A Feast While Fasting

On the eighth day after surgery, the tubes that had been coming out of my body were finally removed, leaving me connected only to an IV drip.

On this day, there was one other thing that left an impression on me that I still can't forget. Since my ileus (intestinal obstruction) was improving and the ileus tube had been removed, a herbal medicine was prescribed.

It was a medicine called Daikenchuto.

I was told to take this three times a day, two packets at a time.

By the way, it was the eighth day after surgery, and I was still fasting. The only things I could put in my mouth were water or tea.

Even though it was medicine, it was the first thing other than tea that I had put in my mouth in over a week. When I put the water in my mouth and washed it down,

Wow! This is delicious!!!!!!

The nurseHuh??

She looked at me with a very skeptical expression and said, 'Huh?' It was written all over her face that she had never seen anyone get so excited about taking medicine before.

No, it really was delicious. You know how herbal medicines have an image of being bitter and tasting strange? It's not like that; Daikenchuto is different. It has a sweetness mixed in with a slightly spicy kick.

But the nurse who was there at the time didn't understand this excitement. I tried to tell her, but she didn't get it.

Oh well, I'll try telling another nurse. The next day, when a different nurse came to my room, I said, 'This medicine is delicious!'

Then, that nurse seemed to understand and said, 'Ah, that. Well... I'm not really supposed to tell you this as a nurse, but since it has 'to' (decoction) in the name, it might be okay to dissolve it in hot water and drink it.' She pushed aside the legal constraints, whatever they may be, and gave me some interesting advice.

I immediately put it into practice. I dissolved the Daikenchuto in hot water, blew on it to cool it down, and drank it. I repeat, it was my eighth day of fasting, so it had been a long time since I had anything with flavor in my mouth.

It's incredibly delicious!!!!!!

I got it, I got it. This is 'ameyu' (candy water). Since ameyu might be a local drink in the Kansai region, I'll add that it's ginger tea. I don't really know the difference between ameyu and ginger tea, though.

By the way, although you don't see it much lately, in the Kansai region, a drink called 'hiyashi-ame' (chilled candy water), which is chilled ameyu, used to be sold at shop fronts in shopping arcades during the summer. I have memories of having it bought for me when I went shopping with my mother.

It was in a machine that looked like a large juicer, with well-chilled hiyashi-ame inside a container, being stirred around and around. If anyone reading this article knows what I'm talking about, please let me know that you understand.

And so, having been prescribed a delicious, flavorful drink for the first time in a while, I found myself looking forward to taking my herbal medicine three times a day.

An epilogue.

Three months after being discharged, I went to the hospital for a checkup.
I felt a sense of relief, as if I had returned to my old stomping grounds or was revisiting a school I had graduated from.

When I complained to the doctor, saying, "My stomach has been hurting for a long time," he replied,
"Well then, I'll prescribe the medicine you were taking while you were hospitalized,"
and he gave me a prescription.

After waiting for an agonizingly long time to pay, I took the prescription and headed to the pharmacy in front of the hospital.

I was called over after quite a long wait, and when I went to the counter...
the pharmacist was holding a paper bag filled to the brim.

One of those paper bags you get at department stores like Daimaru or Takashimaya.
This is a pharmacy, right?
When I opened it, to my surprise,

I had bought a massive supply of herbal medicine.

I don't feel like it's ever going to run out.

Moreover, three months later, when I went to the hospital for another checkup, the doctor said,
"I don't really like that medicine. Let's try changing it,"
and I stopped taking it.

Then don't prescribe it in the first place.

Even now, two boxes of Daikenchuto are taking up space on my shelf at home.