Jen's Mental Scribblings

So, this morning I found out I've got strep throat. Whee! No wonder I've been feeling so crappy. I spent most of tuesday afternoon and early evening at the hospital trying to IV fluids. Once I got them (after 4 sticks!) I felt much better and my stomach stopped cramping. I could eat! Well. At least a banana.

Yesterday's diet included: a couple of bananas, ginger ale, ice water, and jello. And for dinner a mediumish bowl of homemade beef stew. Yummm.

Today, I wanted Chicken Soup. Lucky me, I can't just open a can of Campbells whenever I want chicken noodle soup. Due to the Celiac's I've got to make it myself. I came up with this.

It took about 20 minutes from conception to feeding my face. I'm sure it could be multiplied, I just made enough for a couple of bowls for me.

Thai Inspired Chicken Soup
1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
1 small onion, small dice
Pinch of salt
2 small carrots, small dice
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 can chicken breast, water drained into soup, half of chicken smushed and dumped into soup
3-4 fresh ginger pennies (just cut off a couple of slices about a 1/4 of an inch thick)
1/2 teaspoon thai red curry paste
1 Tablespoon fish sauce.
Tea kettle of boiling water.
Small rice sticks in the amount you want to eat.

In soup pot put oil, onions and salt. When onions are soft and are just beginning to brown add carrots. When carrots begin to soften, add stock, water, canned chicken and water, ginger pennies, and curry paste. Gently boil until carrots are cooked as soft as you like

For rice sticks: (This can be done while waiting for onions to cook)
Get out your serving bowl. Put in how much/many noodles as you want to eat. Pour water from tea kettle over noodles. Let them sit in the hot water until you are ready to assemble.

Assembly:
Add the fish sauce to soup. Stir. Drain noodles, and put them back into your bowl. Ladle soup over noodles. Eat.

If I had cilantro, I probably would have thrown in a couple of leaves and a squeeze of lemon or lime would be good too. It was divine and the girls came over and ate some too.

So because I blew $5K on Ike's mouth last year, I never made it back to the Dentist like I should have. I finally made it back last month and they decided that I needed "DEEP cleaning" under my gums, under novocaine, with lasers. Bleh. So I got up really early for my 8 AM appt.  (Let us note that I am beyond tired, I am deeply, physically exhausted.) This becomes relevant later. As per usual for new procedures I get...ummmm...worked up. Alright, so I flip out okay? So Gloria started shooting up my mouth with novocaine, a lot of novocaine, and I start to cry. I hate it when I get blubbery for no real reason. And the more exhausted I get, the less control I have over tears.

And as it turned out, it was pretty much for nothing. When they said Deep Cleaning, they meant "We are going to do an old style cleaning with the picks, and then follow it up with a laser pick."  not "we are going to use a laser knife to lay your gums open and scrape out all the dead stuff" The biggest problem is that the novocaine didn't really kick in until she was almost done. I have this wonderful ability I inherited from my Dad to fight off sedation and painkillers. It also takes more of them than usual for any affect. And I metabolize it quicker than usual. (This also makes me a cheap date...one beer and I'm plastered, but I'm sober quick too) So now that I know what the hells going to happen for the next three appts (they split it up into 4 and do 1 quadrant each time), it should go much easier.

I drove home in a daze and collapsed back into bed. Joe was "Wonder Husband" once again, and took the kids to the gym so I could sleep it off. (I also had a really bad night of sleep on top of it) He was back noonish, I took Ike to school and was back here at 2 and the Babysitter was waiting for me. I ran out for some soup and came back home and crashed for another 90 minute nap.

I'm still tired, but the bright light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that sometime next week I should be getting my smart CPAP so I can finally get treated for the sleep apnea.