Chicken scares me

@RunTheJulz Why don't you get an organic, grass-fed chicken from a high end gourmet store? Cook yourself a nice delicious stew that takes 3 hours of simmering to bring out the flavor. No under cooking ever.

@sree251 idk why. I do go to Whole Foods for most all my groceries but I have lost my appetite for chicken I guess. You’re right it’s definitely not impossible to get some safer chicken options but I don’t do it. My mom is usually the only person that I get anything chicken related from and she loves to stick her homemade soup in my freezer for when I’m overwhelmed and I just need something that I can heat and eat.

@RunTheJulz
Your mom is a good nurturer. Keeping home-made chicken soup in the freezer is a great idea. You don't sound like a mom yourself. If you are living by yourself, do as your mom does: make chicken soup and keep a few tubs in the freezer for a lazy, rainy day. Just heat up the soup, pour yourself a glass of wine, and you dine in style.

@sree251 You are correct in both accounts. My mom is an amazing cook who taught me lots of easy recipes and meals that I can make without much trouble and she has always been great nurturer.
I am not a mom and I usually live alone, but due to my disability (chronic pain syndrome) from several spinal injuries and a failed back surgery that’s now in need of a significant overhaul and replacement. Rainy days are typically the worst days for me because of my sensitivity to barometric pressure changes. I’ve been doing a lot more with vegetables lately which is both good and bad for me because it’s so easy to go from vegetarian to carbo-tarian and I have to focus on being a little more strict about that. When I get back to independent living I intend to focus on making more food and freezing it for my tougher days. I live at an altitude of 7600’ and I have an easy time with heating stuff up in roughly half the time it takes at sea level where I am currently living.

@RunTheJulz
How did you hurt your back? Are you in assisted living now? It's hard to live by yourself; especially, when you are not crazy about cooking. I enjoy cooking and do cook only because I prefer not to eat meals done by people I can't see doing that job. Restaurant kitchens are nothing like the great looking stuff they serve you in the dining room.

@sree251 I broke my L-5 vertebrae 4 times in 4 consecutive winters and I exploded the disc between my L-5 and S-1 and had to have a titanium fusion from L-4 to S-1 to keep the instability of my lower lumbar spine from doing anymore damage by slipping and causing a tremendous amount of pain and nerve damage.
I’m staying with my parents because it’s close to my doctors and to other professionals who help my manage my injuries and if I end up getting another surgery I can’t live at altitude until I have recovered because it slows down my recovery.
I enjoy cooking but it’s just not as easy as it once was before my back injuries were so painful.
I prefer to live alone when I’m able to.
I don’t eat out much either so I do make my own meals when I’m able to.
And yes I definitely understand that restaurant are not always as pretty as they would have you believe. I live in a mountain town that’s popular with tourists so I definitely couldn’t afford to eat out even if I wanted to.

@RunTheJulz
I don't mean to pry but am curious about how you wrecked your backbone so severely. Are you a sports person doing sky jumps or what?

@sree251 I was a little too confident in my abilities when I was younger and I was very competitive with the sports that were my primary interests and my passion. I did it snowboarding and mountain biking and at the time it was my profession and I loved it so much. Now it’s left a little more of a bitter taste but in my mid to late 20’s it was pretty sweet. I ended up getting back into it in my mid to late thirties and I just found out that I have broken the titanium fusion and I have burst all the discs above the fusion and below my thoracic level 10 and 11 vertebrae which means that my surgeon wants to remove the old titanium and replace it with about 8 levels of new titanium which means I won’t be able to bend at the waist for the rest of my life and I’m just not ready for that kind of restriction yet. So I’m trying my best to get by with maintenance like acupuncture and exercise for now. I’m hoping that I can stretch that out as long as possible too.

@RunTheJulz
You just found out about the broken titanium and burst discs? Was it an accident or did they all those discs break by themselves? You must have suffered a lot of pain. A friend of mine had a slipped disc and he was practically crawling around on the floor to avoid pain when moving around.

You are definitely a very driven person. I have watched snowboarding in the Olympics. You guys must be really pushing the limits. Don't you ever think of the downside and the consequences? This is not a criticism. I am basically a coward. I avoid risks. Not pushing the edge has downsides also. Could you tell me about your sense of confidence and not being hampered by fear of the consequences you are dealing with now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqrYr6Z_40c

@sree251 I don’t mean just yesterday but it’s a recent discovery. I didn’t think it was possible for me to break the fusion loose from the way that it’s literally drilled into my vertebrae with bone screws. But I am clear about the fact that it is not functional anymore. The disc situation was equally distressing and disappointing to hear about. The way that my pain went up from my usual level was enough to make it impossible to keep doing the things that I enjoyed and so I started looking for a doctor and was referred to the best surgeon in the area. He took his time getting as much information as possible in the fork of up to date scans of the problem area and after comparing them to the next most recent scans he was able to see what changed in my lower lumbar spine. It was both informative and upsetting to hear that I wasn’t just becoming hypersensitive to my usual level of pain but I had a lot of new damage and problems.
I wasn’t able to do things the way that I had done them before my first back surgery, I was able to get on the snow and on my bikes but not on consecutive days unless I really pushed myself and the snow was soft. I know I wasn’t able to ride my bike on consecutive days after I moved back up to the mountains. I had 6 good years and 2 terrible years and then I had to move back down because I couldn’t even get to the grocery store with the level of pain that I’m still currently in all the time now. I’m just not ready to get an 8-9 level titanium fusion installed through a small opening in my abdomen just below my navel and I don’t know if I ever will be. It comes with no guarantees of pain relief but it will certainly change my life and lifestyle. I was told no more bikes and no more snow and I might not even be comfortable sitting in a car let alone driving one. So that’s what I’m trying to weigh out. When do I get bad enough that I choose the only option left.
How I did that much damage to my reinforced but previously damaged spine is still a mystery to me and I was there. I probably carried too much weight in my backcountry pack and I rode too often but I felt like I was being significantly more careful and less aggressive than I had been in my career in my twenties. I do sometimes wonder how I wasn’t incredibly careful with such a precious thing but I was told that I would have that titanium in my body for the rest of my life and that I was as good as I ever could be made. My pain was still present but structurally I was solid and perhaps more so than ever. And yet I’m back to being unable to get out of bed on my worst days which is virtually every day now. Hopefully this answers your questions if not feel free to pm me and I can give you specifics. Hope you’re having a nice weekend. ☺️😊