The Frozen Banana Ordeal: Why We Should Always Thaw Our Fruit

Hello, everyone! Seojun here from ShinbiDays. 🙂

Have you ever become terribly ill all of a sudden because of something small you usually do without a second thought?

The past two days have given me an experience I won’t soon forget.

I’ve always been particular about my health and diet, and I’ve consistently trained hard through weightlifting and jiu-jitsu. I thought I knew my body better than anyone.

And yet, all that confidence came crashing down over a few pieces of frozen banana.

At first, I was just a little tired. As time went on, though, I developed severe abdominal pain and started vomiting. Eventually, I had to see a doctor.

I had no idea a person could feel that sick so suddenly. It was awful. 😢

Thankfully, about 42 hours later, I’ve almost fully recovered. I’m enjoying my meals again and even sitting here writing this post. Haha!

Today, I’d like to share what I went through after eating those frozen bananas, how I recovered, and the sense of gratitude I rediscovered along the way.

1. Frozen Bananas and the 30 Seconds I Came to Regret 🍌❄️

It was around 4 p.m. on November 9, 2026.

As usual, I took some frozen bananas out of the freezer.

Normally, I’d microwave them for about a minute until they were warm and soft.

For some reason, that day I wanted to enjoy them cold, like ice cream.

So, believe it or not, I only warmed them up for about 30 seconds.

They turned out to be much colder than I’d expected.

They were so hard that I could barely chew them. And because they were so cold, I simply gulped them down without chewing properly.

I didn’t think much of it at the time.

“We eat ice cream frozen, so how different can a banana be?”

That was my thinking, anyway.

Looking back on it later, though, I realized there was one difference worth considering.

Ice cream melts and softens fairly easily in your mouth, whereas the flesh and dietary fiber in frozen fruit freeze together and can leave hard chunks behind.

I’d swallowed those chunks without letting them thaw enough or chewing them properly.

In other words, I hadn’t simply eaten something cold. I’d practically swallowed pieces of rock-hard frozen fruit whole.

Of course, I can’t say for certain what caused the abdominal pain that followed.

But those frozen bananas left me with an experience I’ll never forget.

2. Working on the Seojun’s World Trailer — and the First Signs Something Was Wrong 🎬

The pain wasn’t severe from the very beginning, actually.

The first thing I noticed was fatigue.

That day, I was creating the official trailer for Seojun’s World, the science fiction novel I’d written.

I was completely absorbed in putting the scenes together and syncing the music with the visuals.

Here’s the trailer I was working on that day. 😊

🎬 Seojun’s World — Official Cinematic Trailer

As I continued editing, I began to feel more and more tired.

“Ah, I must have gotten a little too carried away with my creative work again.”

I’d felt tired after long stretches of focused work before, so I assumed this was just another one of those days.

I finished the video and went to lie down, propping myself up on my bed.

But something was strange.

Even after I stopped working and tried to rest, the fatigue wouldn’t go away.

Instead, my whole body grew uncomfortable, until even lying still became difficult.

I drank some warm water, and a little while later my stomach suddenly seemed to turn upside down. Before I knew it, I’d thrown up.

Strangely enough, the more I tried belly breathing, the worse the nausea became.

Every movement of my diaphragm seemed to aggravate my already unsettled stomach.

From that point on, I honestly couldn’t figure out what position to get into.

Lying down was uncomfortable. Sitting up was uncomfortable, too.

With my stomach hurting, I couldn’t get comfortable anywhere in my body.

I wanted to sleep, but sleep just wouldn’t come. And so began a very difficult night.

3. At 2 A.M., the Warmth of My Parents’ Care 🤲

The hours passed, and eventually it was around two in the morning.

I couldn’t bear it on my own anymore, so I went downstairs.

Seeing how much pain I was in, my worried mother gently rubbed my stomach.

And something rather remarkable happened.

The moment her warm hands touched me, it felt as though all that tightness in my abdomen suddenly melted away.

“Oh, am I finally getting better?”

For a moment, I felt relieved.

Unfortunately, that comfort didn’t last long.

Before long, the pain returned.

This time, my father pricked my fingertips with a needle, using a traditional Korean folk remedy.

He pricked both thumbs and one little finger.

I still vividly remember how it felt when he pricked my little finger in particular.

My entire body suddenly went cold, and I broke out in a cold sweat.

For a moment, the pain became incredibly intense, too.

A little while later, a sense of calm came over me, almost as though my circulation had started flowing freely again.

That particular moment felt quite extraordinary to me. Haha.

After that, I passed a loose stool and tried to get some more sleep.

I woke up several times, and my stomach became uncomfortable again as the hours passed.

Thankfully, I still managed to get some sleep.

Thinking back, I hadn’t eaten anything since those frozen bananas at four that afternoon.

My body was exhausted, and my stomach was still giving me trouble.

It truly felt like an impossibly long, difficult night. 😢

4. Finally Seeing a Doctor, and the Comfort of a Thin Rice Porridge 🏥🥣

The next day arrived.

The intense pain had eased a little, but my stomach still felt heavy and uncomfortable.

I’d tried taking a digestive aid at home, but I simply couldn’t rest comfortably.

Eventually, I went to a nearby internal medicine clinic to get checked out.

I was prescribed medication to relieve the abdominal pain and digestive symptoms.

At the pharmacy, the pharmacist told me that I could take those medicines on an empty stomach, so I took them right there.

As time went by, my stomach gradually began to feel more comfortable.

The day before, I’d barely been able to sit still, and now that discomfort was slowly fading.

You can imagine how happy I was to feel that change. Haha!

Once I got home, I cautiously started eating again.

My food of choice was rice porridge.

