One Week of Food

It's been wonderful these last several days getting back into eating. I've been experimenting at every meal to see what works well and what doesn't. I'm certainly not off eating whatever I want but I have enough options that I've been pretty happy.

I apparently still have some issues with at least some spices. I had some corn/onion/other stuff salsa that I ate with a spoon and I thought it was pretty hot. I was getting beads of sweat on my forehead. A few days later I thought the same thing about some baked beans I had from Price Chopper. Spicy beans at Price Chopper didn't make sense so I asked Jenny and she informed me that neither the beans nor the salsa was spicy at all to her. So something's going on there.

I've had a few things that haven't gone well because of taste or difficulty swallowing, but for the most part, if I don't get crazy trying to eat something I have no business even trying, everything's gone well. Soups go down well and taste good. Oatmeal works well for breakfast. Most fruits work as long as I chew them up really well. Macaroni and Cheese was good. Actually had some fried chicken that worked well as long as I peeled off the skin and crispy stuff and took small bites.

So I'm getting back in the eating groove slowly but surely. Fellow patient Ron who had the same treatment regimen I had except that he was six weeks ahead of me on schedule got his feeding tube removed last week. I can't imagine being ready for that five weeks from now. I'm still relying on my feeding tube a fair amount and right now at least couldn't swallow a pill if I had to.

But we'll see. I have my next Swallow Study on March 2nd so maybe I'll surprise myself.

I've also scheduled my first business trip since treatment. Just a 2-day trip to Salt Lake City the first week of March. I'm a little leary. If I made that trip today I'd be absolutely exhausted by the time I flew out there that I'd be out of commission that afternoon to do anything. Hopefully Mr. Fatigue will be kind to me between now and then.

So things are progressing. I'm still pretty tired. Mucositis actually seems to be making progress. Dry mouth is now becoming a bigger problem so I have to sip water a lot and I'm going to try some gum designed especially for dry mouth. So I'll need to experiment with that. Sleep seems to be improving. I still wake up between 5:00 and 5:30 but that's OK. All in all, progress seems to be coming quicker all the sudden. Maybe it's psychological because I'm eating now. Who knows.

It's a shame Ben's tied up at training without Internet Access and can't read this. Because Mizzou beat Texas last night -- IN AUSTIN! Nice win for the boys in Black and Gold.

Correction: Ben DOES have internet access I see from his comments to my last post. So, enjoy the Mizzou win, then.