Chemo - Part 10 - Day 9

Well folks, I'm beat. I've been up since 4:24 am Texas time (5:24 in Atlanta). I went to bed after scrambling to hold one of the dogs over the toilet as it threw up, and woke up with carting the same dog to the trash can in my room so that he didn't get sick on the bed. I took the dogs out, finished packing my car, ate scrambled eggs with my parents, and was on the road by 6 am CST. I powered through 1.5 L of water and 4 cans of Diet Coke while I spent over 12 hours today driving back West. (Given that I don't usually consume caffeine, that amount of soda is enough to keep me wide awake for a long drive on endless highways.)

After deciding that there's no way that I'd be able to convince myself to leave my apartment after unpacking my car to go buy food, I stopped in at my local Whole Foods to pick up some pre-cooked meat for dinner. I finally got back to my apartment at 6:20 pm CST, and then managed to completely unload the groceries, cooler, rowing machine (erg), a couple boxes of old books from high school (including all of my high school yearbooks), a box of wine glasses and two pillows my parents gave me for Christmas, a bag of shoes, a potted plant, my suitcase, a duffel bag of shoes, my backpack, a case of Kopparberg cider, and a couple other bags of sundries. All in my apartment by 6:45. Phew. My erg is currently sitting in a corner of my bedroom, and all of my clothes are unpacked and toiletries put away.

Enough about me. Today was apparently a day of sleeping back in Atlanta. I think, overall, the aches and pains are a bit better, though a lingering headache has been today's biggest annoyance. I'm hoping today is a good sign. Sleep is good. It gives your body time to rest and attempt to repair itself. Maybe by resting today, tomorrow will be better. Fingers crossed.

This is another recipe from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen. This vegetable dish helps with constipation as well as general nutrition. Plus, the ginger can help a bit with nausea. If made according to the instructions, the serving contains 50 calories, 2.5 g of fat (0.4 g saturated fat, 1.7 g mono-unsaturated), 7 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 2 g fiber, 195 mg sodium. It can last for 3-5 days in the fridge.

Shredded Carrot and Beet Salad

2 Tbls freshly squeezed orange juice

2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tsp EVOO

1/2 tsp freshly minced ginger

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup carrots, peeled and shredded

1 cup beet, peeled and shredded

2 Tbls mint, chopped (optional)

1. Mix together the orange juice, lemon juice, EVOO, ginger, and sea salt in a bowl.

2. Pour half of the dressing over the carrots and toss to cover evenly. In a separate bowl, do the same thing with the beets.

3. Mix together and serve.

If you're going to store this in the fridge, I'd recommend keeping them in separate containers because the color of the beets may end up overwhelming the carrots. But if you're lazy and don't care if there's color bleeding, just go ahead and put it in the same gallon-sized Ziploc bag.

Chemo - Part 9 - Day 8

This morning I woke up at 5 am to get ready to drive back to Texas. I took the dogs outside and continued to pack up my car. At around 5:45 am, my parent walked into the hallway and was not looking so good, so we made the decision for me to stay in Atlanta for an extra day. I brought my suitcase back into the house, headed up to my old bedroom, and climbed back into bed. I didn't go back to sleep though. Maybe because of the lack of sleep, we haven't done too much today. I've been trying to catch up on work emails from the past week. Unfortunately my mailbox is so full that I can't even send emails. No good.

On the bright side, today was better than the previous two days. Things get worse as the day goes on though. Maybe it's just because of getting tired throughout the day, despite a few naps/lie-downs. We did go for a short walk today (just part of the way down our street), so that's really good! And we've been pushing fluids today (I even managed to gulp down over 5 L of water), which is almost always recommended by doctors for well, almost everything.

I was out of the house for a little while this evening. I met up with my friend Darby for gluten-free pizza at Mellow Mushroom (Yes, this is the place I rave about every once and a while!). Then, I swung by LF's house to return the dress that she let me borrow for Steeplechase on Saturday. In the two hours that I was gone, we hit a fever of 101.5 F and were applying ice packs and cold washcloths to cool down. When I last checked about 5 minutes ago, the temperature was down to 98.7 F.

The plan is to return to Texas in the morning. So let's hope all goes well tonight. And to finish off, here's part of the results from my day of cooking and cleaning on Sunday...

Chicken Broth
2 chicken carcasses (from 5-lb chickens)
1 onion, cut into eighths, and layers peeled apart
5 carrots, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into ~ 2" pieces
4 stalks celery, scrubbed and cut into ~2" pieces
10 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled, but whole
sprinkle with black pepper
water



1. If you have a whole roasted chicken, pull the meat from the bone and save for a different recipe. It's fine if some meat remains on the bones. Place the bones in your slow-cooker.

2. Toss in the chopped veggies and seasonings.

3. Fill water up to the brim of the slow cooker. Cover and set on low for 8 hours. Stir occasionally.

4. Use a large strainer to remove the bones, veggies, and herbs. Then pour through a cheese cloth to remove all of the little remaining bits.

5. Cool in the fridge before attempting to freeze.

Chicken broth is good for constipation, dehydration, fatigue, nausea, sore mouth, and difficulty swallowing. It's easy for your body to digest and is generally rich in minerals since it's made from bones. For that reason, it also provides iron.