if that’d help settle my bowels, and since it’s made specifically for IBD patients I thought it’d be good. Alas, didn’t go as I’d hoped.

My Supposed Safe Foods – 1 – Lanzhou Lamian

So I ate a lot of stuff in China. ALOOOOT of stuff. One of the first I remember being introduced to was near where I worked. What was referred to as the rest of the foreigners as, ‘the Muslim noodle shop’.  Which was most likely because the people who worked there, were actually from a Muslim part of China, the women even wore headscarves and such.

These are pretty much exactly the noodles in question, nabbed the pic from a thread of deliciousness. Can’t think why I didn’t take photo’s of this… it was early enough in my stay after all. So anyway. Lanzhou Niu Rou La Mian. I always just ordered it as Niu rou la mian, and they knew. Though they did this hand cut style noodle, and a hand pulled noodle, more like the west is used to I spose.

So…

I managed to avoid the hospital. For a week longer than anticipated. Maybe it was my sheer willpower in not wanting to be in over Christmas and my birthday? Maybe it was luck? Either way. Exactly one week after my little upset, I got worse again. Pain for hours, and spasm-y pain that came and went in waves. Most painful pain I can recall feeling. That didn’t let up if I moved or anything, because usually it eases. But it just stayed gurgly and bubbly and painful for hours, which was unusual. Which led me to being fast passed to the AMU ward at the N&N via my local GP, who was ever so helpful, and sympathetic, considering he was on call.

Christmas with Crohn’s

So I managed to keep out the hospital over actual Christmas. Which I’m soooo glad of. Even got to eat some of the delicious Christmas dinner my dad made, and my Yorkshire puddings which I made the batter for *proud chef*. Better than Aunt Bessie’s any day. Cos homemade is always better. Everyone knows that.

And I swear to you, cooked in a tin/tub like that, this is what they’ll look like if you do it right. Just the right combo of doughy in the middle and crunchy edging.