A few months ago I discovered this guy on YouTube called Crazy Russian Hacker, who does so-called scientific experiments (like a poor man's Mythbusters) and reviews of gadgets. I showed him to my husband, then our son, and now we're all hooked on him.
Some stuff he does is just silly, like What Happens if You Freeze Balloons:
but every now and then he does something useful, like various kitchen gadgets. One of his newest videos is right up a McDougaller's alley - Potato Gadgets!
I nearly cried when I saw one of the gadgets he reviewed - an automatic potato peeler, the type I've seen (on a MUCH larger scale) in commercial plants on shows like Food Factory on TV. I said to my family it may be worth taking all the side effects I currently get from eating potatoes just to own and use this gadget! The only thing is, it only fits new/baby/creamer sized potatoes, up to 2 pounds, according to the Amazon description. Since I usually never peel that size potato, this is another gadget I now see is not worth the money, even though the premise is fantastic and exactly when I was looking for to peel potatoes like russets. If only it were larger. :(
As for that potato sensitivity - I ate Yukon Gold potatoes and plain whites 4 times last week after no spuds for at least 2 months and thought I was home-free, with not one tingle to my tongue or sinus effect. Then on day 5 I woke up in agony, with one of the most painful sore throats I ever had in my life and a snoot full of phlegm. But was it a delayed reaction to the potatoes, or did I finally catch the cold/flu that my husband and son have been passing back and forth since mid-September? I mentioned previously (here or some message board - forget where) that it feels like I'm living in a TB ward, with the 2 of them coughing day and night, as well as hearing my downstairs neighbor coughing through the floor. I'm going to assume that the fever I had for 2 day was definitive proof it is indeed the flu, even though I had gotten the flu vaccination last month.
So there's still hope I can eat potatoes again.
If my flu follows the same path as my fellows', it will be at least after January before it's gone for good. Like I said, my son has it 2 months already and called out sick from work again yesterday. But since I have an auto-immune disease, and one other year when I had the flu it lasted from December until May (NO exaggeration!), I don't expect to feel fully human again until Spring 2017. So far my son saw his primary care doc for this once and may go again this week or next (May have to wait that long for an appointment, especially with the holiday this week), and my husband wound up at the ENT once and may have to go back. I wonder which, if any, doc I'll wind up having to see? A pulmonologist? Cardiologist? MCTD can cause all sorts of problems, even without having the flu weaken an already under attack immune system!
Dr. McDougall was right again - the flu shot does nothing if it's not the exact strain of influenza that's going around that year.
No comments:
Post a Comment