Post-Hospital Comfort Food #HAWMC
It’s Day 10 of WEGO’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC on Twitter). Today’s question is:
Comfort Food: We’re not all 5 star chefs, but we all need to eat! Tell your readers how to make your favorite dish. Does the recipe hold a good memory for you? Is it the act of cooking itself that brings you joy, or the people that come together to eat it? #HAWMC
Answering this question is sad for me because I used to love to cook. I used to cook six-course dinners over the holidays or friends for fun. Those were happy memories. But, as I blogged about in Who Am I? The Chronically ill Person’s Identity Crisis, cooking is one of those hobbies I was forced to give up after getting my neuromuscular autoimmune disease, Myasthenia Gravis (MG). First, I can’t stand up for a long period of time. Also, my reflexes are not as great and I don’t want to burn myself. I rarely have free time so with the time I do have, I choose painting. The worst thing that can happen with my reflexes is that I drop my brush and ruin the painting. Whoops! The blue sky now has blotches of red. Not great, but not life-threatening either.
What My Favorite Dishes Were
Before I got sick, my favorite dishes to cook were Fusilli Gorgonzola and Bowtie Pasta with a Russian Vodka sauce. I actually don’t remember the recipes I used for those dishes; however, I know that I used both gorgonzola and blue cheese for the first dish.
Even though I don’t cook, I still love food and have a few go-to comfort dishes. I love Italian food and pizza.
Post-Hospital Visit Comfort Food
I try to eat something I love after my neurology appointments. I hate going to the hospital. Does anyone enjoy it? If I do well on my MG physical exam, the doctor lowers my dose of Prednisone by 1 mg. Prendisone’s worst side effects, for me, have been the constant pain in my fingers and toes for the past seven years. On the flip side, if I do poorly on the test, the doctor often doubles my dose of Prednisone. At this rate, I have never reached 0 mg. So whenever I go, there’s that element of uncertainty. On my past two appointments, I did very well. But even, on my worst, appointments, I’ve found some comfort in food. After my last test, we went to my favorite Italian supermarket. I had some pizza napoletana, ravioli, and gelato (see pic collage above). I included a montage of the food. I ate with my mom, dad, uncle, and aunt–my Tita Baby. As I blogged about previously, she got diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer the year I got MG. After surviving the colon cancer, she also got breast cancer. And beat that too! Celebrating good test results with her is extra special.
–Your Stylist, Jessica Gimeno
