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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Prednisone blahs and celery

Today (written on Wednesday, yesterday) is the last day of prednisone (oral cortisone) for the "frozen" shoulder. I awoke feeling strange. Usually, I am groggy. That is just me. I stagger and stumble around. That's okay because I have been this way since I was very young. Well, I never got over that "little kid stumble" in the mornings. Nope. I never awake bright-eyed. I hate sound in the morning. I hate light. I hate "good morning" said with a chirpy voice.

Usually, this feeling goes away after at least an hour. Yes, I can bathe, dress, eat, and study in this state. Of course, the studying is usually a lost cause. In the morning I am better at rote tasks--dishes, sweeping, laundry, folding clothes...you get the idea.

Somehow, today was different. I have nausea, confusion, heaviness, a plethora of strange symptoms. I finally had my friend who comes to help me take me to get a Coke--the real deal, full of caffeine and sugar. That did not jolt me out of my funk. 

I am not depressed, sleep deprived, sad, hurting, so what is it? It took me from 8:45 until now, about 1:30 to figure it out....coming down from prednisone. And, I only had five days and a graduated dose each day, plus the shot last week.  I really hate this feeling. (Today, Thursday, is not much better.)

Nevertheless, we got a scrap box for the hens. Surprise! There was food for me.

I have been out of celery. Now, just in time, I have celery for the hens and free celery for me!


For hens
uncut
diced, sliced, and whole rib
Tomorrow, I will have tuna salad and chop the whole rib. In the meantime the cup of chopped celery and the short pieces will go into the freezer. The pieces will go into baking bags when I bake chicken or beef. The diced pieces go into soup.

Growing my own celery
I read about this somewhere on the Internet. The bottom of the stalk can be used to grow more celery. Using this method, I won't get a head of celery. If all goes well, I will just go out and cut celery I need, like an herb, leaving the plant to produce more.

Why I don't eat celery leaves
When pesticide is used, the leaves are where the pesticide is concentrated. So, all the fluffy, pretty, celery leaves I have used in cooking in the past, now are discarded. Sad. I am pretty sure this is NOT organic.

Your turn
Even though I am going to the doctor, has anyone had this prednisone experience? Do you ever search through old produce for edible parts? This really did not look old at all, just the victim of some bizarre happening. The produce market could not sell it.

4 comments:

  1. There is a free produce basket at one of our local health food stores. I always hit it up when I can. The last thing we got out of it was a perfect looking (and tasting) lemon. I have no idea why it ended up in there... If I had to speculate though: Once I accidentally bumped a few apples on the floor (you know how those precarious towers of fruits can go) and they were immediately scooped up by an employee for the free basket. Maybe that is the origin of the good looking lemon and celery as well.

    I have no experience with prednisone, but I do hope you get to feeling better!

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  2. BLD, WOW! At the store where I shop, any fruit on the floor is immediately placed back on the tower. One time when I went dumpster diving in another town, there was a really fresh stalk of celery with one rib freshly bent/broken. What a crime to commit and be relegated to landfill. From the dumpster I brought home 5 bags of lemons, squeezed them all and had frozen lemon juice for months. Well, I did share with two friends before I commenced the job of squeezing. (I wrote about lemon crimes.Not here.) Not feeling better, but thanks.

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  3. Hi Linda. I was given prednisone by a dentist who made me take the first dose on the spot! I was flying within minutes. It helped a great deal with my fibromyalgia, so when I came down, I was pretty upset! I think that your doctor will have the answers. Its weird stuff. I hope you feel better.
    What is a scrap box?
    I think about growing celery, but I have lovage instead. Its the same flavor. Yes, I do look for good parts to old produce!

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  4. Today, I actually feel a bit better. I did not get enough sleep and have been up about 30 mins. But, I don't feel like I did before. I have an appointment but may go in sooner. I was so woozy from the pain med and was taking another anti-inflammatory, so any help with fibromyalgia was definitely not recognizable. Thanks for the information.

    Scrap box--where the produce/farmer's market people throw produce they cannot sell. Some is gross and moldy. Other items, like the celery, just puzzle me, obviously fresh and such a disaster on one side.

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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.