Good news! I just got back from the hospital. Lots of surprises there - for one thing, Mrs D was completely wrong about the ward in question being only for women. Which is great, even though I suppose it could have made for an interesting exercise in self-observation under unusual circumstances. :P The doctor I spoke with seemed nice and did not act as though I'd just described some of the strangest symptoms in human history, which gave me a little hope.

The biggest surprise, however, was when he said that I might be admitted as early as one or two weeks from now! I still haven't finished adjusting to this unexpected turn of events. Since I'm going to see Timo on the 14th - more good news, yay - I asked them to note down that I didn't want to come until the 15th, but of course this doesn't mean that it's going to be that exact date. Maybe a day later, maybe a week later. I don't know, but I'll try to be more or less ready by then.

My night, on the other hand, really was a load of crap. At one point I had this extremely confusing dream in which I dreamed that I managed to deliberately wake myself up from a nightmare, which would have been amazing if it had been real! But nope, the scenario that I "woke up" to was merely yet another dream. :| Incidentally, the nightmare somehow involved Sam and Dean Winchester. And werewolves, but not like the ones from Supernatural. Honestly, my fandom dreams are never any fun ...

When my alarm rang, I turned it off, turned on the light and accidentally fell asleep again. Whoops. Fortunately it was only for 15 minutes.

Getting to the hospital and back was quite the journey because A first drove me to Mrs D's office, where we switched cars and Mrs D drove us the rest of the way, being the only person who actually knew how to get there. Now, Hamburg is pretty far off even without such interruptions, so all in all I was out there for four freaking hours. Wow. Not sure how much of that was spent waiting, though.

Once I knew that the whole thing was going to happen unexpectedly soon, it suddenly hit me that I would in fact be stuck in Hamburg for several weeks. The thought makes me a tad nervous, but then again, you know what's funny? The hospital is right in the neighbourhood of where I used to live as a baby. In fact I think it might be where my father used to work! And our old house might be within walking distance, so I could try to figure out how to get there. In case I get bored or something. Just to see if it still stands ... and if it's still uninhabited, rotting away like the last time I went to have a look.

Overall, I'm pretty excited. But also, uh, wow. WHERE DO I EVEN START.

I just started to try out one of the things that my mother's acquaintance told me about last week. There's this plant-based pulver powder (oops) that she takes every morning in place of a normal breakfast (you're technically allowed to eat breakfast in addition to it, but it's filling), which helps her so much that she's now almost completely painfree and even sleeps better. She did say that she also knows people for whom it didn't work, but there's no harm in trying.

You have to order it online, which I did right after she left. It seemed expensive at first glance, but the FAQ informed me that it's actually not because it lasts for about two months and will likely replace all the breakfast foods you would otherwise have to buy. Makes sense to me, except for the part where I'm mildly creeped out at the thought of never eating breakfast again. o_O

Yesterday I received my first 500g box of the stuff in the mail and a few hours ago I gave it a try. You have to stir a tablespoon of powder into a liquid of your choice, down it as fast as possible and then drink some more because it's slightly dehydrating. I went with water to find out what it would taste like on its own, but it turned out to be surprisingly bland, so I think I'll use oat milk tomorrow.

Of course I'm not feeling any effects yet. That's supposed to take a few days, but I was curious as to whether I would actually be satiated afterwards. It was interesting - I definitely noticed a reduction of hunger, but it felt odd without the presence of proper food in my stomach. It was like satiety slowly snuck up on me until I finally had to admit that it was in fact there. What a strange sensation.

Sadly the product's website is only available in German, but if I find that it helps me, I imagine I'll eventually end up translating what it is and how it (supposedly) works for those of you who don't happen to speak my native language.