<p>Dearest sunrise, remember that your body needs the nutrition for healing, even if you are not hungry. You don’t want to get into vitamin deficiencies on top of what the chemo is doing to you. </p>
<p>However, certain drugs that stimulate the munchies could elicit some rather interesting posts from you! :D</p>
<p>May all be blessed with the love of family, friends and good health in the coming year.</p>
<p>I just want you to know that I am reading every post.</p>
<p>Sunrise: I wish that I lived near you. When I was undergoing chemo I stopped eating. I am not thin so this was an easy “diet”. The minor problem was that the doctor threatened to put me in the hospital to iv feed me. My girlfriend (who’s mother died of breast cancer many years ago) came over and planted herself in front of me. She brought fresh orange juice, ice cream and some dim sum. (Stuff she knew I’d eat.) She sat there for three hours while I struggled to eat…and then made sure that I kept it down.</p>
<p>So, think of me sitting next to you, making small talk and watching every morsel go in your mouth. Each bite is one closer to health. Eat. Oh yes, drink lots of liquids.</p>
<p>I was thinking about you today and hoping you’d check in. So glad you did.</p>
<p>thinking of you, and visualizing some appetizing servings of good food for your nourishment and to bless your body as you bravely accept this treatment regimen and fight for your health. Please keep posting.</p>
<p>Wish you lived when and where I did during my chemo…strawberry shakes at Sonic. If you are from the south you understand. Full fat, lots of carbs, spoon it into your mouth after you drop off the pre-school carpool and just rest for a while . Sorry, that was me, not you.
Back to the regular discussion…</p>
<p>If you don’t eat, the body doesn’t produce the energy (glucose) it needs for proper functioning. If you are slim and don’t have stored fat (easily converted to glucose,) the body suffers. I imagine your doctors covered this and suggested the right minimum nutrition-? I’m not a pro at this, just learned how this works related to diabetes. You don’t want to jeopardize the right energy available to critical functioning. Wishing you the best. And, Happy New Year.</p>
<p>When I was sick, I found it easier to tolerate smoothies (very cold, tart fruit), just like dragonmom. Pineapple and orange juice smoothies were my favorite. If I had to eat, key lime pie Yoplait yogurt.
I admire your spirit, sunrise!</p>
<p>I have a friend who is fighting gastric cancer and I’m making him angel food cakes. They are light and easy to nibble. A bit of protein too with 12 egg whites in a cake. I wish I lived close enough to make you one.</p>
<p>Would Matzo Ball Soup sooth you better? Don’t know if that is suitable, but I, myself am craving for a good bowl ever since moved here from New York. And I miss my jewish friends back there very much.</p>
<p>I am joining the group urging you to eat. I was thinking of smoothies, too, because I remember that you were eating lots of fruits and vegetables before. This is my latest smoothie recipe, which incorporates some very nutritious foods. I give it to S2, who is a vegetarian. Start with a tablespoon of chia seeds (omegas), add some coconut water (potassium), let soak a few minutes. Add some plain Greek yogurt and a banana. Add other fresh or frozen fruits - strawberries, mangoes, raspberries, whatever you have. Trader Joe’s sells frozen mango puree. Whip it all up with an immersion blender. I actually like the chia seeds in smoothies, they add a little texture, like poppy seeds.</p>
<p>But you should eat whatever is appealing, or at least does not put you off. Don’t force yourself to eat something that is repelling you. I once forced myself to eat broccoli while pregnant - I usually like it, but at that time it seemed repellent - and I vomited.</p>
<p>Thinking of you!</p>
<p>I know that this is going to sound weird. But when I was going through chemo I craved salad and sushi. Both are usually forbidden. My oncologist gave me permission to eat salad…made at home…and sushi from A rated restaurants only. Sushi was a twice a week treat and salad, washed throughly, was a daily thing. I also craved tuna…ate that as well.</p>
<p>Before trying anything exotic ask you doctor. But my doctor was flexible enough to let me eat what my body craved.</p>
<p>So far, I am still in the cycle 1 of the clinical treatment: day 1 Doxil, day 3, experimental immune enhancing drug, day 4, lab visit to be a guinea pig, day 7, experimental drug. This is what I finished last wed. I have another experimental drug injection next wed (day 17), for which I have to stay till 9-10 PM so that they can collect blood for research purpose. Then I get 12 day break before the second cycle starts: during which time, I will be in Israel! My husband is an Israeli and hie nephew is getting married!</p>
<p>I dont have side effects to Doxil, but this experimental drug is really knocking the wind out of my sails. They give the injection by 1-2 PM and then I stay till night so that they can collect blood for research purpose. The first time, by 7-8 PM, I was chilled to the core, and feeling not well at all the rest of the night. That evening, the train ride was the longest of any ride: be it plane or train. However, I was well enough next morning to track back to MSKCC.</p>
