Simmering On Low Still Has The Potential To Be Hot AF

Accidents happen and patience is a virtue.

Bottom line: Make sure your hot food cools down before placing it in your mouth - and never, ever take a spoonful from the pot... unless you've made sure it doesn't have the potential to scald you. 

Seek help when something doesn’t seem right - even if it shows your flaws/stupidity/impatience to the world - because it’s better to be safe than sorry.

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On Saturday night I burned the roof of my mouth. BADLY.

The culprit, a tortilla chip topped with delicious chili straight from the pot, that had been simmering on low.

It was my fault. I’d thawed out, delicious frozen homemade chili, and had it on a low simmer. 

10 minutes earlier it wasn’t hot. 5 minutes earlier it was tepid. 5 minutes after that, DEFCON 5, but by then it was too late. 5 minutes does indeed make all the  difference.

What happened wasn’t pretty, it hurt like a MOFO - I could literally feel the top of my mouth swelling on one side.  It was searing pain and also felt like half my throat was closing.

I wondered about going to UrgentCare, and after reading about mouth burns and infections on Dr. Google, I went - and even though I felt like a fucking idiot.

The Good news: Thanks to the playoff game - the place was empty and the UrgentCare team was kind - assuring me that I wasn’t the only person to end up there because of a hot meal.

The Dr. looked in my mouth with some periscope like instrument whose name I can’t remember; shook his head, and kindly confirmed that I had "a hell of a burn on the roof of my mouth.”  

He wrote and filled an Amoxicillin RX (apparently, Amoxicillin is a great drug for mouth injuries,) and gave me detailed directions on how to take care of my burn.

Directions including: take my antibiotics until I’d finished them; rinsing out my mouth with saline water rinses (made with only distilled water,)  hourly, over the counter pain meds, which I did my best not to take.

Lastly, he put the kibosh on tomatoes, crunchy/sharp foods, (chips, crackers, toasted anything,) acidic/fermented foods. And absolutely no citrus, no spice, no hot temp foods,(only tepid,) and NO CHILI.

For the record: I never realized how much crunchy, spicy, citrus, vinegar foods I actually eat.

I’m sharing for several reasons.

1. The burn happened in seconds and started blistering up immediately.  

I felt like I had something stuck to the roof of my mouth - that something was a HUGE BLISTER.

2. Pride almost prevented me from seeking medical attention - and that’s not good - and had the potential to be REALLY BAD.

Burns can get infected easily and let's face it, the mouth isn’t the cleanest place, and people with diabetes need to be weary of infections.  

I didn’t want to go and like I stated earlier. I felt so f^cking stupid. 
But I popped some ice cubes in my mouth and went - and I’m glad I did.

3. The roof of my mouth peeled Saturday and Sunday (SO GROSS,) and my blood sugars were elevated for two days.

Part of that might have been due to the fatty foods I was forced to eat - I don't know.

I couldn’t sleep and would wake up in the middle of the night to rinse out my peeling mouth with cold, salt water.

4. I was miserable.  

Thankfully, yesterday was a holiday and I was able to sleep most of the day away.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a friend on FB’s advice and bought the ingredients for Magic Mouthwash - liquid benadryl mixed with Maalox,  and made a mouth rinse that helped ease the pain, topically.

As much as I love ice cream, yogurt, cheese, and bread topped with butter, eating a combo of the afore mentioned at every meal (and in frigid temps,) gets old fast.

As does rinsing your mouth out with distilled water and salt every couple of hours and only drinking only distilled water because, germs.

Today I woke up and I could tell I’d turned a corner - my blood sugar was normal and my mouth wasn’t the first thing I noticed when I woke up.

I drank warmish coffee with cream and sugar instead of iced coffee and got back to business and in all dimensions.

5 minutes ago I gingerly ate a Kind Bar as my snack (and without much pain,) because that's all I had on hand - LITTLE VICTORIES. 

Burns are no joke - be careful, put your pride in your pocket and go with your gut.

If you question that you might need to go to UrgentCare - GO. 

Take your meds, check your blood sugars often, and last but certainly not least - take my new mantra to heart: 

Simmering on low still has the potential to be hot AF."

And of course I'm not only talking about food - but that's for another blog post, entirely~

via Diabetesaliciousness