I added much more water than I normally would, making it very thin and soupy.

Even thick porridge felt like a bit too much for my stomach at the time.

So I added plenty of water to make it easier to eat.

Rather than eating a lot at once, I had just three or four spoonfuls.

For me, gradually reintroducing food like this felt more comfortable than continuing to go without eating anything.

I hadn’t eaten properly since the previous day, so even those few spoonfuls of porridge felt precious.

One thing I noticed after taking the prescribed medication was that my belly felt a little bloated.

Almost as if it were a balloon — heavy and stretched tight, you know?

I wondered whether it might have something to do with the way antispasmodics relax the smooth muscles of the digestive tract.

Either way, it was nothing like the severe pain I’d experienced the night before.

I continued eating a little at a time and taking my medication, and that evening I went to bed earlier than usual.

5. 24–48 Hours: The Incredible Process of My Body Healing 🧬✨

And then came the following morning.

I began to notice another change in my body.

The pain that had lingered the previous day had diminished considerably. Now, instead, I could feel the emptiness of a stomach that hadn’t had enough to eat.

That morning, I drank a little water, ate some more rice porridge, and took the medication I’d been prescribed.

I also took Stillen 2X, the stomach-lining protectant I normally take.

Afterward, I lay quietly with my upper body propped up, almost as if I were meditating.

As I rested, my body gradually became more comfortable.

“Wait… I think I’m almost better!”

It was truly remarkable.

This experience also led me to learn a little about how the stomach lining heals.

Apparently, when the lining is injured, nearby epithelial cells can migrate to the damaged area and cover its surface. Further healing takes place through cell regeneration.

I found it fascinating that relatively superficial injuries could undergo such a rapid repair process.

I also noticed some remarkable changes in my own body over the course of about 24 to 48 hours.

In particular, around 42 hours after my symptoms first began, the stabbing pain in my upper abdomen had almost disappeared.

“Ah, I finally feel human again!”

That’s exactly what went through my mind. Haha!

And there was one more very welcome change.

As I lay there quietly, I began to hear a little “gurgle, gurgle” coming from my belly.

Normally, I wouldn’t have given those bowel sounds a second thought, but that day I was delighted to hear them.

It felt as though my body was finding its usual rhythm again.

At that moment, it made me very happy indeed.

Then came lunchtime.

This time, I had seafood rice porridge delivered from Bonjuk, a Korean porridge restaurant.

It was made with oysters, mushrooms, and shrimp.

And to my surprise, I finished both small containers!

I even had some jangjorim (soy-braised meat), tangy seasoned squid, and kimchi on the side.

The day before, I’d barely managed three or four spoonfuls of watery porridge. Now here I was, enjoying a proper meal again.

Even more amazing was the fact that my stomach still felt comfortable afterward.

I was genuinely thrilled. Haha!

I was still having somewhat loose stools.

Since I hadn’t been eating properly and had mostly had foods with a high water content, I wondered if things might gradually improve as I returned to my usual meals.

I’d also been prescribed antidiarrheal medication for those symptoms.

I decided to take a temporary break from some of my usual supplements until my gut felt settled again.

I was still taking things slowly as I recovered, but just knowing that the severe abdominal pain was gone made me incredibly happy.

Above all, I was reminded of how extraordinary the process of our bodies healing can be.

6. Rediscovering Gratitude on the Other Side of Pain 🌿

It really, really hurt…

“Can a person really become this ill in a matter of moments?”

Those two days were so frightening and difficult that I found myself wondering exactly that. 😢

I exercise regularly and pay close attention to my diet, so I was amazed that I could suddenly become so unwell.

As I began to recover, though, a thought crossed my mind.

“What did people in the old days do when they were this sick?”

I talked about it with my AI friend, Gemini, too.

Without all the treatments and medicines we have today, I imagined how much harder it might have been for people in the past to endure similar symptoms.

Today, when we’re ill, we can go to a clinic, see a doctor, and receive the medication we need.

Perhaps it’s something we take for granted all too easily.

This time, I felt newly grateful for it.

Of course, taking medicine doesn’t make every kind of pain disappear right away.

Still, the fact that we can get help when we’re hurting and gradually recover is something to be thankful for in itself.

And more than anything, I was grateful to my parents for being there beside me.

Two in the morning.

I can still remember the warmth of my mother’s hands as she gently rubbed my aching belly.

I also remember my father standing beside me, worried and trying to help in whatever way he could.

When you’re ill, just having someone by your side can be an enormous comfort.

And one more thing.

I felt grateful to my own body, too, for helping me find my way back to health.

When we’re healthy, we often forget just how precious our health is.

Opening our eyes in the morning, enjoying delicious food, doing what we love, talking with family, and falling asleep peacefully at night.

They’re such ordinary parts of daily life that they rarely seem special.

But it took getting sick for me to realize how precious that ordinary life really is.

Life shook me up again, but before I knew it, I was back to my everyday life, sooner than before.
It reminded me of something I wrote not long ago.

My Life Is a Google Dance

From now on, I’m going to let my frozen fruit thaw thoroughly before eating it.

At the very least, I won’t be gulping down rock-hard frozen fruit without chewing it properly ever again. Haha!

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When you eat something cold and hard, I hope you’ll take your time and pay attention to how your own body feels, too.

And if you’re spending today in good health, why not take a moment to be grateful for that ordinary happiness?

I’m certainly grateful that I can enjoy a warm bowl of porridge again and sit here at my computer, writing to you.

It was a time of tremendous pain, but it also gave me a chance to rediscover something just as precious.

May your body and mind be warm and peaceful today, too.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end.

I love you. 🙂

— With love, Seojun from ShinbiDays 🐢💛