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I have been feeling under the weather for about a week now but today it really hit me – whamo! Head cold. Only cure for a head cold? Soup!! And tea!!

So here’s my version of tomato soup. As a kid, I loved Campbell’s soup but now I find it too salty and too sharp. This soup has a milder base but I add a lot of chilis to smoke out the sickness.

Ezmy’s Tomato Soup

1 small red onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup fresh basil, ripped up (I found some!)
1 14 oz tin of crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp crushed dry chili
1 cup unsweetened soymilk
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil

Saute onion in oil until translucent. Add water, tomatoes, salt and pepper and bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 6-8 minutes. Stir in soymilk, basil, sugar, and chili and simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Voila!

I had this today with a mug of ginger and lemon water, 1 cup of steamed green collards and a few pieces of olive bread – very tasty and easy to digest.

On a different topic, allow me to rant for just a minute about my recent experiences at the medical clinic on my campus. To preface, I have had a number of teensy health issues over the course of the last 4 or 5 years, all of which seemed to me to be related in some way but I could never figure out how. Neither it seems could/can anyone else. I went to the doctor on Friday and she informed me that I might be suffering from illness A. I had to follow up yesterday and was introduced to another doctor who told me that it was either illness B or nothing at all. ??? Right, so it’s not nothing, that’s for certain. I have what one could call very obvious symptoms now of something. Likely illness A. So it’s not nothing. But what really peeved me about this whole experience was that I wasn’t expecting this guy to be able to tell me what was wrong. I mean it would be cool if he happened to know, but given the nature of my issues, I was expecting to be referred to a specialist. This guy tried to write me off, saying that everything I was experiencing was perfectly normal (I cannot begin to express how it is NOT normal). He insinuated, not so lightly either, that I was making this stuff up. The only thing that pushed him to give me the referral I wanted was a) I said I wanted to have children someday and that this could affect that and b) I wasn’t leaving his office until he gave one to me. Argh.

A note to GPs everywhere: Please do not pretend to be an expert in a field that you are clearly not an expert in. Your job is to be the frontline – to separate the hypochondriacs and fakers from the rest of us. To separate the common headcolds from the potential tumors, you know? And if you aren’t sure, please for the love of god don’t guess. At least not openly. If I hear one more doctor say “Well, it might be this but I’m not sure…but don’t worry about it” or “I think you might have A but just in case I’m going to stick you on medication to fix B and then if it’s not B we’ll switch to meds for A” I’m going to lose it. I’m also tired of not being listened to. I always feel as though I’m being rushed or ignored because they have to get me in and out in 10 minutes or less. I’ve actually had times where doctors have rolled their eyes about the fact that I was going to need to do a blood test and therefore would have to stay a bit longer. Is it really that much work? My god. And I’m tired of them thinking I’m stupid. I don’t know much about medicine but I do know where my organs are for crying out loud. I told this guy yesterday that I had a pain around my kidney area and he said “Are you sure you know where your kidneys are?”. I stared at him blankly and then pointed to the location of my kidneys. “Oh,” he said, when I clearly demonstrated that I did in fact know what the F I was talking about, “well, ok I guess that might be a kidney problem then.” You guess? Go away.