Thank you for joining me on my journey with Breast Cancer. I know that God has brought us together as I go through my journey, I know each of you is going through your own journey, my prayers are with all of you.
All my life, I have been a Foodie. Everything Food, cooking, creating, eating, sharing 🙂 what can I say, I am Bohemian 🙂 It’s in my blood.
When they tell you your taste changes during chemo… That is an understatement… First, you seldom have an appetite because you aren’t feeling well, achy, flu-like symptoms aren’t condusive to wanting to prepare or eat food. But then you have those days that all of a sudden, you are starving for one of your favorite foods and can’t wait to have it. For me, I was seriously craving a smoked turkey and bacon sandwhich on garlic foccacia from South Union Bread cafe. This place is only open for lunch and only on Monday – Friday. On the day of the ‘craving’, I had a total of 27 minutes between meetings to get downtown to pick up a sandwhich. This is how it went down –
- Meeting ends,
- Jump in the car
- Drive downtown (4 minutes)
- get to restaurant
- Doors are locked, patrons inside
- knock on windows
- server opens door and i ask if i can get a sandwhich to go
- server checks if ovens are still on
- score, ovens are still on and i am going to get my sandwhich 🙂
- Order sandwhich,
- Drive back home
- on time for next meeting.
The entire time I am driving home and dialing into my meeting, I am smelling the sandwhich and can’t wait to bite into it. Ashamed to admit, my jowls are watering, just the thought of ‘the sandwhich’. Then it happens, finally a break in the call where I can mute my phone and dive into my coveted sandwhich. I take the first bite, expecting all the flavors that match smells. Bite, chew, chew, chew,… Where are the flavors… Not in first bite. Second bite, chew, chew, chew,… Ugh, still none of the flavors I am looking for, just the opposite 😦 try a couple more bites and give up on sandwhich 😦
This is one of the biggest downfalls of chemo for me. I love to cook, bake, eat and entertain. But when everything you make tastes bad, you are hesitant to give it to anyone 😦
Eating and Chemo in general, is not a good combination. Either you don’t feel well enough to want to eat and are working just to get protein and calories or… you finally feel well enough to want to eat and nothing is tasting the way you expect it to :-(. The Chemo cycle is one of losing weight (I tend to lose 5 pounds in the first week), working to gain the weight back before the next chemo. Last chemo, I hit my previous chemo weight the day before I went back to chemo.
I have three weeks between my chemo sessions. The first week is the bad, the second week better, the third week the best, i am just staring week three and it is when I start really feeling human again. I will have four more chemo sessions with the really bad drugs and side effects (as long as my blood counts stay where they need to be, i will be done with those in May). After the four, I will continue the rest of the year with a single drug that does NOT cause hair loss, which means my hair will start coming back 🙂 Yippee!!!! Hair is a really good thing to have on your head, especially if you are female, however, there are a few benefits 🙂 Yep, here we go with the silver linging –
- Save $$$’s on shampoo and conditioner
- Don’t have to spend time drying hair
- For me, don’t have to spend time flattening hair 🙂
- Haven’t had to shave my legs for a month and they are baby bottom smooth 🙂
- Shower time is wicked fast when you aren’t shaving hards of flesh, shampooing and conditioning 🙂
Signing off for today, wishing you all a wonderfully blessed journey in all that you do. May God always give you comfort, until next time. Happy Trails 🙂
iowagirlstrong 