Discussions of my Illness over a Hearty Meal

I was sitting over at my parent’s house eating supper last night. Helen had cooked a wonderful meal of sour cream and mushroom chicken, green beans, baked sweet potato patties, a green salad, and corn bread. I asked Helen for the recipe for her sour cream and mushroom chicken. She mixed equal parts cream of mushroom soup and sour cream and then melted in a stick of butter. She then seasoned it with salt and pepper and poured this over large chicken breasts and baked it in the oven until the chicken was fork tender and done. It was some of the most fattening and delicious baked chicken I have ever eaten.

“You are still acting weird from yesterday,” My father told me over our meal as we sat at his kitchen table.

My mother was strangely quiet last night and not saying much.

“I am just tired and haven’t been able to sleep,” I replied. “My sinuses have also been giving me hell with all this pollen we have been having.”

It has been a bumper year as far as pine and oak pollen is concerned.

“I thought I was going to have to check you in the hospital yesterday,” My father then said.

“Please, God, don’t put me back in that hospital,” I told him. “You just give me something to sleep, put me in the bed, and I will be better in the morning after taking my meds.”

“You don’t realize how strange you act, do you?” My father asked.

“No, not really,” I replied taking another bite of my chicken.

“You won’t make eye contact, will not sit still, and smoke obsessively when you get like that,” He said.

“Well, I was feeling pretty rough yesterday and it is a scary feeling,” I replied. “The most important organ in my body was malfunctioning.”

My father gave me some pyroxate for my sinuses and then some Librium to help me sleep. I walked home, drank a glass of milk, took two Librium, and went sound to sleep and slept for five hours. I awoke well after midnight feeling rested. I have got to get my sleeping habits back on a more normal schedule though.