So here's the story...

I'm not lazy, just really busy, so the first part of this entry I'm cut and pasting part of an email I wrote to a friend describing my past couple weeks at the time. By now it would be nearly my past three weeks:

"It's been a strange past couple weeks here. To make a long story extremely short, Stan was in a lot of pain, had a toothache, got a molar pulled last week, now he has to have an implant put in (fortunately it was a back tooth so the gaping hole can't be seen). 

"During this time my life was a living hell...I'm sure his was worse, but I was so worried because he kept putting off seeing a dentist not because he was terrified of seeing a dentist (like I am) but because he didn't want to call in sick to work because they're short staffed. Ugh. Then last Wednesday (the 16th) he came home in excruciating pain, all he was doing was putting ice on it and he wouldn't/couldn't talk and I said "that's it, we're taking you to the emergency clinic." I was a frazzled mess. He wanted me to stop by a local grocer and get some ice before we went because we don't have enough at home. When I came back to the car, he said, "hear me out, the pain is subsiding, I think I can go home now." I said "yeah right!" and proceeded to drive him to the emergency clinic. He's so glad I didn't listen to him now.

"Men can be so bloody stubborn and play that whole macho "I'll be ok!" thing! My dad is the same way.

"He got some pain meds and penicillin from the doctor. I could barely sleep those nights. I kept checking on him to make sure he was alive! Abscesses can kill if not properly treated, and I have no idea how long this had been going on because he told me Monday (the 15th) that he had been having pain "for a couple of weeks." Who knows how long that is in man-years. Fortunately the following day Thursday 17th the 2nd dentist he called (we don't have dental insurance or regular dentists) had an opening the following morning (last Friday) and he got it pulled. He said he felt instant relief. The weird thing was is that the tooth didn't look abnormal, neither did the gums. But according to the dentist he had a crack in the tooth that went all the way down through it to the bone. Stan liked to chew on ice as a kid, so they figured out that's how the crack happened. Who knows how long he's had it before he started feeling the pain. He's been back at work now for a few days (after the extraction he still felt sick and weak as the penicillin was still working on killing the infection). Now his gums are itching, which is a good sign...means the gaping bloody hole is healing.

"Implants are expensive. This sucks. They advised against just getting a crown unless he was 80 years old because the implant will retain integrity in the gum/bone for years to come."

-------------- end copied email

So back on July 14th when this all started when Stan told me that he had a toothache and it hurt a lot, it started me on a worry streak, which made my stomach do somersaults. I go through this whenever a pet gets sick (BTW, it's Apollo-the-demonspawn-kitten's 1st birthday today). Then I started hurting really bad that was far beyond any pain any nervous reaction to a loved one's health condition could ever do. This has happened a couple times before, and the only trigger I could figure out could be possible food poisoning or maybe a reaction to fatty food. It's like a really bad stomach ache that feels like I swallowed a brick lodged in my ribs. There's no nausea (I wish there was so I could throw up), just pain. Pain that won't go away for hours, pain that won't subside by taking antacids or drinking coke or anything. I stayed up all night long because I could not sleep for the pain. It finally subsided by morning. Then when Stan's toothache got much worse a couple days later, I stopped eating altogether due to nerves. I noticed that once I stopped eating, I felt much better. I mean I felt weak and all, but at least my stomach didn't bother me anymore.

Now I don't think this is a gallbladder thing, even though Stan suspected it might be. Certain symptoms didn't fit at all. I wasn't jaundiced, I wasn't nauseated, I didn't have diarrhea (I wish I did...to rid myself of the pain), I didn't have a fever, the pain wasn't only confined to my right side, it didn't hurt worse when I inhaled (actually, it made me feel better, if only for a slight moment), yadda yadda yadda. And it relieved me to find out my mom doesn't have gallbladder problems. But as I was staying up that one night, I was doing research on gallbladders and I know one thing for damn sure: I don't want to have it taken out!

So I decided I'm going to start a preventative measure, and that is to eliminate land animals from my diet because they are the major source of cholesterol which causes gallstones (which I don't want). I originally thought I'd eliminate animals with legs, but crabs and lobsters and crawfish have legs, and they are definitely staying on my menu. Pork? won't miss it. I don't even like pork at all except for ham cold cuts and the taste of bacon. Fowl? won't miss it. Beef? won't miss it, unless it's a really good Black Angus steak from Colorado. Wisconsin's elderly retired dairy cow used shoe leather "beef" is nothing to miss. Lamb? Yeah, I'll miss lamb. Gyros...yumm...Oh well. Animal products? Stan really wants me to eat eggs, but whenever I do, it's not pretty. I like eggs, and the "Egg Beaters" I tried are like eating...uh...I'd rather eat raw tofu. But I just can't eat more than one egg at a time or else problems will ensue. I still use lowfat milk on cereal and in coffee and tea. But I've done a major cut back on cheese. I'll eat as much yogurt as I want. I'll eat a little ice cream now and then in the summer. Rice milk? As much as I want...it's not really "milk," it's a vegetarian product. Fish? Scallops? Mussels? Clams? Sea Urchin? Octopus? Squid? Snails? Cuttlefish? Cockles? No limits, well, the pocketbook is the only limit. And I also won't eat it deep-fried, only broiled, boiled or raw (in the case of prepared sushi). There is no way I could give up sushi, ever, and there's no reason to. Seafood and fish is on a whole different level than land animal. Also, with the price of grain going up, it will start to effect the price of grain eaters, i.e., chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, sheep, etc..

There is probably a name for the type of "vegeterian" I am...let's google it to see...

OK, here it is, according to About.com: I'm a "Pescaterian." Definition: "Occasionally used to describe those who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish. Although the word is not commonly used and a pescatarian is not technically a vegetarian, more and more people are adopting this kind of diet, usually for health reasons or as a stepping stone to a fully vegetarian diet." No stepping stone to me, I have no plans on being totally vegetarian. I tried being vegetarian about 11 years ago and didn't take well to it. I became very depressed. I can't remember if I cut fish/seafood out at the time. But I think keeping fish and seafood in the mix is good.

Labels: This Boring Life