QUINOA, a very tasty seed...

I had read about quinoa quite some time ago. It was referred to as the Gold of the Andes for its nutritional value as it is high in protein. This seems to be confirmed by Wikipedia: Quinoa (the name is derived from the Spanish spelling of the Quecha name kinwa) originated in the Andean region of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, where it was domesticated 3,000 to 4,000 years ago for human consumption... Quinoa seeds contain essential amino acids like lysine and acceptable quantities of calcium, phosphorus, and iron.

Interestingly, 2013 was declared the International Year of Quinoa by the United Nations General Assembly in recognition of the Andean people who have preserved it as a food for present and future generations, through knowledge and practices of living in harmony with nature.

And then I found it at the O Clinic (Jl. Prapanca Raya No.20, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta) where I go once a month for acupuncture treatment. And while I have your attention, Dr Sisilia is a very accomplished acupuncturist and medical herbalist. Instructions on how to prepare quinoa were included, together with a few recipe suggestions.

I tried mixing quinoa with rice, which was not bad, but a bit bland. What I do, however, recommend is to mix quinoa into mashed potatoes. This is the way I made it.

Ingredients:

4-5 medium sized potatoes
1 cup of quinoa                                                                                                      
3-5 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped small
1/2 cup of sour cream, or, 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of paprika powder
salt to taste

Directions:

1   Peel and quarter the potatoes and boil till done. And at the same time...
2   Boil the quinoa for 10 to 15 minutes in 2 cups of water (plus a little bit to avoid crusting at the bottom of the pan). The quinoa should be soft when done.
3   Mash the potatoes to the desired consistency and add the garlic and the sour cream (or olive oil) and paprika powder.
4   Add the quinoa, mix well, and salt to taste.

SEPTIC SHOCK, a shocker...

The doctor in Emergency expressed his surprise that I was still alive. This was the morning after I had been admitted in the middle of the night. At that age and the state he was in, he said, they normally die within a few hours, adding that I must have a very strong heart.

When I was admitted I was extremely short of breath and barely conscious. I was given oxygen and the hospital then wanted to know how I was going to pay for further treatment. A blood test showed that my kidneys did not function properly, and they guessed that my breathing problem was caused by pneumonia. This was later confirmed by a chest x-ray.

After clearing the financial matters I was put on an intravenous drip. A proper cocktail—antibiotics, liquid to prevent dehydration, a blood thinner to prevent clotting, and one or two more. I was also put on three-full-days of slow dialysis as my urea and creatinine levels were far too high due to my kidneys not functioning properly.

Of course, only much later, did I find that out. The first night in Emergency and the happenings during the subsequent four or five days in the Intensive Care Unit were revealed to me by Y who had handled the administrative and financial interactions with the hospital administration, and made recordings of the proceedings. On the photographs she had taken I hardly recognise myself... tubes and IVs, dark almost black blood going into the dialyser and coming out bright red, oxygen tubes in the nose, and my mouth half-open desperately trying to suck in more air. Looking at the photos now, I do understand the Emergency doctor's surprise that I was still alive.

When I finally started to notice my surroundings and the fact that I was lying in a hospital bed—still in ICU—I got another shock when I saw S standing at my bedside. I looked from her to Y and tried to ask how that was possible, but my dried out mouth and crusted lips could not form the right words. Apparently, when observing my confusion, S told Y, wait till he sees who else is in the room! And yes, I was nearly stupefied when I noticed E. For years she had refused to see me and talk to me, and now, there she was.

Communication was a pain. I couldn't talk as the words came out garbled or not at all, and my attempts at writing a cohesive sentence were not much better. I wanted to ask what had happened and what  progress had been made and started drawing a squiggly line. When that was not understood I indicate that I wanted to write,
I mant (meant) a a p r
   prooogress (with the "g" on top of the third "o") Scha^rrrt
     charnt
and finally, CHART

I remembered that before going to the hospital I had diagnosed myself as suffering from dengue, and consequently wanted info on the platelet count (thrombocytes, found in large numbers in blood and involved in clotting). This is what I wrote,  platatelets ? The platelet count had fallen to 22K (should be from 150-400K per mm³) but not because of dengue fever, but because of kidney malfunction, I was told.

And using writing as the medium of communication I finally found out what I was suffering from:  septic shock caused by pneumonia and acute kidney injury. I couldn't believe it. How could I suddenly develop pneumonia, and my kidneys were doing fine—urine clear and apart from the 2cm-stone that was sitting in the bladder, there was no injury as far as I remembered.

My last attempt at communicating was:
I wamt to savoe (with the "v" superimposed on the "o") this to remember the mame  (I want to save this to remember the name).

That was mid-September of last year. I have recuperated since then though still not sufficiently to have recovered the muscle-mass I lost. Tennis is thus still off for one or two months.