Stomach issues

[vaneramos]

After a pleasant night with Danny, I drove home, returned the rental car, and started to settle back into my routine. Around 5 p.m. I got hit with an undeniable compulsion to sleep. Sitting here trying to write, I couldn't keep my eyes open. This is so unusual that I gave in, lay down and snoozed for 75 minutes.

I woke up with the worst acid stomach I've had in months. It had been troubling me all weekend, so this morning I had made a point of abstaining from coffee, but that hadn't helped. What's worse, I had just finished my stock of Rolaids. I managed to dig a Zantac tablet out of the medicine cabinet, but it didn't give any immediate relief. After another half hour I was verging on nausea. I didn't feel like eating anything, but decided to try some food anyway. Cream of wheat seemed like a sensible choice, plus it's one of my favourite comfort foods.

A couple hours later, I'm feeling much better, but a little uneasy. Don't know what made the difference: Zantac, cereal or the combination. This happens once in a while. The best solution is to swear off coffee for a few weeks, which is particularly difficult to do this time of year.

As a result of this unpleasantness, I didn't make much progress on my writing today. While working on this novel, I've noticed that my most productive work time is between 2 and 8 p.m. I've been vaguely aware of this for years, but NaNoWriMo has clarified it. I'm neither a morning person, nor a night worker. Needless to say, my work session got shot to hell today.

As an aside: cream of wheat causes the most disgusting of all food tragedies when it collides with a full moustache and beard.

Comments

Been there, done that.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Think I already related how I weaned myself off coffee using Earl Grey tea over the course of about 2 weeks, and have found it not at all difficult to stay off it -- with decided benefits in sleeping and waking and energy level throughout the day -- for the last two years. I used to go through a TON of Rolaids, probably a chief contributing factor in my recent kidney stone. Blah.

Cream of Wheat becomes much more easily edible by us moustached folk when poured into a bowl that already contains more Cheerios than you might think necessary and mixed. You still get that cream-of-wheaty goodness, but the cheerios give it some structure and make it considerably less sloppy.

Re: Been there, done that.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I'm not a heavy coffee drinker, usually only one cup a day, and I don't have any trouble giving it up when I decide to, but I never manage to stay off the wagon. It would help me to be more vigilant and quit at the first sign of trouble.

I'll have to try that cereal recipe. The problem is I like the texture of cream of wheat. I'll just have to indulge when nobody else is around, and use the Cheerios solution when I have company. :-)

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I was feeling all sympathetic and stuff, and then I got to your last sentence and all I could do was laugh.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I aim to amuse. :-)

[ubermunkey.livejournal.com]

ah deadly cream of wheat moustachio bearies. hate when that happens.

I hope your feeling better today Van

[djjo.livejournal.com]

And remember - caramel apples are also a big beard no no...[g]

Hugs! (snort) Danny

Re: I hope your feeling better today Van

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I saw caramel apples at the Fair, but I knew they would be bad news. Fortunately they're not a huge favourite of mine.

snuggles

[artricia.livejournal.com]

Have you tried cold-brew coffee? Easier to make, and only 1/3 the acid of regular coffee. www.toddycafe.com

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing that out. I would like to try it.

I read a few posts from your journal and was interested to see you grappling with some of the same issues, from different angles. I don't get as much feedback on the types of posts I was originally most interested in writing. Poetry hardly gets any response. People love photographs, though, and being a sucker for attention, I have turned my journal into more and more of a photo blog. The community aspect is important to me, on the other hand I feel like I let popular opinion shape my creative output too much.