Seduced by local strawberries

                                         Joe, top, and Ben used to enjoy

                                                    strawberry picking.
I broke a rule this week. I have been very good at following my dietary restrictions, but I just had to have one forbidden fruit. At 100 days I was allowed to reintroduce almost all kinds of fruit, except for strawberries because they're hard to clean. Now it's local strawberry season, and I couldn't resist. They are so much better than winter strawberries, which are often anemic-looking and have very little taste. The locals are bright red and juicy and they smell and taste great...like summer, even though it's still spring.

I used to take the kids strawberry picking. Joe is now 19 and Ben 23, and they wouldn't think of going now. Back then we went to a nearby farm where you jumped on a wagon and the driver took you to the best fields for picking. Sometimes the kids couldn't help but sample a few. OK, it was hot, and we didn't last long, but we sure picked a lot of strawberries ...probably too many. Then the boys dropped out and Katie came with me. Now we buy them from the farmstands. In addition to having one of the best tastes ever, local strawberries bring back memories.

So I treated myself on the way back from the clinic Monday. I washed them and washed them and peered closely. They looked clean to me. We had them with biscuits and whipped cream and with waffles and maple syrup and just plain.

I was feeling a little guilty, though. I thought of Blanche DuBois saying, "I shall die of eating an unwashed grape out on the ocean."

We'll see. I will try not to gorge on them. Other fruit is tasting pretty good too. It's one of the things that go down easily.

Meanwhile, my platelets were back up to 21 at Monday's visit. Dr. Alyea was very pleased. I didn't really need a transfusion, but there were two bags waiting that were going to expire, so they gave them to me.

I am scheduled for my endoscopy on Friday. I have to go in earlier and get platelets. I have done some catastrophizing about what they will find, but I'm trying to live by the wise words that one woman said to another in the waiting room the other day.

The first woman said she was nervous about her test results.

The second woman said, "I try not to jump to any conclusions about my tests. You never know what they're going to say, so you might as well give up trying to figure it out beforehand."