<p>Last wed, I did not have to stay well into the night since blood collection requirement was more flexible, but by 8 PM or so, the same thing. Except, this time we were at somebody elses house for Rosh Hashanah dinner. Well, I was pretty bent out of shape, not but incapacitated enough though. I had enough energy to have a fiery verbal engagement with a stupid ultra right wing nut who said that Palestinians are stupid and deserve to be kicked out of their homes and expelled beyond the post 1967 border to any number of neighboring Arab states so that Israel can remain as a Jewish state. Nothing like manifest stupidity that deserves a fiery rebuttal that fires me up! </p>
<p>She is an Israeli faculty member on a Sabbatical here. She told me since I dont live there and experience whats going on, I have no right to voice my opinion. I told her that she can tell me to shut up when Israel refuses every last penny of USA foreign aid worth gazillions of dollars which could be easily used to shore up our inner city educational programs and health care programs for the indigent. Oh, and my second son will be part of the armed forces in four years (he is a college freshman ROTC cadet), and I really would rather not see him go and risk his life in the Middle East because extreme right wing sectors of both sides bring the situation to the disastrous conclusion unless there is s clear understanding on the part of the Israeli government that USA will completely sit out of this conflict (fat chance on that!). Cancer or not, I am not giving these morons a pass! For my “inner demon with flailing red hair”, morons like these are a red meat!</p>
<p>Even with all that fiery spirit, I spent next two days more or less kaput. This experimental drug is really packing in a lot of punches, and this is saying a lot from a person who had no problem with very toxic weekly chemo infusions only a few months ago. I was warned about this: this is a common occurrence flue like symptoms. I hope this is a sign that it is working. I suspect that they upped my dosage this past wed. I have reacted much more strongly. The goal of the phase I trial is to study safety and dosage of the drug. So, I am sure they are playing around with the dosage. So, I dont know how much they are going to give me and how I will react next wed which is going to another really long day. We will see.</p>
<p>The good news is, I think the treatment is already working. The surreal abdominal sensations that exactly matched the locations where the scan showed tumor implant has abated already. If not anything else, at least this treatment is blocking any further progress of my cancer: last time and this time also, my cancer was/is on an express train. Its been 12 days since the treatment started. If it had not been working, I would feel A LOT more activities, not less. I believe I did earn the right to have an opinion how the treatment is going in the absence of any external validation like tests and what not. After all, last time, within 2-3 weeks since the treatment started, I knew it was working. With this recurrence, within 2-3 weeks from the clean tests and what not, I felt that the recurrence has happened. So, I am hopeful that what I am feeling is an indication that the treatment is working again this time around. Maybe I am deluding myself? If my hunch is not right, I will have to eat my words … but then again, that will be the least of my worries, right?</p>
<p>P.S. I try to stay away from thorny political issues on this thread, but I couldn’t help it… For those of you with more hard line approach on this issue, I am for secure Israel, but I believe there has to be a realistic compromise on both sides, and this wing nut’s attitude was FAR from anything that remotely resembles reasonable compromise and reasonable give and take. (by the way, my sentiment is exactly my husband’s, all of his extended family members’ and friends’… ) I hope these are really minority on both sides, but these days, when I read news, it really depresses me…</p>
<p>sunrise–you go girl! May you have the healthiest of new years!</p>
<p>Sunrise, I agree that you have demonstrated an acute sensitivity to cancer activity in your body, so your feeling that the cancer has abated should be trusted. Have you been able to eat?</p>
<p>As far as the right-wing fanatic goes, it’s been my experience that Israelis are very moderate and reasonable, and reading the opinion columns in Israeli publications reinforces this. So I would not be too concerned about that one woman, I’m sure she is spouting a minority view. Don’t let it depress you. The encounter probably gave your red-haired demon some needed action, though!</p>
<p>Sending more healing thoughts, for you to be inscribed in the book of life and health and happiness</p>
<p>Sending positive thoughts your way</p>
<p>Thinking of you!</p>
<p>I remember eating very small but really delicious looking food helped. The more eye appealing the easier it was to eat. Have you considered trying any appetite inducing drugs? You may find it very helpful in stimulating your desire to eat. I am thinking of you and following this thread daily. You are in my thoughts and prayers.</p>