The Nurse Forgot to Warn Me

I could not get out of the clinic fast enough yesterday. They were almost 45 minutes late performing the colonoscopy, but I was still out of recovery and out the door of the clinic in record time. While the nurse had his back turned (he had left to get me some cookies and a diet coke), I got dressed. His look of astonishment when he came back in the recovery room was well worth it, lol. My friend, who knows me so well, just chuckled and told him I was a "tough old bird".

The nurse told me I could go if I ate the cookies and then was able to stand. He also told me that I wasn't to go to work or drive for 12 hours. When I asked about any dietary restrictions, there were none. However, he forgot to warn me about cooking.

My friend was kind enough to stop on the way home yesterday and pick me up a sandwich. She knew I was starving after going so long without food. A sub sounded like a good way to end my fast and I cut it in half. I figured that a little would be better than a lot, to give my insides a bit of time to adjust to being fed again. I finished off the second half of the sub for an early lunch today.

So, this afternoon, I went rummaging in my refrigerator and pantry for something to eat. I had nothing cooked (didn't want to tempt myself during the time when I was fasting) and I haven't been to the store this week. My choices were shells & cheese or spaghetti, since those seemed the two easiest to make. I chose the spaghetti (my first mistake).

I blew out the candle I had burning on the stove and put it on one of the burners (my second mistake and not one that I normally make in the first place).

I started the spaghetti sauce warming up and then put water in the pan for the spaghetti. I turned on the burner (my third mistake). It was the wrong burner.

Yep, you guessed it, I turned on the burner under the candle.

I was lucky. For once I didn't make the mistake of leaving the kitchen to go see what was on TV while I waited for the water to boil. Instead, when the paper on the candle caught fire, I was right there to stare at the fire in horror and then panic. Since I've never had a fire in my kitchen before, it took my brain a second to kick in and realize what I was seeing, and a few more seconds to remember what you are supposed to do to put it out.

My first thought was to smother the fire ... I got a big pot and put it on top ... it didn't fit over the candle. I stood there stupidly for a second and thought of the fire extinguisher outside and was just about to go get it when I remembered baking soda, which put the fire out immediately (it really wasn't that big of a fire). One thing I will say about the baking soda, it also came in handy when I was ready to clean up the stove and walls.

After all that, the spaghetti turned out to be my biggest mistake (like I said, the fire wasn't really that big). It definitely did not sit well on my delicate system. I should have fixed the shells & cheese, lol, at least then I would only have used one burner and my insides would be feeling a lot better right now.