The DietChef Thing: Day 16.

Hey everyone.

I'm afraid this is going to be a short one, as I'm feeling pretty awful, but I didn't want to miss a day.

I am woken this morning by Noble Husband, who tells me it's nearly nine and no relief carer. This shouldn't surprise me. It's Karen's day off and the good, reliable Becky has gone on to pastures new. All the same it's a bad start and the flashes behind my eyes say that things will get worse.

Wearily I drag myself up and we go through the morning routine which includes having to go through today's food with the scanner. Curry tonight, oh God, that means I'll have to cook rice. Why do they do this? Why can't they include a little pack of rice as so many ready meals do? Never mind, chocolate granola and tea make me feel slightly less doleful.

After breakfast I see to Sharlice, catch up on Twitter, do Emails and a few other jobs and then batten the hatches, it's coming as sure as Christmas. I can feel it crawling up the back of my neck, round to the right side of my head. It's going to be a bad one.

It hits about lunchtime, the kind of killer Migraine that makes you feel green and furry tongued. I tough it out, listen to a radio play on a quiet volume. I've heard some shocking news this morning. Someone I've known since I was a little girl at school and once worked alongside has died suddenly. She was only a few years older than me. It makes you think. My head might be filled with a million gnomes beating on a million bohrans, but I'm alive. I'm alive. B didn't have to put that message out over Twitter for me this morning. I have no damn right to complain. Ever.

Lunch is spicy beef and tomato soup. I don't want it but I heat up and stuff it down somehow. It's hot, I mean spicy hot as well as the heated up kind. It's actually good soup, but I'm glad I'm not getting more, I really don't like soup with bits in.

I curl up in my sofa corner, put on my headphones and try to escape into somewhere else with more radio plays and then nature sounds. I won't give in and go to bed, I need to keep to my routine. At a quarter to five, T'Pain, haha, that's a good name for him, wins, the Migraine's getting worse and the bones have joined in, I feel like hell, I have to lie down. Noble husband helps me next door.

And that's the last I know until twenty past nine when I wake up. The bones have quietend but Mr Migraine's stil here. I take pink elephants and think I'd better have some kind of food. Not curry, yuk, no way, but my snack won't cut it on its own, not against those killers, they don't like a nearly empty stomach, nasty things could happen. Then I think of the Graze Box. Low Calorie snacks, gosh, they've been a help to me this week! So I have a little pot containing those salty pretzels I dipped into peanut butter last time, but this time there's something called cocoa dip. My word! Are my tastes changing? It's sickly sweet and I don't finish all of it, though I like the pretzels. After that I have my DC snack, my two little oaties with berries.

And so you're up to date. Now I'm going to finish my tea, put Sharlice into the care of a good nanny, left her all alone when I had to go to bed and thought I'd let her starve but fortunately not, and then put myself into the care of a cool pillow and a good book. Hope for better things tomorrow.

One thought before I sleep. I've always known that life is short, we never know what's around the next corner, that's a cliche, but cliches are called just that because they're true. So seize the day, live every moment to the full, as a song I love says: "Pick your flowers, count the seconds, roll the dice and don't wait till it's too late." And if you have someone you love, never stop telling them how much they mean to you. those are my wise words for the day, and may I never forget them or ever stop living by them. Goodnight everyone.

Food eaten today.

Breakfast: chocolate granola, plain, no fat yogurt.

Lunch: Spicy Beef and Tomato Soup.

Dinner: Snack from the Graze Box, Cocoa Dip with Pretzels.

Snack: Oat Cookies with Berries.

Bad? Yes but no, Graze snack replaced dinner.

Are you hungry? no.

Mood: Ouch and determined to make the most of every day and stay positive.

Music: Jo D Messina: These Are the Days.