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Tuesday 14 September 2010

First full day at home

Yesterday (monday) was my first full day back at home. I got up around 8:30 and managed to make myself some breakfast. I had soothing oats on the brain. I always go to oats when I need TLC.
I cooked some old fashioned oats in half water, half soya milk. Normally I would just use water but I was trying to sneak plenty of energy into my bowl. I added a chopped apple, raisins, vanilla and cinnamon. Despite all those lovely things, the bubbling pan didn't smell nice to me.



I knew I had to eat so I mixed a little soya yogurt and a bit more vanilla in and a little demerara (turbinado) sugar on top.



It was quite nice! But of course eating stimulated my pancreas and I got sore again. It settled a little but I had gotten really tired, so I went back to bed, and ending up falling asleep for 2 hours! I woke up after 1pm, feeling hungry, so I started making soup I had got ingredients for. It took quite a while, so I had some oatcakes and hummus to keep me going. Three little oatcakes deep I felt full, but I had a bowl of soup when it was ready.



Rice, lentil, pea and tomato soup. It was flavoured with onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme, basil and a little paprika and lots of black pepper.

After lunch I read for a while, then about 4pm I had a little Alpro caramel pudding, then walked over the road to my GP to leave in the letter the hospital gave me. I was exhausted when I came back, so I went back to bed for yet another 2 hour sleep.

Dinner was quick, 2 big bowls of the soup for my boyfriend, then packet mix falafel by Hale & Hearty (all natural ingredients) and grated carrot dressed with rice vinegar and lemon juice.


Awful photo, sorry!



Image source

Later on in the evening, there was an unpictured bowl of nectarine, frozen raspberries and plain soya yogurt.
I watched an hour and a half documentary of all the best bits of Blue Planet, perfect calming pre-bedtime TV.

I slept pretty well, woke up about 6 with some pain, took some tablets and got up at 8:30. Breakfast today was my favourite out-of-the-box gluten free cereal- plain, puffed brown rice from Rude Health. I had it with a nectarine, plain soy yogurt, and a squirt of chocolate syrup to stimulate my jaded tastebuds.



The puffed rice is so different from those awful Kellogg's Rice Krispies and their copycats- for a start the rice isn't hollow, it's much chewier and more substantial, but it's nowhere near dense. Perfect!




Image source

Happily, my pancreas didn't get too agitated after that. I've swapped my cup of coffee for peppermint tea until I'm feeling better. Caffeine stimulates the pancreas although in itself doesn't cause or worsen pancreatitis (it may even help prevent it), but when you have an active case, it's best avoided.

Today is much nicer weatherwise than yesterday- it bucketed and blew a gale pretty much all day. It's much brighter today although still windy. If I am not too tired I might go for a little walk around the park later.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are taking the sensible road to healing with all that delicious and nutrient-dense food :)

    I've never tried Rude Health's rice cereal. Going to give that one a go.

    I've made homemade versions of larabars and kale chips too and whilst I love them, sometimes I'd rather splash out and buy the better versions :)

    Hope you have a good day today. The weather here is sunny after awful wind and rain. xxx

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  2. I know what you mean- I don't think I'll ever stop buying Nakd bars (and I wouldn't be averse to trying Larabars if/when I come across them).
    The cereal is very neutral tasting but I like the texture, it's also a good deal cheaper than most gluten free cereals. I seem to be reacting to oats at the moment so I'm trying to stick to rice which is the most trouble-free grain for me. I dug some forbidden black rice out of the back of my cupboard yesterday- can't wait to try it, it goes purple when cooked!
    The weather here is exactly the same- first autumn storm, sort of.

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  3. That puffed rice looks AWESOME! I wish we had something like that in the states. What kinds of things did the doc tell you to eat??? I'm also curious what could've brought on your pancreasitis. (I totally spelled that wrong, didn't I?)

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  4. Grass is always greener my dear, you guys have Daiya! If you email me your postal address, I'll send you over a box, I think you'll like it. I keep meaning to make bars with these as an ingredient, it'd be good.
    You know, the doc gave me NO dietary advice whatsoever. Which is weird for pancreatitis. Luckily I know that it's hard to digest fat when your pancreas is inflamed so I've been keeping my fat intake low. The doctor didn't think if some food was irritating my guts that my pancreas would have got inflamed, but I think it's possible, afterall, it has an opening into the duodenum, and if it the duodenum was irritated at that spot, it could cause pancreatitis. My dad is going to do his best to make sure I get the celiac thing properly investigated (he's a doc himself), so hopefully I will be getting an endoscopy to find out what's been going on.

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