Happy Jackson Snack Boxes #66

A simple salad (lettuce, red pepper, grape tomatoes, and maybe a cucumber slice somewhere) leftover from a work event, some Italian dressing, cracked wheat crackers, a double chocolate almond energy ball, a cranberry white chocolate pistachio energy ball, some of my sunflower seed spread, orange slices, and pineapple chunks.

I'm getting more into energy balls lately, in part because of a new medical development. After a lot of conversations with a lot of different doctors (I have so many to visit anyway I didn't add in anybody new, so I have that going for me, but this has been a come-and-go issue with me for a few years now and is getting worse), it was my dentist who told me I have another weird, rare, incurable disorder: Geographic Tongue. When I'm having a bad flare, anything hot, acidic, spicy, or salty makes eating really painful. That leaves cold (or just not hot) and bland or sweet things, mostly, though I'm still experimenting. Oranges and pineapple are really too acidic, and were probably a mistake on a day I was flaring; I was too optimistic.

I loved both of these energy balls and will be making them again, and you'll begin to see a lot more of them in my future, tongue issues or not, because they're easy to make and can cover a lot of my nutritional bases without me having to actually cook things. This is good for when I am weak, as well as when my tongue is oddly angry. Some of them are also good for difficult swallowing days, though these chunky ones aren't especially good for that. Here's hoping my mini food processor holds up! When I have especially good experiments I'll give you recipes.

A mini rant: Geographic tongue is not life-threatening and doesn't really do much other than make my tongue lose some of its taste buds temporarily, turn red, and hurt a lot. It is also a malady that much more commonly afflicts women than men. It may be related to autoimmune disorders. Doctors seem unconcerned about it, nobody knows what causes it, and there is no treatment for it. I have to believe that if it were mostly men who were having this happen, just as I believe if it were mostly young men and not young women who get the bizarre intermittent weakness and paralysis that comes with myathenia gravis, it would have been studied more and we'd have better answers and better treatment. Weak women who can't eat aren't considered a problem; both things conform to gender stereotype in different ways.

The good news is that my flares are rarely severe for very long, and I'm learning how to take care of myself even if the doctors aren't interested. Why is this the story of my life?