What You Crave Is Who You Are

Since Thanksgiving I have been reading the memoir entitled The Man Who Couldn't Eat by Jon Reiner.  In this intriguing memoir, he writes about his experiences with food.  How food links to our identity, culture, memories, and heritage.  And he also discusses how someone who considers himself a foodie also struggles with the inflammatory disorder known as Crohn's disease.   Crohn's disease appears to be inflammation of major proportions in the colon leading to extreme pain, exclusive diets, and oftentimes, long hospitalizations. 



The first thing the author remembers eating that caused him massive problems intestinally was dried apricots.  And it becomes a juggling act to maintain balance so the intestinal system does not get overly aggravated because when that happens, as it does to Mr. Reiner, you can lay for hours out on the floor in pain and
semi-conscious until someone, somehow finds you and gets help.  Mr. Reiner has been through a multitude
of surgeries for this condition; at times he has been hospitalized for months as doctors try to navigate how
to stem the inflammatory processes that give rise to Crohn's disease.  This can mean cleaning out your system which means nothing by mouth, and by the way, that includes water.  It can often come to the point of being fed through a tube with a substance that is a far cry from what we all know and love as "real food". 



Obviously, when you are the chief cook and food purchaser in the family, this can be a problem.  It can also be a problem if you have to stick with a bland, macrobiotic diet while watching your kids and significant other partake of ymmy stuff like lasagna and pastrami sandwiches.  And the people who live with you are affected as well.  They want to know when you will be able to eat normally again.  They want to know when you will be physically well enough to run the household again.  You become aware of all that they are eating and they become aware of all that you are not eating and doing.  It takes patience.  It takes time.  It takes understanding.  People and their families do not just adjust to life with this type of disease overnight.  In the end what one realizes if you happen to have an autoimmune disorder is that while there is not a "cure", what you will have is times of "stability or dormancy" when the disease is not keeping you from your life and the enjoyment of it.  This is not a condition to be cured, but rather managed.