My handheld ate part of this. I’m going to add to it from the big computer later.
What I eat and how I eat has changed since the recurrence of this cancer. Changing my diet is one of the things I can do to fight against future metastases. The steroid is responsible for some changes too. The first six weeks or so I was ravenous. That plus edema accounts for twenty pounds weight gain in two months.
I’ve never liked fruit much, but hardly a day goes by that I don’t eat some now. I was pleased to read that it wasn’t an anti-oxidant effect from those anti cancer fruits and vegetables but more of a small scale irritant, encouraging one’s immune system to respond. So I’m eating foods I don’t like so well specifically as irritants. There’s justice there.
It’s the same with yogurt. A live food. (I’m buying good, organic, whole milk yogurt. — it tastes better aside from anything else). I don’t care for it much, but every morning I eat homemade granola (tastes better) with some sort of fruit, yogurt, milk, sometimes coconut or brewers yeast. It’s not bad. Just not what I’d have ever chosen. I’ve been eating it since august now and I’m used to it. I don’t mind it, although I miss having more fruit choices than bananas or frozen blueberries. I add raisins, dried cranberries and this week I bought some dried cherries, but the dry fruit doesn’t add so much. The raisins and the cherries count as a bit of my potassium quotient for the day.
Potassium is a supplement that is to regulated to get through pills. And I was getting leg cramps, which backed off once I started eating high potassium foods carefully every day. Dry apricots and figs are a big part of that, also orange juice, avocado, pinto beans, and then I start checking my list that suggests foods that provide 100 to 200 mg amounts or 200 to 300 mg amounts. The US RDA is something like 3500 mg. I’m not sure I reach it but my legs aren’t constantly cramping.
The dexamethasone leaves me craving different foods at different times. And then there are the foods I never wanted at all before. Fish for example. I’ve never eaten fish. Until now. I don’t even know what I like. I’m slowly trying different types. John just went with the “brain food” idea. I have no clue. And I don’t know where or why the craving comes from. But so much is different that this is just one more thing. Fish is better than the times it’s days of craving sweets, or of craving something that isn’t what I can find so I keep trying things hoping to find the right flavor and not finding it.
My taste is often somewhat blunted. I’m not sure where that comes from either. Strong flavors come across, to an extent, but not others. It’s what people who have chemo talk about, but I haven’t had chemo. I don’t know if the Gamma Knife radiation had some sort of effect, or if the tumors are located in a place that effects the way I taste things. At some point I’ll ask Dr McGirr, but it hasn’t been urgent. It’s just a question I wonder about, and an annoyance.
The Naturopath suggested that I eat organic foods, as much as possible, which made sense to me. I was already going for a good percent organic, now it is 80 to 90 percent, I’d guess. I haven’t checked. If there’s an organic option, and the price isn’t prohibitive, the flavor isn’t objectionable, and there aren’t objections from the peanut gallery, I’ll probably choose it. For orange juice, the peanut gallery voted against the organic option. For Wheat Thins, I haven’t found an organic choice I like. For bananas, if I don’t like the way organic looks, I just don’t buy bananas. The Naturopath also suggested eating foods in a variety of colors, “that would stain my clothes”. Sort of an odd way of thinking of it, but it works. It works better if I picture them as baby food, since a chunk of carrot doesn’t hurt my shirt much, but carrot puree would make a fine blotch. I don’t manage that every day. Retraining John to cook meals that aren’t one-bowl one-color has been a little tricky, and some nights, we’re just all too tired. I like my beans and rice with sweet potato and greens on them as well as an egg and cheese and salsa. He prefers just the last three, and making the other too is more fuss. Speaking of which, I’m supposed to be putting rice on any time now. John has been the cook since we met, and more so since I developed chronic illnesses. I kibitz.
I’ve tried to follow suggestions from this article on Diet and Melanoma too. A lot of what is there looks like basic anti cancer stuff to me, but either way I’ll take the information. I’m not following any of them religiously. I’m not doing any of this stuff religiously at the moment. I’m making lots and lots of changes, or have made them, and am trying to keep up with them I’m doing everything I can to make my self as healthy as I can, short of shady trips to other countries and special potions. I suspect that the naturopath pushes it to far for some folks, but I’m not interesting enough to the oncologists to rate much follow up, so I’m doing all I can on my own. Changes to my diet and upping my vitamins are easy, as these things go.
