Runner bean Drama!
by Growing Flowers
I have had lots of time to think today. I haven’t gotten out of my bed and haven’t even ventured into the kitchen or living room or anywhere. I love my bed and am perfectly happy to lie here, propped up by an insane amount of pillows looking out my windows. It’s yellow and green out there. (Still.) The sunflowers are still perky and bright – and the chamisa is on fire.
I am recovering from a harrowing, but quick poisoning by the lowly pole bean -runner beans as they are also called. It’s a boring story, although while I was in it, it felt like the craziest thing that had ever happened to my body besides labor – and the comparison is an interesting one. I had always wanted to know what it would be like to have Joan as my midwife and now I do know. I also know what it feels like to be in the “green room” in the fetal position, or more accurately in the Trendlenburg position and barely aware of people coming in and out of the room. Sweet Dahna stroked my hair and forehead, Joan started the IV, Kaya discussed making noodles and she smelled faintly like noodles. I vomited so many times – I couldn’t even believe it when my body would seize up again. I do remember some of my thoughts going through my head – wondering if I was going to die of Green Beans. I had recently told someone that I wouldn’t mind being killed by a Mountain Lion – that felt like an honorable way to go. But I’m not so sure Green Beans would make me feel quite so proud.
Did you know that raw runner beans are poisonous? I didn’t. Spread the word, ’cause it is no fun and could have been worse! Runner beans have a poisonous toxin rendered benign when cooked.
The beans contain a toxic agent called phytohaemagglutinin, or lectin. It causes red blood cells to clump together, resulting in nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. They (Lectins) bind to intestinal cells preventing nutrient absorption and, when they enter the blood stream, they also bind to red blood cells. This causes the red blood cells to clump together, a process referred to as “agglutination”, rendering them useless. Symptoms of “bean poisoning” occur 1-3 hours after consumption, entailing extreme nausea, severe vomiting, followed by diarrhoea and severe abdominal pain.
It’s true. So I spent the day in bed today – drinking peppermint tea with honey, eating quinoa with butter and salt! Oh for the love of salt! And a piece of freshly baked bread with butter. Not bad. I read, wrote emails, dozed and generally recuped. I thought lovingly of Joan, Dahna and Falko, all who weren’t scared of my crazy vomiting. Fell in love with my midwives! Lizards ran across the adobe wall and the girls were well occupied. I heard the cuisinart whirring at Dee’s cabin all day and could truly smell the wafting of the basil. Dee and Treska made bags and bags of pesto to put up for the winter. Treska harvested her basil and they chopped and mixed all day. And I could smell it! Heaven….
I’m not minding languishing in bed, but am desperately not wanting to miss a birth. So little babies, stay put in your sweet mama’s bellies for a few more nights. Ok?
[...] ever had! I made it home after calling in Madrona to take over the birth. It definitely beat my “runner bean incident.” Hands down – a million times [...]