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 |   Blog Challenge And Other Tidbits |
| An opinion or two...or three or four... |
PROMPT January 14th Write about a time when you made a wrong assumption. Did you realize your mistake right away, or did someone tell you later? What did you learn from your mistake? When I first read this prompt I thought, "Well, sure, but I can't think of anything. Besides, I haven't had any coffee or tea yet." This thought is really code for, "Rats, I actually have to tax my brain and come up with something." Then I thought, "I know, I'll go get some breakfast and think about it." Also code for, "I've got absolutely no idea." So off I went to the kitchen. Plunked some bread in the toaster. Pulled out the peanut butter (Skippy Super Chunk). Peeled a banana. Reached for a vitamin. I stopped everything and stared at the little pink pill in my hand. It was then my brain dug up a hideous memory. One that's not-so-funny and makes me twitch just thinking about it. But my brain also went, "Perfect!" Twitchy or not, here goes...a little more than 10 years ago I was searching for a natural way to help me overcome the horrendous hot flashes I was experiencing. As I sat at my computer scouring the internet my husband leaned over my shoulder and had the gall to say, "Honestly, they can't be THAT bad." I looked at him with rage, smoke blowing from my ears, daggers shooting from my eyes, and retorted back, "Do you actually know what it's like to boil from the inside out!" My voice raised to a screech. He raised an eyebrow and took off, the scent of fear left behind. Well, I eventually found Black Cohosh, a simple supplement that promised to help keep me from boiling. I knew it would take some time to work but I was faithful to my daily dose. And then one day I noticed that I wasn't having so many hot flashes. It was working! Finally I could smile again! And it worked the next month and the next month after that. It was truly a life saver for me. But one day I ran out. I'm not sure why because I was so diligent about keeping it stocked. The important thing was that it worked and I found it necessary to drop everything I was doing so I could rush out to the store to get more. There was no way in hell that I would be left without my Black Cohosh. Off to the store I went, but when I arrived I found...nothing on the shelf. There was not one bottle of Black Cohosh to be found. I nearly broke out in a sweat. But, aha, not to worry. The next shelf over was simply full of Blue Cohosh. Blue? Never heard of it. But cohosh is cohosh, right? They've got to be the same. So I settled for Blue Cohosh and ran home with a bottle or two, or three, or maybe even seven. Along I went with my life. Blue Cohosh every single day. And no hot flashes, either. But...on day number 3 I noticed some small red bumps on my belly. And they were just a little itchy. I told myself it was nothing. Not to worry. Then on Day 4 there were more red bumps and this time they covered most of my torso. And they were really itchy. But not to worry, it was probably just an allergy. I remember I took a Claritin. However, by day 5 I was completely covered in red bumps that were so itchy I nearly cried. My husband hauled me off to the allergist. He took one look at me and said, "What have you done?" I shrugged and replied, "Well, nothing, really. It just happened." He studied the bumps and I could tell he knew EXACTLY what I'd done. He looked me in the eye and said, "Okay, I know how you operate. What new supplement do you have?" I explained about the cohosh. His eyebrows raised. "Blue?" And then he said it again. "Blue?" Well, I was annoyed by that so I shot back, "Yes, blue. What's the difference?" Well, he told me the difference all right. Turns out Blue Cohosh is related to Blueberry Root. And you guessed it. I'm very allergic to Blueberry Root. Very allergic. Did I mention how allergic I am to Blueberry Root? The allergist deemed it an emergency and told me he was surprised I hadn't already gone into anaphylactic shock. And instead of showing a little pity he looked at me as if I were the biggest idiot on the planet. He ended up giving me a shot and some medicine that made me sleep for about 3 days. He also sent me home with instructions to never, ever, ingest Blue Cohosh again. I promised I wouldn't. I'm happy to say, though, the hot flashes finally ended and there will never be any cohosh in my life again - either black or blue. |
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