Maybe it really does stick to my ribs. They say oatmeal fills you up and keeps you going all morning. I’ve never been a breakfast eater – I simply don’t feel hunger till I’ve been up for a few hours – but as I get wiser I understand that sometimes food isn’t a treat so much as it is medicine, or fuel, and I have to ingest it even if I don’t desire it. So I’ve been forcing a small breakfast in, and I have observed that oatmeal lasts longer than yogurt or cold cereal.

But what impels me to type these words isn’t the nutritive properties of the porridge. Eight weeks ago I fell down, hard, on the sidewalk. I walk for transportation, so I have many opportunities to trip on uneven pavement. Usually I do the stumble-and-recover dance, and don’t smash my body on the concrete, but accidents will happen. This time I whacked my right knee and pancaked the nerves between the skin and patella. It’s like stroking a stranger’s knee. I have full movement and no pain, but it will probably be a year before I regain feeling.

In addition to the knee impact, I suffered the side wrench. I felt something give in my left rib area and about two days later it revealed itself as a bad pain. It hurt to breathe deeply. I couldn’t sleep on my left side. I even saw the doctor about it; he thinks I tore muscle.

I’m getting better. But while in the ow-y phase I discovered that the act of ingesting oatmeal produced immediate relief in my side. It was as if the cereal went straight to the wound and applied itself as a poultice. Ahhh!

It’s easy to make great oatmeal. If you don’t cook it, you won’t create lumps or gooeyness. Use regular rolled oats (quick oats are too flimsy and steel cut are too hard). Boil a cup of water per serving. When the water is hot, add half as much rolled oats as water, stir, cover, and turn off the heat. Walk away for 15 minutes. The steeping oatmeal will absorb the water and plump into nutty, lump-free consistency. It’s true that it won’t be very hot at the end of the 15 minutes, but that’s when I add raisins and brown sugar and buzz the brew with heat while stirring. The raisins plump, the sugar melts, and the oatmeal warms.

I pour my breakfast into a bowl and add a splash of milk. I throw in a spoonful of chopped nuts if I have any around. Seriously yum.