#hell day

> drink coffee to wake up and stave off the rebound

> immediately get jittery and nauseous and not even awake

thank you for your support! Anyway.

The good news is that Hell day part one looks different this year! I can avoid everyone! Horray! I will only be attending Thanksgiving with those who I have already actively been exposed to in the last few days for various emergency reasons. (Shit really hit the fan this week) so I only have to see my absolutly closest family members! We had been planning a virtual Thanksgiving but then shit happened and well we were all already exposed. But no Uncle Dane this year! Whoopee!

BUT I have even MORE good news! What??? You may ask, what could be better than using the pandemic as a valid reason to avoid all the family you hate??? Well let me tell you.

As some of you may remember, my wife and I have actually already had covid. Both of us. And it left my wife truly struggling with severe intestinal issues long after the fact. (5 months later...) and so here we are, unable to cook most basic foods since we have to avoid...

Dairy

Gluten

Beef

Chicken

Shrimp

Watermelon

Carrots

Tomatoes (though we learned she can eat these cooked??? So yeah)

Peanuts

Walnuts

Cashews

Grapes

Chocolate

So yeah, pretty extensive list right? I had no idea what we were going to do. BUT with the help of @haruhi1020 and their friend @xiaq, as well as several other people and a nutritionist, tonight, we made our "traditional" dinner for tomorrow completely free of all of those things! Including pumpkin and pecan pies fully free of dairy and gluten! I am ridiculously proud of the progress we have made! It has been a really rough journey but even with a few hiccups tonight I am pleased to announce that my wife doesn't have to miss out on anything due to her special dietary needs. We have adapted, and we have overcome. Not everything is great. Eating to these diets is extremely difficult we only have 10 dollars in the bank right now. But we are learning and I feel confident that by the time a year since illness comes around, we will be well on our way to our new normal if not already there. We still make a lot of mistakes and she gets frustrated and misses things. But with support helping her and ME we have managed to reach a point where her hair has finally stopped falling out! Her unhealthy weightloss has stopped! And her skin is regaining color! I really want toention @haruhi1020 again for really being a support for me throughout this. It may seem silly to think that I needed it, but sometimes I got so filled with despair that when she became upset, I didn't know where to put my own feelings. Haruhi helped me find recipes when I was frankly overwhelmed and tired which I could present to my wife to try and help with her issues, by supporting me, they made it so I could support my wife better! They put me in touch with people who could help and were always there to listen! So thanks!

Sorry for the long post but I was really proud of us tonight and got to thinking of our progress and how we got here.

I hope you have a happy and safe Hell Day part one and that you find your own successes along the way!