You are what you eat

This is a CT scan of my thorax. A friend recently told me that I should show more of myself in my blog - so here I am - literally pouring out my inner most self on display for the world to see.

But aside from showing off the damn fine specimen pictured above, I obviously underwent the scan for a reason. You see, this will be my second post on mishaps while enjoying my favourite past time - eating.

Obviously not having learnt from the chopsticks incident (see previous entry for embarrassing details), I once again found myself eating too quickly - and on this occassion it was a slow cooked Chinese braised beef that I had made for dinner. The recipe called for bean paste, oyster sauce and a bunch of aromatics, including cinnamon, bay leaves and star anise. Again unable to control my ravenous self when it comes to meal times, I found myself unintentionally swallowing what else - but a chipped star anise.

What followed was a few days of denial - that surely it can't be that bad. I was adamant that my body could take care of itself and that this foreign object would somehow be purged naturally (because our bodies do this sort of thing all the time). But I continued to feel pain everytime I swallowed and soon became slightly breathless. What also followed in these few days was constant mockery and jesting from friends and family alike - unable to believe how incredulous it all sounded.

Staranisititis afterall, is not a disease you come across everyday.

I also received a bunch of suggestions which were bordering on the ridiculous - from swallowing larger food objects whole to gulping spoonfuls of honey - but strangely these sounded entirely plausible in an absurd situation.

I consoled myself with more unbelievable thoughts - like how you are what you eat and since I had swallowed a star anise... I was one step closer to being... a star? (or somebody's niece for the cynical amongst you) Or maybe just like Spiderman, the ingested spice would grant me powers which I had yet to discover (like spraying Chinese five spice powder from my wrists at will). But I soon conceded that there was no radioactive spider involved - that I was talking about a spice used in Chinese cooking - and that I was a moron for swallowing it.

Thankfully, the doctor gave me the all clear and said that I probably had a scratch in my oesophagus which was causing the pain. Disappointingly, I don't even have a scan of a star-shaped object in my thorax to show for it (which the geek in me thinks would be pretty special). But I'm glad I have not caused any permanent damage from my reckless eating - things could have been a lot worse and staranisititis could actually have been dangerous - now that would be a situation I would find hard to swallow.