Random stuff from my brain

Mostly regarding this sickness...

I have been in bed all day and done nothing, but I have felt a bit better. The abdominal pain is not so strong as it used to be, and I was actually able to eat a few bites of a granola bar, a few bites of some vegetable stir-fry, and drink a whole cup of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice.

Spiritually, today has been very dry. I have scarcely thought about God. I was too absorbed in reading about Hepatitis and doing other random stuff online (read: doing Christmas shopping for my family. Sshhh! Don't tell! I got it almost all done in one day, from the comfort of my bed, without ever having to maneuver through crowds, fight for parking spaces, get cold, or feel guilty when I pass the bell-ringers. I think I'll do it like this every year!). The rest of my sickness has been rich with sermons, Scripture, and spiritual thoughts, but not today. I'm regretting that. A whole day is almost gone, and I could have spent it with Jesus.

Eric Ludy tells a story of one day when Leslie was sick and asked him to pray for her. He took a major and decisive stand for health and said no to the enemy. He was hit 28 times in the next 52 days by major health issues, but none of them stuck, because he rose up and said no to them each time.

This somewhat parallels my situation, because I took a major stand in prayer for someone else's health, and the next day I was sick with this. I have just succumbed and taken the hit. Do I need to be standing up against my own sickness? How do I do that? Eric would say it's time to "hit 'em in the teeth." What exactly does that mean?

I've been researching what to eat when I do start eating again, and apparently, these are some of the do's and don't's for properly nutrifying your body when it's recovering from Hepatitis A. (I'm just taking off with that self-diagnosis...how purposeful should I be about getting this actually confirmed by someone knowledgeable?)

Sheep liver. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

DO
Eat vegetables, steamed vegetables, and pureed vegetable soups.
Drink fresh vegetable juices (carrot juice! carrot beet cucumber! carrot spinach beet! Add garlic! MMMM)
Eat fresh fruits (up to 3 a day)
Several sources mentioned milk thistle. What in the world is that?

DON'T
Eat meat, dairy, refined foods, artificial sweeteners, vitamin A, or fat. Oils seem to be a big stress on the liver, and chemicals seem to be a big toxin.
Drink coffee or tea or anything caffeinated
Consume alcohol (duh!)

I could go for a nice pureed vegetable soup right now. The one I had at Moulin Sur Mer on Monday was just right. Wouldn't mind another bowl of that.

This is really random (and ironic), but my mouth is also watering for a nice dish of liver'n'onions.

You know what? People have been asking me what is one of the things I want to have first when I get back to Tennessee. Well now I know. A good ol' Tennessee platter of liver'n'onions. Yeah. Mmmm.

Add to that the list Mary Chris suggested to me today: Christmas truffles, Amish friendship bread, and Virginia ham...all of which are currently on my no-no list, but they won't be by the time I get back home!

Now I'm talking like someone who has been fasting for 5 1/2 days. This makes it a very, very dangerous moment to look at cookbooks. I was looking at this one and this one today, and they made me actually favorably tantalized with something as blah and option-less as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

That really shows I'm getting weird.

Mom? Are you smiling yet?

Speaking of smiling, if laughter is the best medicine, then I got a full dose of it today by reading the reviews on this item at Amazon.com. Maybe I'm just under-entertained these days, but I was laughing out loud.

Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer

Oh, yeah.

Stocking stuffer idea: Buy one for only $4.88 and attach a couple of little tags with your favorite quotes from the reviews. Or buy one for each member of your family and attach a different tag to each one. Sure to cause gales of laughter around the tree, especially if your family members are in a hepatitis-induced brain state that finds this stuff funny. Please note that I do not receive any compensation for this product endorsement.

This post has officially lived up to its name. That is enough. I hereby shut off the faucet of random verbal flow. Thank you for listening.