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?