Today is my 1-week chemo celebration 🍰🎉☠️
I feel like I am emerging from the valley of death, but think I foolishly thrust myself over a cliff today – all self imposed.
As I sat hooked up to all the pumps and IV bags during my first chemo session last Wednesday, the resident oncology nutritionist stopped to chat. We talked about how more than the need to keep my mind and spirit strengthened during my treatment -#crushthatcancer. We talked about keeping my body fed and my muscles exercised.
She encouraged that, despite the nausea I will endure and some vomiting, I needed a good calorie dense meal each day. I could offset eating with protein shakes or fruit/veggie smoothies. But the most important thing was to eat…and drink enough water to have to go to the bathroom with the frequency of a five-year old – meaning all the time and at the most inconvenient moments!
I had a craving starting yesterday. Channeling my inner five-year-old again, beyond frequent potty breaks, I really wanted some Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. No “healthy” alternatives. No Velvetta-based disgustingnous – I am ready to fight anyone over this. No trying-to-be-gourmet Panera Mac and Cheese. Only the stuff in the blue box with nuclear, orange-colored, powdered cheese! Delicious!
My dear Italian wife endured wandering the grocery store aisles looking for the Kraft box. I think she wore a wig and sunglasses to protect her identity from the Pasta Cosa Nostra. Luckily, after a quick Google image search and paying in cash so no mafiosi could track the transaction, success!
So today, for lunch, I did something I hadn’t done since college…made a box of Mac and Cheese!
It tasted so good!
Halfway through my second bowl though, “Houston,” we had a problem. My belly started rumbling and then the bathroom beckoned!
Some five hours later, every macarono (the singular form of the famed pasta shape) left my body.
Remember how I was supposed to eat one calorie dense meal a day? Yeah, those should be good calories. Not 1000+ calories of orangey-cheesey pasta-like food.
Sooo, I don’t think I am going to give into any cravings anytime soon. Except, I was watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives…stop me before I go to Flavortown bathroom-town again!
Twentythree/5 