Fat Fun

I have had a long time problem with digesting fats. When the problem first appeared in a meaningful way, was when I thought I was having a heart attack, sometimes in the late 1990’s.

I drove myself, late at night, to the hospital and was taken in immediately when I told them I had chest pains. I was released several hours later with what they thought was indigestion. I realized that I had had a number of “incidents” in advance of this, and thought it uncomfortable and did nothing except found ways to relieve the pain and uncomfortability. I won’t go into ugly details but no doctor figured out what was wrong. I did, however, with my trusty computer self-diagnose to “fatty liver” and even better, through trial and error; figure out how to end the problem with a reduction of fat in my diet.

If I have too much fat, it seems to accumulate and pool and the trouble will begin. At the first sign of the problem, I need to stop fat intake for a while and it will go away.

I haven’t had a problem for five or six years.

Last night for Valentines Dinner we went out and had some specials at a local pub. I had a salad and a steak on a mound of garlic mashed potatoes, quite rich and covered in thick, rich brown mushroom gravy with a few veggies added. For dessert we split a chocolate tantin (I think it was called that) which was a soft, warm chocolate pastry baked with with cherries and pistachios, and homemade vanilla ice cream.

I had not considered this as a fat problem as it had been so long it never entered my mind, About 4 a.m. I awoke. I tried to return to bed and ended up getting a Zantac, drinking mint tea and watching TV for an hour. I did get back to bed for an hour before I had to get up.

I do have some memory left and remembered how bad it can be, and have vowed not to let that happen. My mother it turns out had the same problem which I remembered after she was gone, and would eat egg rolls but not the crust, or denuded fried chicken, to get the flavor but not the full fat. My Aunt reminded me of the situation.

My oldest son seems to have a version as well, so we have a pattern here.

Tonight’s pizza has been cancelled!