Tag: eating

The stuff I eat and other disgusting details.

Some more on my weight. When I started chemo, my official weight was I think 73.6 kg… around that. Now, 2 weeks in, I am at 77.8 kg.

The secret snake oil here is steroids.

As part of the treatment, I take Prednisolone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, whatever that means. Point is, it does several things:

  • It suppresses my immune system (as far as I understand) — reason for not having the B symptoms any more, and the primary reason I have to take it. (It’s how chemo works… explanation maybe another day.)
  • It doesn’t let me sleep; last night I had 3 hours of sleep. Before that, 5. Before that, 4. Before that, 3. Not much when you should be busy raising your WBC. Basically I wake up at around 3-3:30 like it’s 6:30, and can’t go back.
  • I don’t know if it’s a side effect of the ‘roids, or the sleep deprivation, but I now have a serious shake in my hands. Using the touchpad of the notebook in the morning, not so much.
  • It suppresses (as ‘roids do) inflammation. I might have something in my knee joint — I’ll know when I get down from the big P (which is next week, for a week).
  • And last, but not least, it spins up my metabolism like fuck.

(And it can have some other fun side effects too: depression, suicidal thoughts, mood swings, anxiety, hallucinations, memory loss, and I forgot the rest.)

So to put this in perspective, here is a typical menu of mine nowadays:

  • Starting with a tortilla (or regular) sandwich (ham, cheese, lots of mayo) immediately after waking up
  • breakfast around 9-10: maybe another sandwich or 2, or some cake if there is any
  • maybe another sandwich or cake before lunch around 11
  • lunch 1 with Marti (younger kid) at around 12; for today’s example, pasta, lots of it
  • lunch 2 around 1-2 pm
  • lunch 3 around 3 pm
  • some snacks (maybe cake…) around 4pm, maybe a carrot cake or apple pie combined with the beginning of my walk
  • some more snacks on the way back from my walk — on Wednesday for instance, this meant a half family portion of french fries with mayo; yesterday and today: a Nutridrink (300 kcal nutritional drink)
  • dinner at 6-7pm
  • dinner 2 at around 8-9
  • maybe some night snack (any cake left?), or another sandwich.

So, I don’t do much besides eating, and yes, I digest the whole thing. (No photo.) This results in getting 1-1.2 kilos up within a day easily. Not all days, as you can calculate, but still, nice figures.

My normal weight before falling ill was around 82-85 kilos. Reachable?

Rest days, walks around IJburg.

IMG_20150515_182535

 

After the first 3 days, there are 4 days of rest before the next IV next Monday. Rest means you don’t get IV but still have to take meds at home: one type of chemo med, antibiotics, a med to reduce the negative effects of antibiotics, antivirals, and Prednisolon, the IDDQD med you know.

For me this means starting to move again: I walked. I am doing 3 km now (more precisely: I did 2.97 km yesterday), and it feels very good, despite the slight ache I have in my throat. (Maybe the wind.) But walking in the sunshine, looking at the IJ, the ships and stuff… I always loved this.

On another note, today is the first morning without any B symptopms: sweats are gone now too (they haven’t been strong for the last couple of days, but they were still here), so I am at the 4th day without fever, and 1st day without sweats. Happy face!

Also, apparently the appetite is back. After Mon-Tue-Wed I was down to around 73.7 kg, now I’m back to over 75. Yesterday I was eating like there is no tomorrow, pretty much continuously. Sammo for brekkie, then some cookies, then another sammo, then a huge piece of salmon for lunch, some lemon cake for after lunch, another sammo with sweet chili sauce and goat cheese, some more cakes, some more sammo… all the way till around midnight. Watching around 3 episodes of The Sopranos helps of you need to eat!

And now, for some Djoghurt.