A change of diet

Desert rose or Adenium obesum, beautiful and impressive pink blooms - signifies compassion, nurturing and love....the background of this blog and my intention.

Finally my sabbatical leave was approved! I was feeling excited, ecstatic, exhilarated. It was exactly the same feeling when you get a manuscript accepted by the journal of your choice! Anyway, such feeling only lasts initially for a few hours and subsequently to within minutes, and you will be back to earth again, i.e working on the next paper. This is an example of tolerance in academia!

My first sabbatical leave after 10 good years with the university. I chose Germany for a 6-month stint in an electrophysiology lab. I desperately needed to learn some essential skills and additional results to publish a pending paper. I have been to Germany a couple of times, I love the place, the transport system and the environment. 

I still remember when I arrived at Frankfurt airport in the morning of 29^th September 2014, carrying two large suitcases looking confused and bewildered. I was waiting for ICE1521 Deutsche Bahn bound for Wurzburg. Frankly, I pretended that I understood the train charts and the platform well. I stood confidently at the waiting gleis and when the train finally arrived, wagon No 31 stopped right in front of me! That was definitely bad news. My seat was located in wagon No 21! 

I ran with the luggage. I have to get into any wagon nearest to me because the train started to move in less than a minute or two. I got in and I have to thank my lucky star, a kind young man volunteered to drag my luggage all the way to the end of the train, where my seat number was located. Who would have done that in Malaysia! I nearly gave him a kiss on the feet but I restrained myself. I guess he wouldn’t bear to see a very confused and pale woman standing in the middle of nowhere. 

The moment I stepped out from the train onto the arrival platform at Wurzburg Hbf, I saw a familiar figure. He was already there waiting for me. We exchanged greetings and he immediately brought me to a nice one-bedroom university apartment, my home for the next 6 months. There was no time to waste as we went straight to lunch, a Chinese meal, to my disappointment! I was expecting something local! Next on the itinerary was a 2 hour orientation around the university, a brief introduction to his colleagues and finally a stroll down the town, including an introduction to the famous wurst stall right at the center of the market! Nah, sausage buns not my cup of tea. Everything were settled within half a day, including my monthly tram tickets. Efficient Germans! Well, I was exhausted but I am forever grateful to this dear professor for his hospitality.

I like my apartment, the bed and view. I do have a little kitchen where I prepare most of my dinner. I frequently hang out at a supermarket near my apartment after work, looking and studying the nicely arranged fresh produce and chocolates. I was "almost" a vegetarian during my stay in Germany. The fresh milk was cheap, about 1.5 € per litre and since my monthly allowances were limited, milk would be a perfect food to fill my tummy every morning! I need to survive for 6 months and I need cheap food. The organic canned pestos were an excellent addition to my boiled vegetables. I took brussel sprouts, carrots, broccoli and spinach and a whole lot of other greens every day. My blood sugar was also nicely controlled. Being a prediabetic for the past few years, indicators such as not having drowsiness 1-2 hours after a main meal means I am doing fine. As for lunch, we eat at the cafeteria. I usually take fish and avoided other meat products and heavy carbs like mashed potatoes or fries. I had beef and duck once, probably during X'mas time. 

Poached salmon and vegetables 

Poached vegetables with nuts

My favourite yogurt

To simply sum up my diet during the short stay, dairy products (milk, cheese, butter and yogurt) and eggs were a significant addition. I had plenty of vegetables and big portions of apples, bananas, walnuts, almonds and other fruits too. I go for 1-2 hour walk in the park at least twice weekly. I thought I had a pretty healthy lifestyle there. However, I am fully aware that dairy products were never part of my daily diet in Malaysia.

As a scientist, I have conveniently forgotten to observe the changes in my own body and never took the effort to understand the cause and effects of such changes. As far as I remembered, I used to suffer from premenstrual congestion of the breasts. I did not bother to find out why…I brushed aside the symptoms and thought to myself, “I guess this is normal…, it will go away once the period starts”. Yes indeed. I remembered having painful engorged and enlarged breasts, uncomfortable but tolerable enough to ignore the pain. Well, I guess that was a silly and expensive mistake.

I had a fibroadenoma removed from my right breast more than 15 years ago.  I have been routinely seeing the same surgeon for regular check-ups since then. He did a brilliant job in removing my fibroadenoma, and thus, to consult him has never been an issue.  

The cool-looking surgeon quipped, “Hmm…looking at your ultrasound images, you do have bilateral breast cysts, some are bleeding inside, some are rather large and some are small”. “Ok, what should I do?”, I asked. 

“Hmm, there is nothing much we can do at this moment and I wouldn’t recommend surgery as they will come again, depending on your hormones. You will get better once you reach menopause when the hormone factory slows down”. “I’ll see you again in 6 months”. 

Each consultation hardly took more than 5 minutes. Well, that was a few weeks before I went to Germany. Unfortunately, I did not see him after 6 months, I saw him 2 years later.

When I returned home in early 2015, I continued with the same lifestyle. Butter on my bread was too much a temptation to miss. Freshly brewed coffee or cocoa mixed with fresh milk became my breakfast for the past 2 years. The Australian fresh milk gave such nice and thick foam when steamed using the steam wand of the coffee machine. The fresh milk really enhanced the sensory experience of the coffee brewed from the expensive Jamaican Blue Mountain beans….something I look forward to every morning. Little did I realize that I was sipping myself to sickness.