April 2, 2022
Health
· Mental Health
Social events & FCS
Living with FCS, food has always been the biggest issue. It was tough when I was a child because I didn’t fully understand why I couldn’t eat certain foods but as I got older, my problems got bigger.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE ISSUES I’VE FACED BECAUSE OF MY ‘SPECIAL DIET’ :
- No social life. Always in two minds about going out because I know there’s going to be food & I’ll look silly if I don’t eat.
- (at a restaurant) Asking the chef to make my food as low fat as possible then dealing with comments like ‘no wonder you’re skinny’, ‘ugh how can you have pizza without cheese?’ & ‘OMG you don’t need to diet you’re already skinny’ (the list goes on…)
- Going to someone’s house for dinner & asking them to make my food low fat but it’s still not suitable for someone with FCS & I don’t want to make a fuss so I just eat it & deal with the consequences the next day.
- Taking my own food to someone’s house, usually family who fully understands why but another guest who is also there makes comments like ‘sorry, is the food here not good enough for you?’ & then adds ‘haha I’m just joking!’ but I’m not laughing, I just feel absolutely sh*t.
Due to the fear of being judged or looking like the ‘awkward one’, there have many MANY times where I’ve thought to myself ‘ahh f**k it, I’ll make an exception & just eat’. Unfortunately, a lot of the times I’ve ended up in hospital with pancreatitis a few days later.
People can easily say ‘well if you can’t eat it, just don’t eat it’ but at the same time they don’t make it any easier with the comments & assumptions. For example, someone who already knows about my condition once told me to ‘just eat’ the fatty Indian food (the only option available) at a pre-wedding event because I looked silly sitting there without a plate full of food. No one cared that I wasn’t eating because they were busy enjoying themselves anyway, but I still listened to this person & I ate it & did I get sick? Yes, because I didn’t want to make a scene. Did my pancreas hate me for it? Also, yes. I got so sick that I ended up missing the third wedding event the next day (a reminder that Indian weddings go on for several days due to different ceremonies & events). Anyway, if you think that’s bad, the day after I had a full on
episode of acute pancreatitis, bearing in mind, I was still incredibly sore, still throwing up & needed medical attention at this point, I was forced to go to the final event where there was more fried Indian food for brunch, which I was, again, forced to eat! However, this time I opted for plain, dry toast. I got weird looks from people who clearly have a problem with me being sick but I had to make a choice; look like the ‘awkward one’ or risk losing my life.
It’s sad that people, especially older South Asian women, still care more about what other people think & to them health comes second, whether it’s their own health or their loved ones’
It’s sad that people, especially older South Asian women, still care more about what other people think & to them health comes second, whether it’s their own health or their loved ones’
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Crafted by Hameem Kay