Penangan Durian

Writing this in between a bout of coughing fits. And it is all the durian’s fault.

I have always been resilient towards durian. Being a hantu durian, makan 10 pun takde hal lah. 10 biji durian tau. Bukan 10 ulas. I used to be the first one to dive into the durian, and the last to stop. Memang durian buffets would rugi besar if they had to host customers like me. When I was small, my mum used to jokingly say, “Sapa lah nak kawin dengan anak Mama nie... suka makan makanan yang mahal mahal!” She was affectionally referring to my love of sharks fin soup and durians.

Throughout this pregnancy, I’ve indulged in durians a few times. But because of the exorbitant price, the quantity was always moderate in nature. Memang lah rasa panas and gassy, but I made sure that I drank a lot of water to reduce the after effects. Baby pun ok; normal movements post durian hence nothing to be exceptionally concerned about.

Recently, the price of durian dropped significantly due to oversupply. I was ecstatic! Knowing that I was just two months away from the dreaded 44 days pantang, I vowed to have 44 days worth of durians before I popped. Ok I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean.

It all started with a neighbour who offered to bring durians from her kampung. I in turn offered my house as host for the durian party. So that night I feasted on durian kampung. First to start and the last to stop. The next day, I hosted a farewell lunch for a staff of mine who explicitly wanted to have durians at SS2. Since the company was paying, memang gluttony took over and again I was the last to give in. Bought some for Hubby to have that night at home and made some pulut to go with it. I had like three helpings of it for dinner. By the way, our way of having pulut durian is to have the pulut with raw durian, drizzled with santan and a sprinkle of sugar. Smush it all together and eat it like you would makan nasi berlauk. All that serawa or pengat durian doesn’t even come close to this. *drool* So in a nutshell, in a span of 24hours I literally overdosed myself with durians. 

Sebakul durian kampung sitting in my garden.

Ian accompanied me to SS2.

That night I started feeling the horrible after effects. My throat was so sore to the point that the next morning I woke up with no voice. The sore throat further developed into a horrible cough till I think I even ruptured a blood vessel in my nose because I started spewing out bloody mucus. But the phelgm was the worst. It made me cough so hard that my ribs and tummy hurt (I was so worried for baby AY!), plus I couldn’t breathe whenever I was horizontal. I would cough so hard in the middle of the night, panicking with my arms flailing everywhere trying to get Hubby to wake up to help me up as I couldn’t breathe. My phlegm was so thick that I would gag myself in the morning and force out greenish phlegm the size of 20cent coins. It was crazy!!! Menyesal gila melantak durian, memang taubat tak nak sentuh dah. If anything happens to baby AY due to my durian gluttony, I’ll never ever forgive myself!

It has been about a week of torture. My flu and thick phlegm are now gone but the coughs are still insisting on staying. I’ve been sleeping on the recliner chair for the past 4 days because I still cannot be horizontal. Also, with just a simple nudge the recliner chair retracts itself up which helps me get up in the middle of the night whenever I cough and cannot breathe.

Honestly, I miss my bed. I miss being able to spread myself out and turn left or right to my heart’s content. But one thing that I don’t miss, is the king of fruits.

Farewell durian, see you again at the end of the year, post pantang!