柿のたたりは恐ろしい

All good things must come to an end. Persimmon season ended early for me this year as I, in my rush to eat as many fresh persimmon as possible in the next two weeks before we have to leave them to ferment as we heat to the US, had quite a scare last night.
Vomiting after gorging on any one particular fruit like I did only seems normal, and not being able to sleep because of the constant gurgling in my stomach and two potentially lethal stumbles down the stairs in the dark without my glasses to the toilet where all twenty-plus persimmon eventually ended up, is not frightening in itself.


What is frightening is that nausea is one of the symptoms of persimmon stones. A condition whereby the astringents in the persimmon bond with inedible material in the stomach creating a big rock that is too large to pass through the intestines.
This is apparently quite a common thing in Japan, especially in areas near persimmon orchards, and it does not take a lifetime of eating persimmon – it can happen if you just eat five persimmon once on an empty stomach, especially with the skins, as I do.

Sometimes they can use an endoscopic tool and smash it into pieces, but often it is too hard, so until recently, the only way to get rid of it was to cut the stomach open and pull it out. Then, some brilliant doctor heard that Coca cola will melt bones and decided to try it on a persimmon stone.
I was feeling better in the morning, but am stilled worried, so as a precautionary measure I have already chugged four two-liter bottles of Coke today. I am feeling a bit sick again (worse, in fact), so its back to the corner store for more. I won’t stop drinking Coke until this nausea subsides.
the photos are completely unrelated shots of Mona and Mom taking a walk.