It’s the end of March and I’ve yet to be boiled or steamed alive. These are the March days I recall from my childhood. NOT ninety degrees Fahrenheit. Florida used to have both Winter and Spring, rather than 365 days of Summer.

It’s warm and just breezy enough to produce a little chill. So, I’ve been spending time sitting out in the front yard a lot.

Right now, that’s as much communing with nature as I can handle. I’m still having a diverticulitis flare up. I’m a watch and wait case. It’s mild, but still really painful. It hurts to walk; my colon does not like movement combined with gravity. It would be a horrible planet, or misbehaving meteor.

I’m lucky, that I haven’t reached the ER status yet. Just before bed I took Tylenol (yes, people who know me are saying WTF?) cause it is a fever reducer. I was going to take one of my prescription ibuprofens. Then I remembered that taking NSAIDS is most likely how I got the diverticulosis, in the first place. I get headaches almost daily and ibuprofen seems to work best for you those. Forty years of taking them regularly has pissed of my colon.

With the visions of a torn and bleeding colon dancing in my head (NSAIDS thin the blood), I opted for the Tylenol. I just read an online article on Healthline that recommend just that: stay away from NDAIDS while having diverticulitis. I think it worked. I haven’t had fevers or chills all day. It didn’t do much for the pain, but the pain almost scares me less than the fevers and chills; they usually mean infection.

Vickie let me take her car to Circle K to get a couple of lottery tickets. It’s just a couple of blocks from our abode, but I’m so sore, I wouldn’t make the walk. Then I recalled I have a prescription ready at Walgreens, which is across the street from the Circle K. It’s something that I have plenty of for the next few days, but hey, I had a car, for now. So, I drove over there. Got sucked into chocolate bar aisle and found two sale items.

I took my two sale items to the pharmacy. The roll down window thingee was down. Closed? WTF? Oh crap, it’s Saturday and after 5 pm. I went up front and paid for my chocolate.

By the way, for chocolate to be good for you, it has to be at least 70% cocoa. Just cause it’s dark chocolate does not mean it helps your heart. But, it still releases endorphins. In this case it’s better for pain, at least for me, than Tylenol.

With this diverticulitis going on, I’m limiting my chocolate intake. I’m mostly eating soup with tofu added. For breakfast I had Progresso Chickarina soup poured into the pot in which I sautéed some silken tofu in turmeric and black pepper.

I guess I’m having soup for dinner too. Oh the joy. Well, it’s food. I’ve had a few people tell me about fasting for diverticulitis. Yeah, right. I have hypoglycemia; fasting with that will definitely get me into the ER for sure. No thanks, even with health insurance, I owe Orlando Health enough money.

This condition has spurred me to research it a lot. I wondered about probiotics. Yes, they seem to help, or so, most of the research shows. I’m going to drastically change my diet. I was hoping to go on Adkins again, but I’ll have to be eating less meat. I already don’t eat much red meat. Every once in awhile I want a Boar’s Head London broil sub, or a pastrami sandwich from Sprouts. I eat a lot of chicken and fish. I guess, I’ll be eating more tofu, and researching different ways to season it.

Well, it’s after 7:00 pm and my little run to the store was kind of a practice run to see if I had enough energy to do a load of laundry. I think I can tackle that. So, bye, for now.